SWTFYW Hints and Hauls!!!

That's so sad man! Sorry for your loss but feel blessed for the 12 years you shared with him!

Gentleman, is this our first swtfyw funeral?

 

Opened a Brew Dog beer in a HotD glass for Ralph, cheers buddy. Life is too short.

 

My dog's name is Colbie. We adopted her when she was 7 months old. Needless to say, she definitely picked me:


Best decision we ever made, but now she is very spoiled:

The coolest (and weirdest) thing she does is kick when she's excited or sometimes when she's sleeping. Sometimes with one foot, sometimes with both feet. She can kick pretty hard too.

I like dogs better than cats because they engage more, while it seems most cats are introverted.

 

This is Gemma!

She is the shit! Today during our family walk some people walking by asked, "hey is that dog on a leash?" I said no. Then she got a compliment because she stays right between my wife and I. When I walk by people who are struggling with their dog tugging them all over the place I laugh. When I do leash Gemma I just tuck her leash in my pocket and she never pulls away. Just sticks by my side. She is a really good dog. She even takes the abuse from the 1 year old.

Her cool story would have to be her two nights in the woods. So I'm at a buddies house with my dog who is about 7 months old at the time. He lives in Amish county. His day asks if we want to shoot his gun. I'm not not going to shoot a gun so we go out back. My buddies day says, "the dogs hate this!" Then unloads the clip of his 9mm. Gemma was sitting on the ground next to us and when the gun was fired she took off to the front yard. I figured she went to the front porch but ten minutes later when I went to look for her she was no where to be found. I stayed up till like 3 am calling her name but nothing. Next morning my buddy and I drove all over looking for her. I thought she would be hit by a car. His side street is off a main state highway. It wasn't looking good. Eventually I had to go home without the dog. My buddy said, "Aubrey is going to kill you, she loves that dog, she has a calendar dedicated to that dog". The calendar has Gemma dressed every month to themes for that month.
It was Father's Day and my wife was making dinner for her dad and brothers to come over. When I got home she was cutting chicken. "Where is Gemma", she asked. "Put down the knife", I said. I didn't know what to say so I just blurted out, "Gemma ran away and I don't know where she is and I can't find her."
This is when shit got real....and kind of funny. My wife went from "what are you doing here, go find the f@$!&?@ dog" to throwing herself on the ground crying "why why why!!!" To make matters worse I didn't have her leash on her. She was gone man.
So my wife calls her family and we all gather and drive back out to my buddies house 45 minutes away. We spent that Father's Day going house to house but most people were at church all day cause that's what the Amish do on Sundays. We hung flyers at the general store and church. Finally I said fuck it I'm going through these fields and woods. It was the direction she had run and it was my last shot. About 100 yards into this thick brush I see Gemma. I found her! Amazing! I started running to her full of joy! She stood up and bolted! I spent the rest of the day following her the mile from one side of the field to the other, through woods and thick brush. She wouldn't come to us. We were all out there, 6 adults begging a dog to come to one of us. It started getting dark and we had to go home. Again. No dog.
That night my wife was crying with the thoughts of the coyotes getting Gemma. I told her Gemma would be fine and she obviously liked the woods if she didn't come to us. What I really thought was she would be eaten by the coyotes and we would never find her.
Next day my buddy calls us. His sister had spent the night staying up looking for Gemma hoping she would come back to the house. Around 1am she heard the neighbors dogs going nuts. She ran outside to see Gemma hanging out by the garage. She was able to lure her into the house with food. We got our dog back!!!
Later on we heard from the Amish neighbors that they saw Gemma run across the street when we shot the gun, into their cow patch, get chased by the cows in the field behind the cow patch and continue to run into the woods. Dog just lost her shit and took off. Needless to say we don't shoot guns around her anymore!

Cats suck because they piss in your closet and there is nothing you can do about it. Gemma wouldn't do that to me!

 

Ill give you a hint... its not your avatar

 

Here's my boy Kobe (like Kobe Bryant) (not the chihuahua, the other one)...



That is a picture of his 10th birthday party at Banger's this year (if you come to Austin, go to Banger's, largest tap list in the city, over 100). My wife insisted we do something fun for his birthday, so we went all out, invited a bunch of friends, got him a dog cake, the whole nine yards. He had a blast.

I've had Kobe since I was 23 (he was 6 weeks old). Even though we have 3 other dogs, he holds a special place in my heart. I rescued him from a shelter with my now ex-girlfriend 10 yrs ago. The volunteer at the shelter told us he was mostly Rottweiler, which as a pup, he resembled...boy was she wrong.

Anyways, 2 weeks after we got him he became really sick. We took him to the animal hospital and they confirmed he had Parvo, along with worms, both of which he received from the shitty shelter we rescued him from. Had we not taken him in that week, the vet said he wouldn't have lived. He stayed at the animal hospital for a week. The doctor quoted that his treatment was gonna cost us $1500+. I almost decided to put him down, because I was a very poor college kid with NO money and couldn't afford the treatment. My GF at the time said we had to save him and that we would work it out. So I spent every last penny we had and then some, but he made it.

Time goes by, I break up with my ex, she takes Kobe in a harsh break up. I don't see him for 2 yrs and then she calls out of the blue to see if I want him back b/c her apts wouldn't allow him. So I finally get him back and he's been with me and my wife the last 6 yrs. He's been my best friend for almost a third of my life, and my wife and I will be a wreck when he is gone. @Lehighace06, I'm truly sorry for your loss.

Cats suck mostly because I'm allergic to them, and have you seen "Constantine"? Some freaky shit with cats, man.

To Ralph, and all of our 4-legged family members.

 

Oh now I get it...actually I'm just more confused...

 

I told my buddy about everything @Lehighace06 and we decided to open both laika and bba laika. I don't have pictures but we poured about an ounce of each out for Ralph

 

So I've got two entries for @jshusc LIF. I enter both because both have a special place in my heart even though I only actually owned one.

Names - Bruno (boxer) & Scout (some kind of crazy mutt mix but looked like a German Shepard)

Stories - Bruno was the first dog my family ever owned. I was only 12 when we got him and I remember picking him out like it was yesterday. My dad and mom told us that we wouldn't be able to afford him but one day, they came home with the pup and surprised us. It was all over after that. I took Bruno everywhere. He'd lay in my bed every night and wake me up first each morning. He had this crazy thing he'd do where he would tackle me and attack my neck. But instead of trying to hurt me, he'd do these small little nibbles and it tickled like hell. When I laughed, it just made him do it more. Anyway, I left for college and but was close enough to home that I got to see him often enough. It wasn't until I left for the USMC that I didn't get to see him much. But every time I came home, he'd be there waiting to attack me. When I was about 22, I left for a deployment overseas. I was in Africa on November 8, 2002 when I was laying down and looking at the vast amount of stars you can see in the desert night. I lay down to sleep that night and had a dream about Bruno passing. I woke up in the middle of the night with a tear streaming down my cheek. I wiped it away and blew it off as if it was nothing. About two weeks later, I was finally able to call home. My dad let me know that on November 8th, Bruno had passed away. I like to think that we had a connection and my dream was part of it.

This next story I'm sure some have already read so I'll keep it brief. Scout I only knew for about an hour. I was on a patrol in Fallujah, Iraq one night when we got a call to head over to a gas station where insurgents were reportedly seen firing off weapons. Our platoon headed over to check it out. When we arrived the place was deserted save for a small pack of puppies who immediately start barking at us when we arrived. On e we determined the location was secure, I set my Marines up in a defensive position. But the dogs kept barking and were giving away our position. So I went up to the pack, pulled a MRE out of my patrol bag, tore it open and pulled out a beer jerky (the beer jerky in MREs blows goats so I was t gonna eat it anyway). I held it out as an offering and all the dogs shut up. They just stared at me but would not approach. After a few seconds one of the smallest of the pack of pups started cautiously inching towards me. I placed my rifle strapped across my back, held out my other hand carefully so he could get a good sniff of me, and then ripped off a piece of the jerky for him to eat. He seemed to feel safe so he took the piece out of my hand and started chowing down. The rest of the pack became more at ease so I ripped off pieces for all of them and gave it to each one individually. After that they were all quiet and played amongst themselves. I headed back to go check on my Marines and quickly glanced back at the pack. All of the. We're playing except the little guy who took the first piece. He was following me over to where I was gonna set up in a defensive position. After finding a good spot, I laid down in the prone and the little guy came over and sat right by my side. The rest of the pack was playing around and be just sat there, looking out at the surrounding area with me as if he was just another Marine. We sat there for a good 20 minutes and the little guy didn't move. I was trying to figure out ways to bring him back to base when we got the call to resume patrolling. We headed back to our vehicles and drive off. The little guy and his pack chased us as we left but he was at the front of the pack running hardest. It was hard to leave him because I knew what usually happened to dogs out there. They didn't live long and their carcasses were used to hide IEDs. As we grew further apart, I looked him in the eyes and wished him luck. For a brief moment, I like to believe he said the same to me. I named him Scout (I was a Marine scout) and like to think he watched over me during my time out there. He brought a little bit of sanity to the insanity we dealt with daily. And I like to think he's still alive to this day.

I now have two chocolate labs and two cats. I'd definitely pick dogs over cats any day. While my cats are fine, they don't love or care for you like dogs do. Both the cats and dogs will pass at some point but I'll only ever get a dog again.

Sorry for a long ass post. Just wanted to honor them.

 

So these stories are going to be ranked on volume of tears fallen from grown men?

 

ya this one about the dog in Iraq wins! Send him his beer! Awesome post @Haywire just awesome! I don't know how you boys do it going to war. I once had a dream I was being deployed and it was the scariest prospect I could imagine. I thank God for people like you that keep the rest of us safe. I know people say that type of shit all the time but I am serious. You sacrifice mind, body and spirit so we can enjoy safety each day. So my family can go to the park and play peacefully. So I can go to work and provide. So we can sleep at night without the fear of harm. The people of this country are truly blessed so many men and women make the sacrifices they do for us daily!

Enough of the sappy shit though, it is 7:45am, grab a freakin beer already!

 

So sorry to hear about Ralph, @Lehighace06. Although I didn't read BA last night, I could tell something was up from my shiny, new Untappd friends. I'll be toasting Ralph to tonight, for sure.

 

There have been at least 2 others that I'm aware of,
both just mentioned without going into detail.

 

So you aren't just bad at math when it comes to boxes of beer....

 

This. Sorry about Ralph @Lehighace06. Will definitely toast one up to him tonight.

 

Glad to know it's not just my place that's really dusty!

 

"I'm not cryin'. It's just been raining....on my face"

 

Off the wall question, but does anyone have a crate from Westy 12 that they'd be willing to part with?
A friend who has hosted some awesome bottle shares in the past, got a crate of Westy and shared it
with a bunch of people, many friends and some who were friends of friends. Sometime during the
evening, someone walked off with the empty crate. He's a great guy and if someone had asked if they
could have it, he probably would have given it to them, but he's a bit ticked off that someone just took it.
I'd like to find him a replacement if possible. See picture below.

 

Never had a dog, but I toasted one for you @Lehighace06 last night.

 

Sorry for your loss @Lehighace06
Next to losing a human friend/family member, few things in life match the pain of losing a beloved pet. Keep your head up!