Champ

Champ + Julie

"I got to pick him and bring him home. And I got to be there with him when he took his last breath." That's Julie, about Champ, a Cocker Spaniel mix who was her best friend through illness, adolescence and every hard moment in between. 💛 Because the ones who choose us at the beginning deserve to have us there at the end. 

Transcript

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0:00

Oh,

Kate 0:14

Hi, Julie. Really nice to have you on the Soldog podcast today. I'm super excited to hear all the things about Champ. Um, how about we get started with you telling me how you met him?

Julie 0:27

Growing up, we always had dogs. When I was born, we had a poodle, and then when I was about five, we got a golden retriever who I loved, but I always wanted a puppy. I loved 101 Dalmatians and Lady and the Tramp. Oh my gosh, Lady and the Tramp was my favorite. Me too. So I, of course, wanted a Cocker Spaniel, just like Lady. Yes. So when I was about 11 or 12, I was dealing with a lot of health issues. I ended up having to miss a whole year of school. So during that time, my parents decided this would be a good time to let you have a puppy because you'll be home with it to, you know, take care of it and all of that. This was, you know, the 80s, so we didn't have breeders and all of that fancy buying dog stuff, and we didn't have, you know, our shelters weren't overwhelmed like they are now, so what you did was you went into the classifieds and looked at people who had puppies for sale. And so we found a litter of what was called, said, cocker spaniels, but it's definitely mixes. My mom took me to their house. We sat in the backyard. I played with all the puppies and I picked out the one I wanted, which was Champ. He was a light blonde colored little puppy. And I've got to find his puppy pictures because he was the cutest little puppy. And my sister gave them five dollars for me to adopt him and I got to take him home. He was probably, I want to say probably like eight weeks around then. So he was definitely a puppy but he wasn't super tiny. His parents were there, so his mom was a Cocker Spaniel, his dad was a Terrier mix, so Oh, what an interesting mix, yeah. Yes, he was definitely a mix, and so he got to come home with me, and he became my best friend.

Kate 2:12

Aw, would you say that you picked him, or he picked you?

Julie 2:17

You know, that, that instance, um, I picked him because my mom even said, are you sure? We've never had a boy dog. You don't want one of these girls. And no, I knew I wanted him. And that's when I got, I have had animals pick me, but that in that case, it was definitely me playing and say, Nope, this is the one I want.

Kate 2:35

Right, great. Okay. So how did you come up with the name Champ?

Julie 2:41

So, another reason I love dogs is, uh, a neighbor, a very close friend of my parents was a couple who, he was a duck hunter, which I am not. Against all types of hunting, but I was little, I didn't know, but he was a dog hunter, so they always had dogs, they always had labs, obviously labs are good for hunting ducks, so they always had labs, and when I was young, they had a yellow lab that had puppies, and oh my gosh, I got to go see her and all of her puppies, and I remember one of the puppies one of their kids adopted and named him Champ and they always said, Oh, you know, like Champagne because he's Champagne color. And so for some reason that stuck in my head. So I wanted to name my Champagne colored dog Champ too for Champagne.

Kate 3:24

What do you remember most about him? For instance, Do you have a personality trait of his, um, that you remember that brings a smile to your face?

Speaker 2 3:35

Well, he loved playing ball, just like most labs. He loved chasing tennis balls, and he would always have them with him, and he would sleep with them. Um, but he was also very in tuned with me. You know, I didn't know what that was when I was young, but when I didn't feel well, he was always right there. He would sleep in bed with me. If I was really sick and, like, he couldn't be in bed, he would always be at the end of my bed. He was always very in tune with me, even when I didn't feel well and it was more emotional, you know, it was hard for me being out of school, I didn't get to see my friends, so he really was my little therapy dog, and he was like that, even when I got older, when I was in college, he still was very in tuned with me, and a funny story is that when I started dating my now husband, And he would come over Uh oh,

Kate 4:22

little jealousy there?

Julie 4:23

So he drove a 66 Impala that you could hear coming blocks away because of the, the way it ran. And so Champ started learning the noise he would hear and then this man would appear and come into my room and hang out with me. So it was a joke that when you could hear the Impala, Champ would run and go back in my parents bedroom and just sit back there until he left. Oh. He was not happy with another male person in his territory. Right,

Kate 4:55

right, yeah, he was supposed to be all yours. What would you say is his theme song or was his theme song or is there a song from your past that always reminds you of him? Like even if it was during that time that you were home from school and sick, what kind of brings you back to that time when you had Champ in your life?

Julie 5:16

Um, well, I would definitely say the height of my New Kids on the Block phase, because Yeah. Um, because I, you know, seventh, eighth grade, I was all about them. I had the t shirts and the posters. I even got to see them in concert. So that, that definitely reminds me of him, him sitting in my room with me, what looking through the magazines of all the photos of the new kids. So I'm sure step by step would play and I'd be like, Oh, where's champ.

Kate 5:45

When you first had champ you, you weren't feeling well, so you probably didn't get out of the house very often, but is there any adventures or trips or anything that you guys did together that stands out?

Julie 5:55

Yeah, he was not an adventure dog. He never really left home. He, if he got out of the, the only adventures he went on was when the gate got left open. He got to run down the street. Those were his adventures and us chasing after him. But no, I think for him that the best was just having us all home. You know, my parents, my sister and I, we gave him so much attention and He, you know, he loved it. He would go swimming with us in the backyard and play ball and all the things and all my friends loved him. So really the, our adventures were just all the fun things we got to do at home with him.

Kate 6:31

Okay. And if Champ could come back for one day, what would you do with him?

Julie 6:38

Oh gosh, I would, you know, have a box full of tennis balls for him and we would play and, you know, he'd chew and I'd get him a good bone to chew on. He loved that too. He loved his belly rub. Just, I would say being outside with him on grass or in the pool and, On a warm day that he would just love and it would just be all fun activities, all the best of what he used to love to do

Kate 7:04

great. Yeah, that sounds like a perfect, perfect, simple day, right? Just spending time with your favorite dog. What do you think is, the greatest lesson Champ taught you?

Julie 7:15

Um, definitely that no matter what happens, our pets will always be with us. So, I always tell the tennis ball story. So, like I said, I got Champ when I was, like, 11 or 12. And I lived at home during college to save money. So, he was with me. So, it wasn't until I was, um, until, gosh, 11, 12 years later, I had graduated college and I was going to grad school. And so I was leaving, I was moving out of the city I grew up in for the first time. He was going to be home with my parents, but it was still really hard to leave him. Right. And little did I know that he made sure I had a part of him with me. You know. A few days later, I'm unpacking boxes in my new apartment, and down inside a box that was full of books and things, I find, um, Champ, one of Champ's tennis balls. Oh, is that his original tennis ball? This is his tennis ball.

Kate 8:07

Wow. It has come

Julie 8:08

with me everywhere since. So it was like he knew I was moving on and doing something. And it's funny because all the time growing up, whatever I would pack to go somewhere, like if we were going on a trip or I was going to camp or whatever, I would put the suitcase on the bed and he would get in it. He would be like, I'm coming with you. You can't leave me. And so somehow he knew he couldn't come with me. And I was packing up all my things and he dropped this into a box. I didn't even know was there. So sweet. And this, you know, three or four times I've moved. It's a possession, right? And he's giving it to you. And I love it because I've had moments, I always have it somewhere, and I've had moments where I let my new pets, mostly cats since I've been an adult, but they'll sniff it. I even had my recent, my youngest pumpkin, she found it and started playing with it. So it's always had this little tie to all of my pets, and I just keep that to think of him. And I think what the, the, the relevance of the story is I learned that, you know, as I got older and had pets of my own and, you know, I had my first cat I had for 16 years and all of that. I just realized like, like with Champ, there's, I can look at something that reminds me of them and realize there's always a part of them with me. And so having my childhood dog teach me that kind of opened myself up to, you know, continue to love pets and have as many as I could.

Kate 9:35

How did you get through the loss? Like how did you find out that Champ passed away? Were you, were you home when it happened?

Julie 9:42

Um, luckily I was, so even though I'd gone to grad school, I was still, you know, five, four hours from home. And he had epilepsy. He was actually diagnosed pretty young. We, it was, it was really scary when he first started having seizures because we didn't know what was happening. None of my family had ever dealt with a dog with seizures. So he was epileptic. He was on anti seizure meds, you know, for like 10 years, his whole life. But in the end, the last year or so of his life, he started having issues because he'd been on those drugs so long. Um, for one, his seizures weren't being controlled as well, but also they cause other issues and he ended up being diabetic and all these things. So I had left and gone to grad school. And it was probably about six months later that he really started to decline in health. And I was home for the weekend actually for one of my best friend's weddings that was in my hometown and that same weekend we had to take him to the vet and and He

Kate 10:39

waited for you to come home though.

Julie 10:41

He did and I got to stand there with him along with my dad and my sister and we spent You know, when they gave him his shot and he went to sleep. So I, you know, it was a full circle moment for me. I got to pick him, bring him home. And I got to be there with him when, you know, he took his last breath. And ever since then, that's something I, I make sure if I have the opportunity that I get to do that with my pets. I learned how meaningful it was to be able to be a part of that process with him.

Kate 11:11

Yeah. They're there for you. And it's the kindest act of love that you can get for your pet is to be there for them as well. And lastly, if you could say anything to champ right now, what would you say?

Julie 11:23

And if I could say anything to him, it would just be thank you. Because, you know, I had a hard time as a preteen and a teenager. He was always there for me. And I know how lucky I was to have that because not everybody gets to have that growing up.

Kate 11:39

Thanks for joining us in our virtual dog park. I hope you enjoyed hearing about Julie and champ. If you would like to hear more, at least wonderful stories about our soul dogs, please be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast and follow us at soul dog podcast on Instagram.

11:56

Hey, see ya later. Later. Later. Later.