Uncle steve is his name, 56 and thriving. He lives alone in his home, besides his dog of course. The two share a three bedroom house in a small town of texas. Uncle steve as everyone knows him has been retired for 2 years now after becoming widowed. Him and his wife were well known around town, always together and always smiling. The two were inseparable, well three including Ottis.

Every saturday morning they ate breakfast at the local cafe and brought their dog Ottis with them. Ottis was a service dog for his wife; Sadie had epilepsy and ottis was there to protect her. Ottis had gotten sick one week and was at the vet when sadie had a seizure. Ottis can usually sense her seizures and is able to warn her before they happen. Since ottis wasn’t at home Sadie wasn’t warned about her seizure. Sadly she passed away that night in the hospital. The next day Uncle Steve receives a call from the Vet explaining that Ottis is ready to come home. When Uncle Steve arrived later, the doctor pulled him aside and said “sir it's come to our understanding that your wife passed?” his face turned pale and all of a sudden life didn’t have much importance anymore. “Snap, snap” “hello, mr. birkland, is everything okay” the doctor asked. I need my dog replied Uncle steve. He could not comprehend why these people were trying to take Ottis away from him.

He looked them in the eye and cried “don't you understand, i just lost my wife and your going to take away the only other thing in my life that i have, the only other thing that matters to me. This dog saved my wife's life on multiple occasions, he was always around, always comforting not only her but me as well.”

“I'm sorry sir bu-”

“No you don't get to take him from me, you don’t get it”

Uncle steve wiped his eyes and walked away to find Ottis. Following him were to employees yelling “sir you can’t be back here”. He kept walking anyways and finally found his pup. He picked up Ottis and started running out of the building. Reaching his car he put Ottis in the passenger seat and drove off before employees got to him. Employees pondered about what they are supposed to do in this situation. Then a little kid walked up to one of them and pulled on their pant leg.

“Excuse me, why did that man take that dog away” the little boy mumbled.

The employee simply said “well kid, that's his dog so he is taking him home” and then it clicked,  it is his dog, it has been for a very long time. He rushed over to the other employees and announced “Uncle steve can keep Ottis and we aren’t going to say anything about it, that's his family”.

Tail wagging, and barking with excitement ottis jumped out of the car and ran to the front porch. Uncle steve opened the door and Ottis ran straight to living room chair where Sadie always sat. whimpering and crying he layed down on the floor, Steve quickly walked over to Ottis and sat with him, petting him gently. The next morning Ottis and uncle Steve went on their morning walk around town. People smiled and waved at Uncle Steve but he didn’t smile back, he just kept walking. People of the town started to get concerned and worried. The week goes on and once again uncle Steve doesn’t say hi, smile, he didnt even ackowledge anyone in town. Saturday comes around, uncle steve orders his usual:

“I’ll have 2 eggs, 2 pancakes and bacon please”.

“Alright uncle Steve, would Ottis like a treat today”.

“Im not done ordering, Sadie needs her food too” explained Uncle Steve.

The waitress smiled softly “of course”. She then left to put in his order. Uncle steve stayed at the cafe extra long today, people passed by, said hi but again he sat with a face blank like paper. The waitress came back with his food and a treat for Ottis. She smiled at him, hoping to get a smile back. He looked down with tears in his eyes “thanks for the food charlotte”. She didn’t know how to react or what to say so she just said “anytime” and walked away. At closing charlotte noticed that he didn’t do anything with Sadie's food. She walked over and asked “does Sadie need a box”?

“Uh yes, that would be nice. Thanks”

He took the box and slowly filled it up with sadie’s food. He closed the box and stared at it for a few seconds. He picked up a fork and carved into the top of the box “5-19-78 first saturday breakfast”. He picked up the box and walked to his car with Ottis.  When he got home he put the box of food in the refrigerator and went up to bed. The next morning as they were walking through town Uncle steve noticed that the cafe he always eats at was under construction. He ran to the building yelling at the workers “what are you doing, you can’t do this to me. This cafe means so much to me”! The worker smiled and assured him that it would be okay. He escorted Uncle steve off the property and told him to go home. “But i don’t understand” uncle Steve murmured. “Go home”replied the worker, “come back on saturday”. At home on the couch, he was so worried and confused. What could possibly have caused this, he thought.

Saturday morning Ottis and Uncle Steve woke up anxious to get to the cafe. When he arrived all he could see was a crowd of 300+ people in front of where the cafe had been. He made his way to the front of the crowd where he saw a big red ribbon across the front doors. People of the town quickly gathered around, news crews and friendly neighbors with smiles on their faces all pointed up above the door. He looked up to where everyone was pointing and read “Sadies Shop” across the front of the cafe. Charlotte from the cafe walked up to Steve and handed him a pair of big scissors to cut the red ribbon on the door. In complete shock he took the scissors and cut the ribbon. As he walked inside he noticed in the very front of the restaurant was a small statue of Sadie. Ottis ran right up to it jumping around. Uncle steve who was led by charlotte walked up to the statue and for the first time since Sadie passed away, he looked at everyone with the biggest smile on his face. Tears rolling down his cheeks, nose running, eyes red.  “thank you guys, for everything” stuttered Uncle Steve.