The first thing I remember about Wilson happened right after we brought him home from the rescue organization. My parents and I sat in the middle of our living room, and Wilson plopped on the floor with us. We talked to him and petted him all afternoon. He seemed like such a calm, sweet dog at the time. Little did we know... 



A week after that afternoon in the living room, Wilson became a spunky, energetic, silly boy. We gave him the nickname Wild Wilson. He was good at many things, but walking calmly and slowly was certainly not one of them! When we let him in the house, he ran like crazy across our dining room floor. Sometimes he would run up to me and just stare at me, like he was saying, "Hello! Pet me!" 



But the high energy, running, and silliness were only part of his personality. He was extremely affectionate, and he got a little bent out of shape if he wasn't being petted constantly. He slept in my bed every night, and he liked to stretch his body out across my legs. He loved to cuddle in bed, and even though they didn't want to admit it, my parents absolutely loved having him cuddle in their bed. 

Every morning, I would come into my mother's room right when her alarm went off. We would turn on the news and Wilson would jump onto the bed and lay between us. He was a total cuddlebug. 



Wilson was also one of the smartest dogs I've met. His favorite thing in the world was food, and around the time we fed him every morning, we would say something like "It's time to feed the dogs." Well, Mr. Smartypants began to understand what "feed the dogs" meant, so when he heard it he would go crazy, jumping on us and running circles. He did this with a lot of other words, too. Eventually we had to start spelling things out, like 

"We need to F-E-E-D the D-O-G-S." Well guess what? After a while, he figured that out, too! 



Wilson had a large vocabulary. His favorite phrases were "Let's get some breakfast!" and "Wake up Dad!" Waking up Dad consisted of jumping on my dad's side of my parents' bed, kissing his face until he opened his eyes, and, for good measure, laying down next to Dad to get cuddles out of him. After I started using Wilson to wake up my parents, they turned it around and told him, "Wake up Merlyn!" He recognized my name and kissed my face until I got up. Truthfully, Wilson interpreted "Wake up this person!" as "Cuddle with this person!" He never missed an opportunity to get some extra love. 



Wilson was a silly, energetic, affectionate, sweet, loving and occasionally aggravating dog. The years I spent with him were, and will continue to be, some of the best years of my life.