Run with Eric + running

a new puppy

About 3 weeks ago, my family and I put our beloved Rhodesian Ridgeback, Kona, to sleep. We’d had him since he was a eight week old pup, just after our marriage. With our two kids, we were a five-some….always together, running, hiking, playing at the park or the beach or just hanging around the house.

But now, he was seven and riddled with bone cancer. The kind of cancer that reduces a happy, active dog to a dog that can’t get up to relieve himself in the space of just ten weeks. Ten grand worth of chemotherapy would have only bought us a couple months. No choice but to cut our losses for his sake as much as ours. So we said our painful goodbyes and let him go.

A week later, my kids and wife drag me kicking and screaming to the humane society. It’s too soon, I said. We’re (I’m) not ready, I said. We’re not, under any circumstances, bringing home a dog, I said. Maybe a cat, I said. (Never mind the fact that my daughter is allergic to cats and I’ve never been a cat person).

You know the rest of the story. We are in a room with three lab mix puppies. One of them jumps into our arms and quickly into our hearts. We bring her home and name her Lucy

Freedom, HAPPY, Life, RUN, and more:

a new puppy + running