Thank you

Hi all,

I’m sitting writing this in a library of a town that is a 7 hour drive away from home. As some of you may know, we suddenly and unexpectedly lost our dog this week and then two days later a family emergency occurred that required us to literally drop everything and drive 7 hours to help out. And thus here we are.

While I have a moment to recover from the whiplash that I just experienced, I wanted to write a sincere thank you to everyone. We must have received nearly a thousand messages, texts, and emails from family, friends, and the Arsenal community (many of whom have turned into friends over the years.) It has warmed our cold hearts and been a wonderful uplift for us. When we are feeling down or stressed, inevitably I get a wonderful email from a fellow Arsenal fan, I read it to Liz and off we go feeling supported and loved again.

Luca wasn't my dog at first. I first met him when I met Liz. Here was this funny, quirky, cute girl and her equally funny, quirky, cute dog. I quickly learned that Luca was everyone's dog. Whenever we passed someone on a walk, he would stop in his tracks and just wait on the chance that he might meet a new human and get some pets. He would love when visitors came over, welcoming each one like he hasn't seen them in years even if it had only been a few minutes.

As my relationship with Liz bloomed, so did my relationship with Luca. When Liz would go out, we had boys nights on the couch where we would alternate between him using me as a pillow and me using him as a pillow while watching some guilty pleasure streaming show. We had a morning routine where I would come down promptly at 8 am, he would see me, we would both jump in the air together celebrating that we were seeing each other, he would run off to show me where his food bowl was in case I forgot, and then he would gallop back to me for a hug before I fed him.

I’ll miss providing updates about him in this newsletter. I’ll miss our boys nights. I’ll miss his happy trots after a stranger did stop to say hello to him on our walks. I’ll miss our morning routines. But, most of all, I’ll miss my friend.

As a final note of this stream of consciousness drum solo, I had posted this weekend that Liz’s younger sister needs brain surgery and that anything that I made from the shop that day would be going to that fund. Yet again, and without question, the Arsenal community showed up and helped raise over $800 towards the fund. At this point I’m being repetitive due to my limit of the English language (unfortunately the only language I speak), but thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Love you all. Hope you are doing well. If things go the way we expect them to go this week, I’ll back to drawing this weekend.

See you then,

Jacob (aka poorly)