Our littlest pup Johnny passed away. This one really hurts.

Our littlest pup Johnny passed away. This one really hurts.

We first met him when Wyatt ran into an animal shelter and scooped him up. We decided to foster him for a weekend and that was it. By the first night, we knew he needed to stay with us. We quickly learned he’d been abused and, because of this, was extremely frightened most of the time, especially of men.

But, our dog Lulu showed him the ropes and with some patience and a lot of love from us he became the most chill chihuahua ever. Confident, smart, loving, communicative, and the absolute best snuggler in the history of everything.

When we went on family vacations, we usually hired a dog-sitter. But, after Lulu passed, we started bringing Johnny with us and we discovered he was a fantastic travel dog. He went with us everywhere, including to Zion with not one, but two stops in Las Vegas.

We never would have dreamed the skittish yelpy little guy we first fostered would ever calmly guide us through a packed cacophonous casino on the Vegas Strip. But, that’s exactly what happened.

That’s the thing about Johnny: He defied expectations and that helped each of us grow. One great example is how Wyatt learned to match Johnny’s calm energy when he wanted to play with him. And personally, I learned to be more patient with him and that made me more patient with people in general.

In recent months, Johnny’s age really started to show. His hearing started to go, then his sight in one eye. He lost weight and couldn’t gain it back, despite all of the food he ate. We knew he wouldn’t be with us for too much longer, but that doesn’t make this loss any less painful.

Goodbye, Johnny, you big derp. And thanks for sharing your life with us. We’re all better for loving you.