He was born in North Carolina in January 2014. He was purchased by a young man as a gift to
his girlfriend. A short while later,
they broke up and the girl decided that she couldn’t afford to keep the dog. Her aunt and uncle, who lived in St. Louis,
became aware of the situation. They
drove to North Carolina, got the dog and brought him back to their home in St.
Louis. However, they were in the process
of getting ready to move to a retirement community in Florida. They already had another dog and didn’t want
to have two dogs in their new home.
Reluctantly, the lady was planning to take the dog to the Humane
Society, even though she was worried about finding a good home for him. As she was in the parking lot outside of the
Humane Society, she ran into a mom and her two kids. She asked them if they wanted a free
dog. The mom called her husband to see
if he would agree to it but he said no.
However, the mom told the lady to not give him up yet. She said that she’d find someone who could
adopt him. She posted pictures of the
puppy on Facebook asking if anyone wanted to adopt this sweet little dog.
My wife saw the picture on Facebook and showed me in
passing. I asked her if she replied and
said we were interested. She said “What? We can get another dog?” I replied, “Sure.” At the time, our dog, Allie (whom I’ve
written about before) was 12 years old and starting to have some health
issues. We thought it might be good to
have a younger dog, too. My wife replied,
got the lady’s contact information, and made arrangements to meet Teddy the
following day. She showed the kids
pictures of him and, of course, they were excited. Even before meeting him, they’d already
decided to name him Yadi, after the Cardinals’ catcher (and future Baseball
Hall of Famer), Yadier Molina. So, it
was pretty much a foregone conclusion that we were going to adopt him before we
even met him. Fortunately, "Teddy" and "Yadi" sound relatively similar, so it wasn't too big of an adjustment for the little guy.
We went over to the lady’s house the following morning and,
within seconds of seeing him, it was a done deal. He was cute and friendly and we loved
him. The lady, in turn, thought we’d be
a great fit for him, since we already had an older dog and the kids were so
good with him. We brought him home that
day and he immediately made himself at home.
We bought him a new, St. Louis Cardinals collar (of course). I quickly came up with a myriad of nicknames for him- Buddy Buds, Mr. Mister and, especially,
Captain Underbite. The latter owing to
his pronounced underbite and also because of those Captain Underpants books
that my kids love to read. Whenever he looks up at us with his underbite showing, we say "Captain Underbite is back!"
Yadi is spunky and a lot of fun. He absolutely loves to go
for walks, to the point that he basically refuses to go poop unless you take
him for a walk. Every morning, I have to
take him for a walk before I go to work.
As soon as he sees me putting on my shoes, he heads for the front door,
ready to go on our daily morning walk. He
loves to watch TV and sometimes barks at the things he doesn’t like on the
screen, including a goofy local ad that features a guy wearing a Blackhawks
jersey. He barks at that guy every time! He loves to play tug-of-war and fetch and loves
being outside. He also loves ice cream,
pudding, yogurt and especially Skinny Pop!
He could be upstairs but if he hears you open a bag of Skinny Pop, he’ll
come flying into the kitchen to have a few pieces.
More than anything, though, Yadi LOVES my wife. He practically worships her. He follows her around everywhere, will shower
her with kisses when she’s sitting on the couch and watching TV. And he ALWAYS sleeps next to her at
night. He NEVER sleeps next to me. Even when my wife was out of town for a few
nights a few weeks ago, he spent most of those nights sleeping in the spot
where you’d normally find her pillow.
Having Yadi around made the loss of our older dog, Allie, a
little easier when she passed earlier this year. (See my earlier blog post
entitled “Farewell to the Short Stack Girl” from February to learn more about
Allie.) In Allie’s final moments, when
she was shaking due to the pain and fear, Yadi would curl up next to her,
trying to comfort her.
Having Yadi in our lives would automatically make them
better, regardless of how we got him.
But when you consider how it came to be – and the travels and changes
the poor little guy went through over the first several months of his life – it
makes it all just a little bit sweeter.
We are fortunate to have him as a dog and he’s lucky to have
us as a family.
Thanks for reading!
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