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Growing up, I always wondered why my father was so against getting a dog. I often heard stories about the dogs he had growing up, but when the thought came, no promises were ever made.

When the time came for me to move away for College, the idea of getting a dog came up again, but this time I kept it to myself. I didn't have a whole lot of money at the time, so I opted for training a service dog.

My time with Wilfrid is very vivid. For all the things I was known to forget, I remember a lot of good times with him. Bad times were harder to remember because we had so few. However, our year together flew by, and he was sent east to graduate Service Dog Academy.

I sent him and his new pals at the Academy care packages here and there and even visited him during Graduation, but I knew my time with him was up. He was trained for Adults with Epilepsy at the academy and was now a working boy.

Life became hard after that. Pressure from school rose, friends got busy, but most importantly, I missed Wilf.

After about a year living like that, I decided to get a part time job and got me a cute little Rottweiler that I named Arnold (like Turtle's dog in Entourage).

Life was different after that. It wasn't like my time with Wilf since there was no end date to our friendship. We spent more days being lazy at the student house. He enjoyed listening to one of my favorite mixes, Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise 7, and especially loved the Korean Spare Ribs from a butcher I went to on special occasions. Its not surprising to say that everyday me and him had time to sit back and fire up the grill became a special occasion.

I'm sure you noticed that like Wilf, my time with Arnold was written in past tense. He left this world 9 years ago, around the time me and my Wife got our first place together. It was a spacey apartment about 20 minutes from my parents, but no backyard for my bud meant it wasn't THAT spacey.

I visit his burial grounds every now and then. Never on anniversaries because we never did things on anniversaries besides eat out of a tub of Mint Chocolate ice cream.

I still do that, and even drop a little on the ground for my boy. It drives my wife insane but oh well. Just chalk it up to memories and inertia.

That is why I began doing this. My wife would take me to Paint Night every now and then and one day I thought of drawing both Wilf and Arnold in that portrait from the Stepbrothers movie. They weren't brothers, but their relationship to me kinda felt that way. Both gave me unconditional love, just at different times of my life.

Nowadays, I help people like you find a way to cherish and remember those furry pals that shared your life with you. I got the Royalty idea because my boys were my Prince's, just like many girls out there are Princesses in their own home.

Remembering those dearest to us is never easy, my father eventually told me that he didn't want another dog because he couldn't take losing another to old age. It took time, but eventually I got old photos of the dogs he had and made them into the first few portraits of the Royal portraits you see us make. After giving them to him for Christmas he, for the first time ever, said he cried tears of joy for the life he had with them.

Like the saying goes, They will never be gone if we find a way to remember them, which is why I ask you to let me help you remember your pets forever.

RB*

& please write to us about you and your pet(s), we greatly appreciate them and read each and every one.