NOTE: This post is from Papi's Mom.
Below is Papi’s celebration of life video, “The Joy of Papi” (I love the music and poem narration) If you watch it, you will get a tiny glimpse of just how much Papi enriched our lives. EVERYTHING was more fun when Papi was with us. And he was almost always with us.
It has been cathartic and helped me cope with grief to begin the process of looking at thousands of photos and videos. (My brother asked if I was making a mini-series documentary, and my sister begged me to keep it under 5 minutes.😃) Of course, it was impossible to pack all the years into less than 5 minutes, but I did my best. Allan suggested that perhaps this is just the trailer and that there may be an extended cut in the future. So maybe there will be a Joy of Papi series one day. :)
I don’t know if it’s because Papi was so special, or because we don’t have children, or because we work from home, or because the bonding and intimacy with a small dog seems more intense. It’s probably all of the above. All I know is I am certain Allan and I have never loved another little being like we loved Papi.
We took Papi in as a foster dog in 2008. And in August 2009 we adopted him, as Allan said all he wanted for his 50th birthday was to make Papi a permanent part of our family. Our boy told us he was ready to go and we helped him to the Rainbow Bridge on Friday, March 1, 2024.
Our boy had a full life and loved many things including chicken, watermelon, kale, canoe rides, looking for and trying to catch fish, swimming in Barton Creek, hiking in the Greenbelt, road trips, squirrel chasing, running in the park, playing with all sizes of dogs, but most of all that boy liked to be close to his people. And I mean CLOSE.
Papi has been on social media since 2010. He started by occasionally making guest appearances in Allan’s AskWoodMan videos on YouTube. But he was on several other of our YouTube channels as well. And he also has plenty of his own starring roles right on this blog, AskPapi.com. He’s also on Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and most recently TikTok where he has one video about to hit 800,000 views. All silly stuff. (I am “Mom of Papi” on TikTok)
His TikToks are especially sweet. Links below.
One of Papi’s TikTok videos (no account needed to watch): https://tinyurl.com/PapiandHarlow
One of Papi’s first YouTube videos promoting eating your greens: https://tinyurl.com/PapiLoveKale
Piano music by Italian composer Mattia Cupelli “Touch” (old version)
Narration by Tom O'Bedlam
Poem excerpts from "If Tomorrow Starts Without Me" by David M. Romano
Spanish song in the background at the end by the Pretenders “Rabo de Nube”