When I came back to America from Japan I decided it would be great to live close to a college friend of mine in Ca. Casey and his wife have a beautiful home in Simi with a beautiful pool two beautiful cars and a brand spanking new dog. His name was Wesley and he was a flawless looking boxer with a personality to match his looks. I loved to wrestle and play with Wes until we both were panting and covered in hair, well him more than me. Sometimes when Casey and his wife would go on vacation I would stay and take care of Wes, I dearly loved him and when he passed months later it was crushing to me.
Dogs are amazing they can be bred to be 200 lbs or 2 lbs. They have very flexible genetics that unfortunately it comes with a price. The further they get from the original genetic stock the more health problems they have. Wesley was no exception and he suffered from seizures a common problem boxers have. Wes started having debilitating seizures at about 2 years old. These boughts of mouth foaming, bowel evacuating seizures crippled him. From the first occurrence it only took 2 months to take 20 lbs of muscle off his frame. He stopped eating and had to be feed with a syringe, this continued until he took his last breath in Casey’s arms. I will always remember the call from Casey saying he had moved on. We both cried on the phone sharing a level of intimacy that pains me but I still treasure.
Casey and his wife then did something that surprised and shocked everyone. They got a new dog. Now you might tell yourself “so what, so would I” but the difference is they got a new dog two weeks later! Even more remarkable was that the dog they got looked so similar to Wesley you could not tell the difference. Casey’s wife had, NO JOKE looked at over 10,000 pictures of puppies online until she found the reincarnation of Wesley. As creepy as this was to watch it was an amazing lesson.
When one of my friends was destroyed over breaking up with her boyfriend I told her this story. She told me it was one of the most helpful things I have ever shared with her and it helped her greatly in her recovery. I take this advice in my own life and I get out and meet people immediately after a loss. I get a new dog. The biggest difference is that the new dog you get is usually only temporary to fill the vacuum so you don’t do anything psycho. (like break into his email or call him drunk at 2 in the morning) Casey and his wife are still with this Wesley clone and I can say without a doubt that they are stuck with the most obnoxious crappy dog I have ever met in my life. So get out there, get a new dog but when you are done let someone else adopt it.
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