Latest / Every Pawprint! Every Story! / “Fifteen Years to the Finish Line: Piper’s Last Run With Derek”

Transcript

“Fifteen Years to the Finish Line: Piper’s Last Run With Derek” · Every Pawprint! Every Story!

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, welcome.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Dan Popovic.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: I am the host of Every Paw Print, Every Story.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is a new podcast that I just recently launched in the past week, uh inspired by a book I recently wrote.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this podcast is basically a weekly conversation space where people honor pets they've lost, celebrate the joy pets bring, and support one another through pet grief.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Each episode centers on a guest memory, the rituals that keep those pets present in daily life, and the lessons of love and loss that pets teach us.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: The goal with this podcast is to not only inspire, but guide and support each other.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited to have a special guest today with us, um, Derek from Southern California.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: How are you today, Derek?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing great.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for having me today.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Dan, I appreciate this.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, thank you.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I know we we've spoken a couple other times prior to this and and just um learning a little bit about each other and and kind of uh life lessons with fur kids and stuff.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: So a little bit of a backdrop, but um first question I'll I'll ask you.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: I know we're I I think we're kind of in between.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: We just recently lost a fur kid not too long ago, but we don't have a new fur kid yet in the in the household, correct?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: That is correct.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um well let's talk about the prior fur kids and then we'll kind of come closer to today.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: So um the one you just recently you know lost, I know it's been a few months, um, but let's talk a little bit about them.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, just you know, the name.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: How did you, you know, were you able to name them?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: How did you come up with the name?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what kind of breed was it?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And just what were some of the the the routines and the rituals that you guys typically did?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you very much.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, uh the book you written.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't read every chapter in it yet, but I've uh you know, just some of the words in the book and the memories you've shared with your dogs loss has been helpful to me uh through this process.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So let me give you an overview.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So my dog was Piper.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: She had a middle name too.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Her name is Piper Lily.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, depending on the day, we'd call her Piper Lil or Pipes or uh, but anyways, um she uh was a malt Maltese poodle, a malty poo, uh lived to be 15 and a half.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: We got her, um we got her at a time when uh we were having problems getting pregnant.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my wife was very depressed every month.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: We spent about a year and a half trying to have kids.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um maybe it was even two years, I don't remember, but and so I decided to get her uh get us a dog.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where uh that's where pipes came into the picture at.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: I remember um as far as naming the dog, so my wife, I let her name the dog up uh just because it was supposed to be her dog, but it ended up being my dog.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I let her name the dog, and and she said, I've always and she'd never had a pet before.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: She had a a cat for a short time when she was growing up, but she said, I've always wanted to name a dog Piper.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, All right, so Piper it was.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh that was the name we came up with.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And but so Piper, she always wanted to name dog Piper, but what was the any backdrop or story behind that?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Why why Piper?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I you know what I would have to ask her.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think there might have been an actress or something named Piper.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, or something on a TV show.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh something to that effect.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the name came from.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, very, very cool.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So and um, so to your point, so 15 and a half, and yeah, you you got her um uh you know, similar story as you and I talked about, right?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: The white my wife we don't have kids either, so they became our kids.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um talk about like some of the like some of the crazy routines or rituals that that you might have done on on a daily basis, or not you might be not on a daily basis, but what were some just fun, goofy things that you remember?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've been having fun thinking about these too.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I've uh like I've I've shared with you previously too.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've been really surprised at how uh how impacted I've been with the dog's loss.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then it seems like every day, nearly every day, and we had a lot of pictures of the dogs, but I get those uh pop-ups either from Microsoft OneDrive where I store my pictures, right?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Or Facebook or whatever, and it's you know, another memory uh with the dog.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: But here I got a couple good memories with her.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: One that uh well, I have a lot of good memories with her, but one that I'm never gonna forget.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um I uh I like to call myself an athlete, but I'm a fitness person.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: I like to work out, I like to run, lift weights.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: But um I remember uh when she was when we had just got her, and I was taking her for a little run around the block.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I just noticed I I saw her like, you know, I mean dogs love to run, all dogs do.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: But there was something about her that I could just tell she had a lot of joy in running.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you know, when she got big enough, I don't think it was in the first year, but probably when she was a year old, she became my running partner.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I know this isn't about having kids, but but let me just add this in there as well, too.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, after um we got Piper in August, uh the next year in February, uh we adopted a a brand new baby uh you know at the hospital, picked her up at the hospital, and then December of that year we had my had our son.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we got all three of these kids within the space of a little more than a year.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: That part I don't remember you telling me, but that's oh wow, yeah.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yeah, we got hey, that was a blessing beyond belief.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, we got Piper, uh we got Piper, and lo and behold, uh um, you know, our daughter showed up unexpectedly, uh very quickly.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then our uh without I like to say, you know, without even trying, uh, we were done with all the fertility and all that stuff.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Without even trying, uh my wife was pregnant with our son.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: So that's awesome.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so it was uh, you know, in the space of a year, we had uh quite the family going.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what I used to like to do is um I would load those kids up in the stroller and uh and I had one of those long stretchy leashes, and it'd be me, the kids, and and Piper.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and we'd be doing about uh three to four miles a day.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um and she'd be out, she would not run behind the stroller, she would run out front of the stroller leading the pack.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh those when I think back, and a lot of it was um you know, obviously I had the kids too, but but the dog really uh um you know, Piper, just her energy in that really made the uh made the time more exciting.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that that she and I would do, my my wife would jog with us at least 50% of the time.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that um when my wife was with us, one of the things that Piper Piper and I would always do is when we got probably I don't know, I don't want to say a quarter mile, but when we got to the last at least a hundred yards of our house, um I would always uh stop and um and look at her and I'd say, Hey, let's race.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we would race, we would race uh, you know, the last, like I said, probably as far as I could sprint, right?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the last hundred yards or so uh to the house.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we did that, yeah, we did that for a long time until we moved away from that house.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that for and for whatever reason, she's like she knew it was coming.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And and she was always a little bit, she was a small dog, uh, you know, like 12, 13 pounds, right?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: And she was a little bit faster than me, but not not that much.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: So so she would she would win, but uh, we had a lot of fun doing that.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's cool.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: I did, yeah.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: So then she's getting anticipating and like, okay, she's slowing down, I'm gonna stop.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: I know you're ready to race me at the end.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh yeah.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um what what about that's cool.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, love that because yeah, we we used to run a lot with Marley.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: What about any um being in Southern California?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Any any fun like beach trips or beach story?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Did she like the water?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, not so much the water, but uh grandma, my mom lives on the beach uh um down in La Jolla, California, if you've ever heard of that.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, she lives in La Jolla, California, right on one of the most uh famous surfing beaches down there.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Wind and Sea.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And um I would take uh uh Piper loved the beach.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um the sand.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about so much about the water.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but she loved uh she loved the sand and um and it was you know for whatever reason.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just uh I love uh I loved just like with my kids, right?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Seeing the dogs have fun also brings me joy.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, I take her down there to the beach and she would just go nuts, man.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: We would uh and sometimes I would jog up and down the beach uh a little bit, but but she would just go crazy uh in that sand running around and um and then uh at certain times of the year uh in the afternoons, I think it's like after four o'clock, it's not really a dog beach, but people take their dogs down there anyways.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: But other dogs are down there as well, too.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you know she would go in that sand, she'd be going nuts.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and then she would run out in the waves a little bit, but she wasn't really a you know a water dog, so to speak.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't she didn't like it.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, we had a lot of fun times there on the sand at the beach with her.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I just what do you think it was like just the surface of the st the sand was was like absolutely yeah, yeah.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my Marley was the same way.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: She would she would be like uh scratching at it, digging it up, and it was yeah, that's very cool.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and she would chase the birds down there too, those uh those seagulls and stuff.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, as soon as those guys would land, you know, she'd be just shooting all over.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's uh it was very good exercise for her because she was uh not just you know, when we jogged, that's very good exercise too.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: But this was a like a real good workout because she was uh whatever it was about that sand and the water and the environment there just really made her um you know run very her fastest, just shooting across and you know, zooming by and just like the zoomies they do when they get a bath or something, you know.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's yeah, she would go nuts down there.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like catnip.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, how was she around like you mentioned other dogs and and lot a lot of dogs on the beach?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: How was she around the other dogs?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well interesting question.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna get into some dog psychology now, I think.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't know where she picked it up uh so much.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when she was younger, uh probably in her maybe her first year or whatever, I would take her to the dog park.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember I probably won't do that with my next dog if at least right away.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, those dogs, I don't know if you go to dog parks, but um when she came in, I I just remember she liked it for a while, but then there was a point where all these dogs, that's you know, those packs of dogs at the dog park, yeah, would just would just come running over to her and and she and she was running around with her tail tucked between her legs.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think it made her nervous that piece.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um but on the beach uh with other dogs, when she was off leash, she was much different than than when she was on leash.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: So she would have sometimes they call it fear aggression, or they're trying to protect their owners or whatever with other dogs where she especially when she got older, um, where she would um yeah, I guess kind of attack 'em, right?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: But when I let her off the leash, yeah, she was a whole nother whole nother animal, so to speak.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, playing, running, you know, chasing them around, that kind of stuff.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, she did pretty good with other dogs off the leash.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: On the leash, whatever that that leash uh you know put into her mind, she she would attack.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay, interesting.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but off yeah, I'm kind of envious.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Off leash, so off-leash on the beach, so she wouldn't w run away from you if she'd come to you when you call her.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, you just brought up another memory, okay.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, hey, I'm gonna go back back a little bit to when we first got her.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this was uh uh this was a story that you know I remember most of the story about her, but uh that I'll never forget.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to take her, this is before we started running together, and um, I wanted to take her and let her run around somewhere.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned, I love uh, you know, it brings me joy to see to see the dog having a great time.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So uh out here in San Diego, we've got some big industrial parks um and some big businesses, and um at this one that wasn't too far from my house, and this wasn't in a dog park, it was just uh at a office complex, um they had a big grass field.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I took her there, let her off the leash, let her go crazy.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I could not for the life of me get her to come back to me.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, like like she wasn't running away from me, right?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: But but she was uh she was playing the game because she knew I couldn't catch her.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I did like like like I would lay down in the grass hoping she was gonna come over and lick my face or whatever, and she would just come zooming by, right?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then she would like, you know, come all around, zipping around, circles, just running like a maniac to the point I don't remember how long that lasted for, but it lasted long enough that I had to call my wife who had to come drive her car there.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when my wife um you know pulled up in her car and uh opened the car door and yelled for Piper, you know, Piper went shooting across the parking lot and just leaped into the car.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, yeah.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: So so to answer your question, you know, as she got older, she was easier to come back to me, you know, would listen better.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: But when she was uh younger, oh yeah, that yeah, that was a game, that was a game, you know, try and catch me, see if you can catch me.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's hilarious.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I've always been envious of those people walking on the beach with no leash on the dog, and the dog is just walking beside them.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh man.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that yeah, they gotta take the special dog.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um we've got a lady in uh in my neighborhood right now that does that, and and she was just the uh the ire of the uh all the uh all the hoa folks around here just the other day because she walks her dog off leash.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody's pretty upset with it in the neighborhood.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but the dog just walks with her.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: It does just walk with her.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: But right.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a different different dog, different story.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that that's pretty awesome with Piper.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what about any prior pets before Piper?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Did you have?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've had some pets before Piper.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we've had my mom is a very big dog person, right?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we've always I didn't really um really uh have like puppy to um adult dogs during my single years, even though I had oh girlfriends and I shared a dog for a while, but uh it always ended up being the girlfriend's dog in the end.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: But uh uh I had dogs growing up.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um we had a dog uh smokey when I was growing up, and then my mom was always had dogs, so we had uh definitely a couple other dogs, but Piper was was um oh the first pet that I had that was like I'm gonna say like it was a family dog.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: She was a family dog, but it was like my dog, you know.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like like if I went to bed, she went to bed.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: If I did this, you know, wherever I was, um, you know, she was there too.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Or or you know, she um she rode with me in my in my car, you know, a lot of time wherever I went till till she got older and it was started making her real nervous riding in the car.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, she was my first uh person only dog that was what I'll say my dog.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um that was you just made me think of another question.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: You but you mentioned riding in the car.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: So did you know I've I've got my boy loves riding in cars.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Does she so she loved riding in cars?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh she did until these uh until these last couple years.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I have I've got a truck.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um I drive a truck because we ride motorcycles and stuff, and I would um and uh it's got one of those center consoles in it, and I had this uh this this little bed that fit right there, like in between the two front seats.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, yeah, she just rode right there.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, very cool.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just like a car, just like in a car seat.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, and she loved it for a lot.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it was as she got older.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and her uh oh, she lost her hearing in the past, you know, yeah, year and a half, and then um I think her eyesight might have been getting bad, but she she just started getting real anxietal in the car, so I didn't I stopped taking taking her unless it was unless it was uh have to, but yeah, yeah.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, she enjoyed it for a long time, very long time.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe as she got older, maybe it was more emotional.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Head out the window.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, she loves her.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't she?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: She still yeah, she still loved her head out the window.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like huffing and puffing, and you know, she'd a lot of times she wrote on my lap, but I'd just put her on on my lap, you know, uh while I'm driving.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I know your dogs are too big for that, but and then she would have her head out the window.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: She's always loved that head out the window.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: In any ever any risk of coming to like a a stop, a red light with the window down and her jumping out of the car?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, she never well, I always kept my arm around her, like around her back legs, right?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but you know, when you say that, I mentioned my mom and her dogs.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when my mom uh pulls up, and if the dog sees people like that she loves, that dog will jump out the window.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: But no, no, Piper never jumped out the window.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that that's awesome.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: So then that, yeah, that that makes the so we'll we'll get into the the harder topic or conversation.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because knowing that, yeah, she she's the first, you're really, like you said, your real first dog, and she just passed what November of this past year?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, she passed on Christmas Eve.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh crap.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, Christmas Eve sooner.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And what what did she pass from again?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh well, I don't know.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, I put her down.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's is how she is how she passed.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: But what uh what happened was um you know I g I I woke up in the middle of the night.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me just back up.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't and I don't know if it was because of running or or what, but when she was about six, um she uh I noticed that she was running kind of funny and then one day um uh she was acting like she was in a lot of pain from her back.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then by uh I took her to the vet uh and then by that night uh her back leg stopped working.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so um we uh you know, I took her in um to the uh uh to the vet specialty, the high end vet place, and uh she ended having a very expensive uh surgery that you know that f that fixed her, right?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um whatever they did, they f they fixed her.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and that gave her I don't gee, she must have got another, you know, eight, nine years uh out of that.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but what happened when I had to put her down was uh I got up in the night, she stood up in my bed because she slept with me, and I was like, Oh, she has to go to the bathroom.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Took her down and she didn't go to the grass, she just stood on the uh on the on the cement and went pee.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh the next morning I t I I took her back out again and she did that again, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I don't think she can walk.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then um no, I'll I'll never forget the look on her face because um she had a sweater on.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, even here in San Diego, it gets cold around Christmas.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I had her sweater on, but usually when I take her sweater off, she gets like really lively.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that morning, um, and she would always uh in my office uh you know, during COVID is where she really got used to it at, was you know, her bed is right next to me in my office.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I I and I looked at my wife, I said, I took her sweater off and I walked towards the office.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'll never I'm never gonna forget the look on her face was she just looked at me like she couldn't walk.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: She couldn't uh her back legs were kind of shaking and she could stand, but if she couldn't move forward and she was just looking at me like um I was just telling me it was the end.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah and I just walked back to her and um picked her up and just you know sat down in this reclining chair and she just she would always lay next to me but but she was just laying flat on my chest just just laying there um asleep with her you know just with her eyes closed and I just that was just it.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that was Yeah that was it.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what's so so I uh called uh in in California here we have this place called Pause into Grace and it was um uh such a good experience.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to do an advertisement for them but uh yeah it was such a good experience with them.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know Christmas Eve day it was around 10 eleven uh they when I called them you know they sent a vet to my house within within primary about 90 minutes.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that vet came in and and um she was just very very calm very um you know quiet very nice to meeting her and just you know we just walk walk through it and just had to put her down.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: But she uh she passed uh exactly how I wanted her to in terms of um oh she was just sitting there on my chest right and I was just holding her and I'd you know that was that was kind of the vision I always had.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think it was uh oh we had some travel coming up right after Christmas and I was I was just you know thank god that that didn't happen while I was um traveling yeah and she would have been here with uh with uh with my mother in law I would have had to come home I would have I would have left her alone at that time but yeah so she just passed um we had to put her down and it was right on my very peaceful uh very loving the whole family was here the kids uh my wife everyone was just gathered around and and she just passed right on my chest wow that's yeah thank I appreciate you sharing that that's that's phenomenal and I think like you said or you summed it up that yeah that's that's the perfect way to go and you you know she knows that's um um yeah graceful great great great way to uh memorialize her so um did did you feel that um had you kind of prepared yourself for that or did you still feel like it was kind of sudden?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well it was very sudden uh very sudden but uh you know I I would have never you know the thing with when dogs go I was just like I was surprised at how sudden because like I had mentioned earlier you know she used to run but uh um she'd always been uh an athlete I'll I'll call her and just uh just the week prior you know um she'd been on a three mile walk with my mom uh my mom and her dog and and walked the whole way so um so I wasn't expecting it uh yeah yeah I just never knew what was gonna happen so was I pr uh prepared I guess so because when the when she was 15 and a half um I was just like you know you just never know when the time's gonna come yeah but and I wasn't really prepared on Christmas Christmas Day yeah yeah I don't think anybody ever is um 15 and a half to your point yeah but yeah it sounds like that's uh the perfect way to go 15 and a half is a good long life um so yeah so it's gosh it's only hasn't even been two months um nope and I was yeah and as you and I have talked a little bit too I've been um I'll share with you a couple more stories and and meeting you uh just for just for the listeners I mean I was I was talking to the VP of our department uh who's a dog person about losing my dog and then she recommended me to you as you know um or she said hey you gotta get a hold of Dan uh you know ordered your book and then uh I guess she recommended or she mentioned my name to you and we connected at work.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes but um I've been uh a surprise connecting with a couple other different people so my neighbor walked by the other day and I um of the day she had texted me something about Christmas day oh she had a gift for us um and I'm you know not super close with them but we're but we're really good friends but she walked by the other day and and said hey how you doing with Piper and I um I told her well I've been surprised and she goes uh she's lost since since I've been her neighbor for like 12 years uh she's actually lost two dogs but she told me and she she's lost her dad and her sister but she told me that uh um losing her dog or her last dog was harder on her than both her her dad and her sister right I was like oh wow that's a uh you know it just kind of validates some of the things we talked about with um how much of an impact these animals have on our lives and then here I'll give you another story there's another guy I was on a call with the other night um oh I teach at a university as well uh and um we were doing I teach graduate students uh and I mentor dissertations and and I was on a committee with this uh with this other faculty member and he was um he's an ex-Navy SEAL uh you know tours in Iraq all this stuff and um he was came to the call with this uh with his fairly new puppy on his lap and he started talking about uh his dog that he lost back in August and he said he's like that dog uh he and his dog you know with uh did a lot of paddleboarding together and he said the first time he had to go paddleboarding without without his dog he said uh you know it was like five in the morning or something he said like he was just like sobbing at the at the you know at the lake front front water um and just uncontrollable and you know it's been helpful for me to hear from you your book uh the people uh you know some of the people I've talked to like this Navy SEAL or my neighbor um because I've been surprised at the um at the amount of grief I've experienced losing the losing Piper.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah um it's no that's I mean it's it's very real.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yep yep and yeah and then it's to your point you talking about it and the the support system toppling the others because it's yeah it's relatable and in like you said the the loss and how we can kind of help each other guide each other through um the healing process.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I know your we're will definitely have to get you in for a another episode down the road.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: So are you so it it it's uh you know you hear these stories that folks jump right in get it get another dog or they they completely distract themselves with hobbies.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Sound it feels like sounds like you're kind of taking your time you're you're kind of healing yourself but you you're ready but maybe not ready yet for another dog um or are you go go ahead.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah well I have uh it's more than just me I've got uh you know I've got the two kids uh uh they're both they're both 14 right now for for one more week and then my daughter turns 15 um uh who are pushing to get another uh dog and then I um you know for the first month or so I was like absolutely not uh just because of you know it feels like you're cheating to me.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know like your wife dies you get married the next month I mean you know and I just feel um I've just felt like uh and I still feel that way a little bit but I do have um I'll say my bid in my my down payment okay on a on a litter of puppies that are supposed to be uh born next week so if everything works out there's you know I'm on a list of ten people so um but uh six of those people want uh females and um and the person that's that's having the uh the owner of the dogs I don't know about the the breeder up I'll say uh said people usually drop out so I should I may have another dog by April.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: So okay that's right I did I do I remember you now mentioning that to me so we'll yeah we'll we'll keep in touch and see how that goes and then give it uh gosh yeah we'll we'll get you back on the show after yeah sure after some time to see how the new experience is yeah that's gonna be a puppy so I'm not really sure uh uh you know puppies are fun I love puppies of uh but it's gonna be like another kid here for a while right right but um no I love what you said um I think we're actually coming up to the the end of the segment but I do love what you said about um yeah feeling like you're cheating and by getting another one because yeah I I I'm with you there um have the similar feelings so that's uh but no I I just wanted to you know again thank you to the you know for being on thank you for sharing um you know the these stories um you know the kind feedback that you mentioned uh about the book um you know I'm glad yeah I'm glad you and I have connected we'll definitely keep in touch um but in all you know for the listeners on this podcast um you know I guess my my call to action would be if if the episode resonated, you know please subscribe, you know leave a review, share the show with someone who might find comfort here, you know, consider picking up the book for deeper reflections, um, rituals to you know basically help you remember uh and heal.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: But Derek, I just wanted to um don't go anywhere just yet, but I you know I just wanted to thank you for for your time today.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well thank you very much.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said thanks for writing that book.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just a couple things that you wrote in that book um you know just a couple words I was like oh you know this guy gets it so I appreciated the words of your book and I I hope you do well with your books and this podcast and all the things you're doing to help people uh work through these hard times.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you Derek