This post has been a long time coming, but I have been dragging my feet on it as it has been too tough to write. Hello, everyone, Paul here today to write a post dedicated to my late dog, and best friend, JoJo. To those of you that know me, or have followed me, you know all about my love of dogs and JoJo. I had a picture of JoJo as the very first picture on my Amazon author page.
Sadly, we lost JoJo on 18 July. He hadn’t been doing well for a while. We had him under constant vet care and it was tough to diagnose. It all started with him spinning in circles to the left. He didn’t do it constantly, just in the house and only some times. He then began to cross his back legs when he ate, and they’d give out. The vet thought it was some type of neurological issue, but we couldn’t be sure what without taking him to a canine neurologist. There isn’t any even close to us, and we didn’t think there would be much they could do for him if they found what was suspected: a brain lesion or tumor. Now I wish we had.
For those of you that don’t know we adopted JoJo as a “senior” from the local animal shelter on 19 November, 2010 on our wedding anniversary. I always laugh when I think of this story because we had a nice evening planned for our anniversary. We’d made the decision to adopt JoJo, and the plan was to pick him up from the shelter on the 20th. We were going to see the new Harry Potter movie and then to a nice dinner. Well…you can guess what happened. We went to the movie and throughout the whole thing (it was awesome) we fidgeted and decided we couldn’t bear the thought of him having to spend another night in the shelter; he’d been there for 11 months already.
So we skipped the romantic dinner and went to the shelter for JoJo. Our next concern was what if he wouldn’t get in the car with us? Our last dog was terrified of cars. Well, again there was no need to worry. He jumped in and with his tongue hanging out, and I swear, a smile on his face, urged us to get going before they realized he was gone. He settled in nicely claiming our couch as his own and taking a nap.
I won’t say it was all sunshine as the very night we brought him home while we were brushing our teeth before bed he strolled into the hallway and proceeded to lift his leg and urinate on our wall. Things did, however, improve from there.
I can feel great pride as I look back and know that we truly treated him as a member of our family and took him to do fun things like we would our own child. He went to Dog Day at the White Sox game three times, went Easter egg hunting, hiking at Starved Rock State Park, swimming at the pool (the local pool let dogs go swimming the day they close the pool for the year), and much, much more. Nonetheless, time goes too fast. I can’t help but shed a tear (like I knew I would) as I write this since I miss him so much. Three years and eight months is too short.
July 18th was one of the toughest days of my life as I lost one of the most kind, loving, and caring companions I have ever known. I miss him every single day. After a hard day at work I miss leaving it all at the door to take him on a walk; just me and JoJo with no problems or worries. I miss him by my side as I do my homework for my college classes. I miss watching him play as he (impatiently) waited for me to fill his food dish. Most of all I just miss my best friend.
Here’s to you JoJo. I hope you’re somewhere better than this, and that we meet again some day. I love you!
Paul R. Hewlett
Paul, I feel your pain. We lost one of our cats on Sept 22. She was only 18 months old and she had really wormed her way into our hearts, especially my wife’s, who is still devastated by the loss. My wife’s sister has a corgy who’s near the end of her life too; her back legs are almost totally paralyzed and it’s just a matter of time. So much sadness everywhere.