Rerun

When I was a baby, my grandma had a little poodle mix named Napoleon, "Nappy" for short. We were great friends:

Nappy was Grandma's favorite. He went everywhere with her and she attributed some of the happiest memories of her life to the short time they were together. A time which was tragically cut short when Nappy tried to take the steep, old stairs of my grandparents' Michigan home too quickly and fell, breaking his neck.

My Grandma mourned for about three years, until she learned that Nappy's mother was having another litter. She decided to buy one, and when the puppies were weaned, she picked one that looked just like Nappy. Same color fur, same curly hair, same chocolate eyes. In fact, the new puppy looked so much like Nappy that she named him Rerun.

While he never replaced the sweet memories Grandma had of her time with Nappy, the memories she had with Rerun were just as sweet. And Grandma always said that she loved Rerun all the more because she'd had Nappy first.

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Well, I've had my own Nappy. (Steep, scary stairs included.)

Now it's time for a Rerun.

Same city. Same neighborhood. Much longer.