Pepper and Yari might’ve looked like polar opposites, but two friends couldn’t have been closer. And when Yari lost Pepper last month, she didn’t want to say goodbye.
Pepper was 9 years old when his mom, Tona Gonzalez Karlsson, adopted Yari. And though the Chihuahua mix was already a senior when he met the rescue pittie puppy, the connection between them was instant.
“He was always picky about other dogs, but they clicked,” Karlsson told. “Eventually, they started playing and cuddling. It was so funny, because now when Yari plays with big dogs, she plays kind of like she’s a Chihuahua.”
The two dogs had many happy, adventure-filled years together, and Yari always looked up to her little big brother. “[Yari] would kiss him and show her excitement whenever he would return,” Karlsson said. “She always wanted to be with Pepper. Sometimes, she would howl if she wasn’t in the same vicinity as him but knew he was near.”
“There were literally never issues between them,” she added. “They just seemed to love each other and understand each other.”
However, as Pep got older, his health began to fail. Yari seemed to intuit when Pepper was suffering and would do anything she could to help.
“Whenever Pep was sick or after he came home from the hospital, Yari knew to be calm around him. She would just want to comfort both him and me,” Karlsson said. “There were times when Pep was sick while I was sleeping … and Yari would wake me up or look at him in a way that made me know something was wrong.”
In the last month of Pepper’s life, he started to decline in ways Karlsson couldn’t ignore. Pep was suffering from several terminal illnesses, and eventually, Karlsson had no choice but to schedule a final vet visit.
“The day before he passed, he stopped eating entirely. Yari just laid with him and nuzzled and kissed him,” Karlsson said. “We had him put to sleep at my parents’ house. Pep was so sick that day I had to carry him around.”
A half hour before the vet was scheduled to arrive, Pep got up from his bed in the shade and walked to the grave Karlsson’s dad had dug for him under a pepper tree. It was as if he was telling his family that he was ready.
After Pep took his final breath, Yari went over to nuzzle him. The little dog looked so peaceful — as if he was sleeping more comfortably than he had in a long time. Karlsson and her parents prepared his grave with lavender and flowers from the garden, and gently lowered him into the ground. It was then that Yari realized that her friend was not coming back.
“She looked into the grave, and I obviously don’t know what she was thinking, but she must have known he was there,” Karlsson said. “She laid down next to his grave, and she seemed so sad, and it just seemed like she was hugging the dirt.”
“She stayed there for a while,” Karlsson added.
After Pep’s funeral, Yari seemed like a changed dog. The once happy and energetic dog seemed depressed without her best friend.
But Karlsson knew there was one thing she could do to cheer up her pup: “I took her to visit his grave at my parents’ house,” Karlsson said. “She was so happy and she just kept sniffing all around the dirt underneath the pepper tree.”
Yari had five beautiful years with her best friend, and now, whenever she misses him, she knows all she has to do is go to the pepper tree to be near him once again.
