In a few months when I’m going to college, how will I tell my dogs that I won’t be living with them anymore?

Mom and Dad, sorry, I love you, but I think I might miss the dogs more than I’ll miss you two. That’s not to say that I won’t miss you, but they’re dogs. They don’t understand what I’m saying. They won’t know if I’m ever going to come back, or if I do, when that will be, or where I’ve been, or why I’ve been gone for so long.

I wish my dogs could understand what I say, because I have a lot that I want to tell them.

To my dogs: When I’m gone, I’ll miss you more than any rational person would miss their own pets. Whatever, I guess that makes me an irrational person. It’s already hard enough to leave you two every morning for just eight hours. I don’t know how I, or we, will deal with being separated for months. You two can barely stand to be more than 10 feet away from me. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I didn’t hear you two sticking your paws under my bedroom door, trying to get me to open the door, even though it’s well past midnight and we all should have been asleep quite some time ago.

Humphrey, you may be the most paranoid dog I’ve ever met, but try not to freak out too much about me not being home. Three months is a long time for me, and an even longer time for you, but the three months we’re apart will fly by. Hopefully while I’m gone, you’ll stop doing that weird thing where you scratch up my bedroom door trying to get me to let you inside.

Nellie Boo, you can sleep on my bed while I’m gone, even though you already do that whenever I’m not home. I won’t get mad at you for doing it this time, though, no matter how weird it is to come home and find you lying on top of my bed, or how gross you are, because you’re a dog. I’ll be sure to make Mom leave my door open so that you don’t have to force your paws under the door to get my attention, because I won’t be there to open the door for you.

If I could pack you two up and take y’all to college, I would. I don’t know how much you two would like being stuck in a suitcase while embarking on my next journey, but I’m sure we’d figure it out.

Unfortunately, that’s not possible, and neither is directly telling you two any of this. I’m sure my dogs will understand eventually that I won’t be coming home for a while, but when?

I don’t know where I’m going to end up in August, or how far away we will be from each other, but when the big day rolls around and it’s time for me to leave, leaving my dogs will be the hardest part. It’ll be hard not spending the few months I have left in Kansas City by dwelling on leaving them soon, but I’ll have to learn to embrace the time I have left with them.