Merlo had arrived as a puppy along with his five siblings. Back then, all the puppies were very scared; one or two would timidly approach us, the rest hid, and Merlo was the only one showing his teeth.
It was as if he had taken it upon himself to protect the whole family, to show that he was the bravest, the most fearless. It took two or three days and a few treats, and all the puppies became puppies again. Merlo flashed huge smiles to get a bit of salami.
When the toys appeared, he was the first and the best, knowing exactly what to do, how to grab it, how to chase it, how to destroy that poor stuffed toy doomed to go through his baby teeth.
Then the walks began, along with everything else that makes a puppy progress from the baby stage to the 'leave me, I know' stage (adolescence, you understand).
Merlo, whatever he does, does it first among his siblings. He takes the initiative, and sometimes he makes the right choices, other times not so much, and when you guide him properly, he learns very quickly, because as he wants to be first in everything, he also wants to be first in learning.
He is a wonderful puppy and has a rare tenderness, which, when you least expect it, he buries his nose in your embrace as if trying to absorb you, and all your tenderness too.
Out of all his siblings, he is the only one who is black and the only one who has slightly longer hair, making him unique and a pioneer in that too. Yes, he is our favorite.
Not that we love the others any less, it's just that with him we have a greater fondness, because at every stage of his life so far where we were present, truly at every stage, Merlo never went unnoticed.
He always did something different, something more, something extra compared to his other siblings.
