This is Fruitycake. I’ve been sick before. In fact, I’ve been sick a lot. It’s taken me a long time to get this far where my fur is growing back.
I still get itchy I still have a long way to go to heal from my stray dog life. But that’s ok. I know I’ll keep getting better.
But right now, I’m not worried about me. I’ve lost my appetite. I feel like Brickle feels.
Because we are that close of friends.
I’m not feeling sorry for Brickle. It’s not sympathy pains. I don’t feel sorry for him. He’s too strong for that. I have empathy pains.
I feel his pain. I feel sick too.
Sympathy is acknowledging someone else’s pain, but empathy is choosing to feel the pain with them. Sympathy says, “I care about you,” and empathy says, “I’m hurting with you.”
Have you ever loved someone that much? A friend or a family member or the love of your life? I have always felt love. I’m a lovable kind of guy. Just like vitamins, you can’t get enough Fruity.
But feeling love in a friendship like ours is overwhelming. Because we both need each other. Age nor time has been a factor in our friendship. Our friendship was just easy. Meant to be.
Empathy is not something I say is easy. Feeling things deeply is not easy. It’s easier to ignore how much someone means to us. Brickle means everything to me. He’s taught me things. Some things I have listened to him about. Some things. No.
But he’s taught me how to be a dog. How to be in a family. How to continue Digby’s example of happiness and joy.
I hope that I have taught Brickle too. How fun it is to let yourself not be so serious. How to cuddle.
How to laugh.
Brickle has not felt well for a few days. He doesn’t want to eat very much. He can’t sleep. He’s very uncomfortable.
So I’ve felt all of those things too. But one thing he doesn’t feel is guilt. He knows it’s hard on the persons to be up all night. And he knows however that they would do that forever. He knows that they love him no matter what. And the “no matter” what friendships and love don’t cause guilt. They cause empathy.
Today we have to move houses. So we are going to try and take a little walk and have a slow day of being together. We are sad to leave this house. But it’s time to move on.
There are way more good and fun moments in our lives than sad ones. There is more joy than pain. And for me there is more empathy than sympathy.
–Fruitycake The Raccoon
