The Loss & The Heartbreak

 You left my life,

But you will never leave my heart!

     It is a sad time in the Running In The Fat Lane household.  We were faced with the decision that no parent of a furry four legged child ever want to have to make.  I know this blog is geared toward my running and weight loss journey, but sometimes life throws you a curve ball that really can affect you.  I thought this would be a nice way to remember our little Stinka and give you all a little window into the family side of my life.

     Back on Valentine's Day of 2003 I asked Mandy to marry me, obviously she said yes, but that was the genesis to where Stinka would eventually enter our lives.  At this point we were not living together and we had decided to have our wedding in June of 2004, so we were trying to decide between renting our buying a home.  At this time the rates were pretty good and it made a lot more sense to buy, so we started looking for our home.  One day we were out shopping and stopped into a Petland store to look around and play with the puppies.  Now I know what your thinking, a fucking pet store, but when we saw Stinka we fell in love with him.  We were young, stupid and didn't know any better, but even those poor dogs deserve loving homes too.  Anyway, we bought him and Hemi became part of our lives.

     To explain the name thing, we originally named him Hemi and stuck with it for a while.  He was trained on it and all his vet papers and his original ID tag had that name.  Well as time went on Hemi became pretty known for; well his stinky farts!!  We were constantly commenting on how bad they were.  Mandy and her family are known for giving their pets all kinds of little nicknames, and one night Mandy called him Stinka.  Over time we were using Stinka more and more and Hemi less and less.  Before we new it, Hemi was a lost cause and Stinka would forever be his name.

     

     In October of 2003 Stinka, Harley (my black domestic short hair cat), Mandy and I moved into our new home.  It wasn't long after that that we felt like Stinka needed a friend and we brought Chopper, who through the same nickname process is now named Mr. Widdle, into our home.  The next 11 years Stinka has been nothing short of pure joy in our lives.  Dogs always seem to know when you need a pick me up and Stinka was always there to give us kisses, I mean A LOT OF KISSES, even when we didn't want any.  Stinka sure didn't like other people a whole hell of a lot, but he did love other dogs.  He would always wanna play with the neighbor dog and bark at every little noise he heard outside, which annoyed the shit out of Mandy and me, but today I miss it terribly.

     I am not going to get into the details of what led us to this decision because frankly it doesn't fucking matter.  It is a hard and painful decision and I don't envy anyone who has to do it.  All that matters to us is that we had 11 wonderful years with him and that we were able to give him what all dogs want, a home with parents that love him.  He was our child, our first child and we loved him every day of his little life. 

RIP Stinka

Mommy & Daddy love you and miss you