WAYNE W. JOHNSON

-First of all, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Nobody got hurt on “Black Friday” right? 🙂 I normally just kid around with my blog entries. I’m admittedly a private person per say. People have told me that they know me but don’t “know” me and I believe that’s accurate. Every once in a while though I do post something serious-like my “headache” problem I had a few years ago. The rest will all be in my upcoming book called “Wayne-The Book.”-soon to be available where much better products are sold 🙂

-I’ve had a few people ask me about my current main avatar and, since I had some thinking to do today, I decided to kinda open up a little here. The rottie is named Remo-he was such a good puppy. I call all dogs puppies-even though Remo was 10-and all cats kitties. It’s just that Remo was an older puppy :). I know Rotties have a rep for being mean but Remo was a sweetheart-he was my girlfriend Kerry’s dog and he got along great with her kids and the 3 cats she has.

-I’m sure by now you’ve picked up on me saying stuff in past tense in the last paragraph. Sadly, Remo is no longer with us. About 2 weeks ago I got a call to meet Kerry at a 24 hr. animal hospital. Remo had collapsed and was in pain. We had a feeling something was wrong with Remo in the past month or so but a previous checkup revealed nothing. I don’t remember all the details, but Remo was anemic and he had suffered from some internal bleeding-something had ruptured. In addition, when they did an X-Ray on him, they discovered that his intestine was a lot lower than it should and that he had this swelling inside of him that was growing. It was discovered to be cancer. He was on a pain killer, but even with surgery, it was only a matter of time. Kerry made the painful decision to have Remo put to sleep. I know it was the right decision cause Remo would no longer be in pain-but I honestly don’t know if I would’ve had the strength to make the same decision if I was her. I’ve always been a big believer in beating the odds with many things. For example, I could be in a really bad relationship (in fact, this did happen to me years ago) and all the signs are everywhere that I should just leave, but I’ll be hanging in there trying to turn things around. This,admittedly can be a good quality to have, but it can also be bad. Anyway…

-Remo was brought in on a table and he seemed happy to see all of us. But then he had to be put to sleep. I’d had some experience with death before. Relatives, people I’ve known-it’s part of life. The longer you live, the more you’ll experience someone you know dying. In fact, the last 5-6 years, each year someone I knew or close to my circle has died.But this was the 1st time I’ve been right next to a life that was extinguished. It’s an image that’s very hard to get out of my head. There’s another image too, but it’s a good one. I was Kerry’s computer and Remo came over looking for attention and I gave him this huge huge and petted him for awhile. At least this image is more frequent than the other…..

-I had to go to work the next day and it was admittedly hard. I’m not ashamed to admit that, at one point, I had to go to one of the executive bathrooms to release my emotions. In the past, I used to keep it all in-which is not a good thing. I’ll be the 1st to admit that due in part to that (keeping it all inside in my past) I may still have a screw or 2 loose . Guess you’ll have to get “Wayne-The Book” to find out for sure right? (HA!)

-Remo was buried last Monday, I had to help lift him into Kerry’s car cause he was a big puppy (180+ lbs!). That was another 1st-I’d never held a dead body before. Unnerving-especially when you memory is playing back “footage” of him running around and stuff. It took awhile to even find a container large enough to serve as a coffin for him. I know it’s more common to do cremation, but it was not my decision to make. In a sense, he was being brought home. This helped a little with closure…..

-I usually visit Kerry on the weekends cause we live a distance from each other. Remo used to wear a collar that had bells on it so if he ran off we could hear him. As you probably surmised, I get memory flashbacks when I hear bells jingling-as they so often do during X-Mas session. I wasn’t there when Remo was actually buried, but I visited the grave site earlier today for the 1st time. It was hard. But as I said before, this is a part of life. A part that we all must face at some point in our lives. I guess I’d been fortunate in a way that I haven’t had to experience this until later in life, but there’s no escaping it. After a certain point, it seems that the number of those who you know becomes less & less. But again, that’s a part of life and a reason why one should make the most of their life while they still have it-as well as cherish those who share the journey of life with you.

-There’s a saying….No one truly dies as long as you remember them. I didn’t know Remo that long-less than 6 months actually. But he was such a good & loyal puppy. We’ll miss you Remo……& we will always remember you…….