Filou, whom I'll never forget

	Thank you Anne, for this testimony following the mysterious disappearance of your Filou d'amour.
	What I hope today, Saturday November 6, 2004, is that you're in good hands, happy, because above all I want you to be happy... I always thought that nothing could separate us, and I was wrong, we mustn't think too quickly, we must let time go by... I say this for people who are like me, thinking that happiness would have no limits, that it would never end...
And now it's a year to the day since you disappeared... Yes, I remember it like it was yesterday, Thursday November 6, 2003... I came home in the evening. You weren't in your usual little corner, that corner you loved so much, where you hid all your toys. No, you weren't. My first thought was that Dad had brought you to work, which he did "sometimes"... But it still seemed odd... So I called him to make sure you were with him... He said " no "... So I phoned Laurent and Maman to see if they'd seen you... " No. So I went into the surrounding neighborhoods to see if I'd seen you... And " no "... It was always " no " and " no " ever since you disappeared. What did you want me to do now? I was all alone at home, I had no means of transport to go further afield, to look for you. In the evening, when everyone had gone home, it wasn't like before. The mood was low. Low as it had ever been... Later that evening, we went looking for you, for at least 2 hours... We got home at 1:00 in the morning... We screamed, thinking you might hear us. We brought the kibble and your leash and shook them; we knew that as soon as you heard those noises, you'd be all happy! But there....again, "no"... We did everything we could to find you, to no avail. So we put up posters. In our town, in the towns next door... In mailboxes... Some people called us, saying there was a dog in front of their house that "supposedly" looked like you. So we came to see... And "no" it wasn't you, once again... Why is this happening to me? Why "me", "us", "our family", why? I, who first saw you, when you were still a fur ball, told you that we'd never leave each other... I thought it was true, that it was going to happen, it was all going so well... It's silly how things can change. Without being warned; all of a sudden, without having the time to protect you, to warn you... But now, what do you want to do? I don't often talk about you around me, not even to my girlfriends, except for a few. Tears come to my eyes so easily! But now, you see, I've written about you... It's not even a text, it's like a declaration... Because I want you to know, Filou, that even if you're no longer here, with me, with us, today, I want you to know above all that in my heart, in my thoughts, you're there. You'll always be there, no one can replace you, the Filou I've known. That's a promise. A promise I'll keep. What I hope today, Saturday November 6th 2004, is that you're in good hands, happy, because I want you to be happy... I always thought that nothing could separate us, and I was wrong, we mustn't think too quickly, we must let time go by... I say this for people who are like me, thinking that happiness would have no limits, that it would never stop...