RIP Stan the Man

This morning the only dog I will ever love, Stanley, was put to sleep. He made it to the ripe old age of 17. Part me never thought he would never die...the things this dog has done! While I am so, so sad to know that I will never see him again, I know he is at peace and lived a full life.

My family got Stan from the Humane Society the summer before I started 10th grade in 1993. His previous owner was a trucker and Stan had been all over the country with him. He's a travelin' man. So we brought him home and he quickly became friends with everyone in the neighborhood. He was an extremely social dog and whenever anyone walked by the house and he was outside he jumped the fence. Either the neighbors would bring him back or he would be picked up by the pound. One day in 1999 Stan jumped the fence and he never came back. The neighbors didn't call, we checked the pound...nothing. We figured we had lost him forever.

A few years went by...my parents moved to a new house, I moved to Chicago. One night my parents got a phone call from the Humane Society informing them that Stanley had been picked up by the dog patrol. What?? This was 2002 and we hadn't heard a thing about Stan in forever. Turns out they had found my parents because Stan had a microchip installed that had my parents' contact info. So my family gladly took our beloved Stanley back in.

It gets even weirder. Not too long after that, my cousin Monty and his girlfriend Haley had to pick up my sister from school. They took her home and went in the house. Haley saw the dog and said, "Hey! That's Stanley! That's my dad's dog!" Monty was said, "No this is their dog, they've had him forever..how do you know his name??" Apparently the day that Stan ran away Haley's dad picked him up and just decided to keep him! What the hell?? He obviously had his tags on with his name, Stanley. These tags also had our phone number on it so he could have called us to return Stan. But no, he decided to dognap him. Not cool. I guess it all worked out in the end and we still laugh about that crazy dog and his travels.

Although the trucker gave Stanley his name, my family had several names for Stan: Stan the Man, Stanney, Stanlito (when we were trying to teach him Spanish), Stanicus, little bastard (what my dad liked to call him). I can't imagine going to my dad's house and not seeing him run up to me waiting for his treat. I am so sad and I will miss him forever.