The Josh Innes Show - Celebrating The Life Of Luther

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

Today is the anniversary of the day we adopted Luther. It's his "gotcha day" if you will. Of course, Luther died earlier this year. But, I want to share a few Luther stories with you. Also, I'm a mental case and for whatever reason cannot allow myself to adopt another dog. Have other people dealt with this weird situation? I almost feel sort of guilty about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, Jamokes, what's going on? It's Josh, live from my bed in my underwear. It's the Josh Ennis Show podcast. Hello! On this Wednesday, Wednesday, December 11th, hello. Today is actually, I believe, the anniversary of the day we adopted Luther. That would be December 11th, 2012. We adopted Luther. And then, well, here's how it all came about, right? Because I'm now in the process of trying to look at dogs on like Pet Finder and stuff

and see if there's one that stands out, you know? So we saw Luther on Pet Finder and he looked like this little teddy bear almost. He was like a brindle color, you know? and a little tiny guy, and he had like a little fluffy head because they gave him what they call a teddy bear cut, right, so we saw him on there, and I'm like, that looks like a cute dog. I don't know why that face appealed to me. I don't know why Luther was appealing to me. I don't know if any of us know, like why we find people appealing, why we find dogs appealing, but me and Jilly were like, we we like this guy you know so uh i sent a message to the people and they were at a

a rescue and the rescue was called i believe it was called noah's ark animal sanctuary in houston it was like somewhere on the outskirts of houston and we're like well we'd like to meet uh this dog at the time his name was mater his name wasn't Luther. It was Mater, I guess, like a tomato. Mater was his name. And we said, well, to rewind, we were like, Mater's a dumb name, but we're going to call him Luther. And we had made this plan. We made a plan that we were going to call our dog Luther because of the show Coach. Anybody who's listened to me for any period of time knows

that he's named after the character Luther Van Damme, the defensive coordinator played by Jerry Van Dyke on Coach, which is the show that we love, which by the way, is now on Amazon Prime, I just discovered. So I can watch Coach commercial free all the time. And it's one of my favorite shows and it's so fucking good. But we decided, you know what, we're going to name our dog luther van damme so we would look around and every time we'd look at a picture we'd go you know hey is this a luther is this a luther we had no idea what kind of dog we wanted we didn't know really what size we knew we didn't want a huge dog but we didn't really know so we would just see dogs and then we were like well shit that guy's kind of cute you know he's got like a little fluffy head and he's got a cute color and he looks soft we knew that we wanted a dog that felt kind of like not so coarse and didn't shed you know

so we looked at this dog and said well that's a really pretty dog so I reached out and they're like listen we're gonna be out uh at the pet smart out like I'm talking like past NASA and way out there I don't know I'm trying to think of a good one I'm trying to I'm drawing a blank actually on what high was on 45 maybe it's out past NASA and all that out there you know I think I forgot exactly where the PetSmart or Petco we adopted Luther from was but anyway so we show up and we're like hey we're here to meet Mater we're here to meet Mater and they bring him out and he looks like a totally different dog like he had extremely long fur that made him almost look like a prissy type of show dog like the fur was covering his face it was covered like it like it was like long straight hair on his body that was almost down to the ground i'm like what the fuck dog is this but we took him for some walks and

we're like yeah we'll get him. But like, can you give him, you know, the haircut that he had in the picture? She's like, you want the teddy bear cut? I'm like, yes, give him the teddy bear cut. So we told them that we actually had somewhere we had to go. We want to adopt him, but we had a trip that we had to go on. That trip coincidentally was for Monday night football. I don't know if this is coincidentally or not it actually isn't coincidentally but that trip was for monday night football in

uh new england we were going to see the texans play the patriots on monday night football in new england i believe it was the letterman jacketet game. This was 2012, so I think it was the Letterman Jacket game. And they wore the Letterman Jackets on their way to New England, and we went to that game on a Monday night, and they lost pretty handily. Then we were able to get Luther. When we came back,

he had a haircut. Then we took him to one of these places to have him trained a little bit, you know, like leash and stuff like that, which we kind of regret. I mean, obviously he learned some shit, but we felt bad because we basically had him in this training facility during Christmas that year. Jilly really takes this kind of stuff seriously. Like she feels like Luther resented us to a degree because, you know, we put him in this boarding facility slash training facility for his first christmas with us i don't know that he resented us or not but when we got him

he was about uh i guess 10 months 10 months old and um you know he then he's gone with us everywhere and uh really just a wonderful dog uh Total had his own personality, kind of a jerk, but loved people, was never bad to people at all. There was not one human on the planet that Luther didn't like. As long as he's like snots, you scratch him on the belly, Clark, he'll love you to the day you die.

He loved people and hated other dogs. That's the story of Luther. And by hated other dogs, he never attacked a dog or anything and he could tolerate dogs hanging around him like strangely enough the little shit loved going to daycare he loved being around other dogs but every time we would talk to the people at the daycare right whether it's best little dog house and in uh houston which was a great daycare or nashville pet spa or well really philly didn't have any good daycares he had to go to like

Camp Bow Wow like the daycare situation in Philly kind of sucked but Nashville Pet Spa was great Best Little Dog House was great uh Sled and Breakfast here in St. Louis was great so Luther went to some really great daycares every one of them loved him to the point that like they were obsessed with him that they would like they they would tell us this like luther is our favorite every day now maybe they tell that to all their girls i don't know but when we would come in they'd say luther is our favorite they loved him so much in fact in nashville that's a great story so luther would have some arthritis sometimes and then would like in his like wrist and would sometimes limp around right so one day he's at daycare and they see him starting to limp

and now sometimes that was also some sort of issue he might have with his neck or something like he'd have a pinched something or another these girls called and they were distraught they were sobbing on the phone they're like oh my god we don't know what's wrong with luther but we didn't we hurt himself and you need to come get him he hurt himself so we had to rush to get him and then but and here's the total luther fucking move the ultimate luther move is we pick him up at daycare and he's limping we take him to an emergency vet this is on a saturday usually we would take him to daycare and he's limping. We take him to an emergency vet. This is on a Saturday. Usually we would take him to daycare on Saturdays.

We would go out and do shit and then come pick him up late in the afternoon. We take him to an emergency type of vet situation, right? The only vet that is open on Saturday in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. We bring him in. He's limping outside everything. We bring him into the vet.

And the second we bring him inside, he's spry. He's jumping around on everybody. He's limping outside everything. We bring him into the vet. And the second we bring him inside, he's spry. He's jumping around on everybody. He's giving kisses. And we're like, what the fuck is happening here? Like, he just knew. He just knows how to put on a show for people. He was a showman. That's what made him so wonderful.

Like, people loved this little bastard. Like, he had a spell over people. Like, so much so, so in fact that at one of his daycares at best little dog house which was in houston which was right down the road from our house in houston now they have a big brand new beautiful facility and in midtown i guess technically it might be montrose i got midtown montrose it's right there kind of on the border of it but wonderful place and they only taken dogs like under 30 pounds or whatever Luther had a girlfriend there and her name was Sheena a human girlfriend who was in love with Luther like like she would tell us this is my favorite dog

ever I just love him he is this amazing special dog and at one point we went to baton rouge for fourth of july maybe in 2019 i guess i didn't have a job at the time i think it was 2019 because i'd gotten fired i think i was getting severance still so we take him they call us and they say luther is just not doing good he's kind of huddled up he's kind of like he looks like he's got like you know I don't know he doesn't really want to walk around a lot and like Sheena his girlfriend was so sad she would not leave him now that's where we discovered the idea of using CBD for dogs they said hey can we try to give him CBD and see if it helps him and they did and it was like a miracle drug for him because like they said, he was kind of back to normal.

Sheena ended up moving. I think she moved to Cincinnati. This is an older, not an older woman, but like a lot of the people that were in love with Luther were little teeny bopper girls who had like summer jobs at the dog daycare. Like in Nashville, it was all like college age girls that were in love with him. Sheena was an adult woman, not an old woman by any means, but an adult woman. So she moved away. And every now and then we would still get messages in Luther's Instagram account from Sheena just checking on him. It felt so odd, but so awesome to have so many people that were just in love with this dog. And this dog hated other dogs, not to the point that he would attack them. As I said, he loved to go to daycare but they would tell us i go so what did luther do today oh he just did what he

always does he just sort of lorded over the the playground which means he would like lay on some elevated structure like he like on a play school play set or something or or like an elevated bed and he would just lay there and stare at the other dogs and make sure they didn't get out of line and then the real shocker is when i'd show up and i go what did luther do and they go he played today like what oh yeah he had a friend every now and then he'd have a friend that he really had an attachment to like in philly of all places he had a pit bull, a beautiful brown pit bull named Monty. And he was a neighbor dog, like a couple blocks up the street, a guy named Charlie, this nice older dude, right? Kind of an old good old boy, had a dog named Monty.

And they would meet up at Roxborough High School in Philadelphia, in Roxborough, where now subsequently you see like kids getting shot and shit but we would meet up at the football field there on the track and we would just let them off their leashes and they would run together and wrestle together like I've never seen Luther do that with anyone other than Monty and our buddy DJ Grooves his uh dog Mia that was like Luther did not have friends but if he liked you, he really liked you. And he was best friends with Mia, DJ Groove's dog who died a couple of years ago and Monty the pit bull at this random relationship. They were like best buds. Luther liked dogs bigger than him. It's like he liked to challenge for whatever reason. He loved a challenge. Let me play a couple commercials here for you, and we will continue on this Luther Gotcha Day

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would get right back up and go like just a tough fucking dog. Like amazingly, we never had to deal with like ACL injuries or like major injuries like that. I mean, yes, he had to have like seven teeth removed once. One time we went in to get his teeth cleaned. We get a call. We're going to have to remove a couple teeth. Okay. How many?

Eight. Like what the fuck? So, but again, it didn't stop him. So later in his life, he had like a couple teeth missing in but again it didn't stop him so later in his life he had like a couple teeth missing in the front did not stop him he like i i was inspired by this fucking dog like he just never quit he was a jerk hated other dogs loved people made you do a lot of random shit like like like we would have to hand feed this guy sometimes like we spoiled this guy to the point that like maybe we broke him or maybe he i think he broke us

like you know those little bumper stickers who rescued who bullshit this little motherfucker broke my ass like i'm sitting on the floor feeding him balls of food hand by hand but he was the best so um that would be today is the anniversary of the day that we adopted Luther back in 2012. And of course, Luther died back in July, like July 8th, July 9th, I guess, technically. July 9th. But we had to put him down. I mean, that was kind of the story there. He had something that was kind of filling up there is like, he had something that was like kind of filling up his, like his chest and his lungs. And according to the, to the, the vet specialist we went to, they're like, eventually he's

just going to drown. And I'm like, well, I'm not going to let him do that. Like I, we are going to go out nobly here and we're going to make him comfortable. And like, bro, it's amazing how fast that shit comes down, dude. Like, you know, like you're thinking okay he's sick and maybe something's not right but like i think he'll be okay right and you go from that to like he didn't look good when we picked him up from daycare on a saturday he didn't look good that whole night the next day he looks like shit at the house so we take him to the emergency vet and

they're they're looking at his x-rays and they don't think it looks all that great but they don't really let on um so they think he might have some sort of cancer but they don't have the proper equipment to really see it so they advise us to go to a specialist we're like okay we might do that the next day monday he looks even fucking worse and like he can't go for a walk like basically all he can do is lay down so we're like let's go to the specialist we go to the specialist he comes in and he's like yeah i think you guys need to start thinking about, you know, putting him down. They use big terms like euthanasia. And I'm like, shit.

And like, that's the first time I was truly sad over. Like, we're sitting there in this place and there's all these people around waiting to get their dogs x-rays. And I'm just sobbing like, God damn it. We got to do. And then Jilly's like, like we gotta go take him and put him down today like neither one of us wanted to run the risk of like having him laying around the house and then just like dying in an uncomfortable terrible way you know so we called that that's like yeah come in 4 30 whatever so jilly goes to the store and buy some steak so i can make my boy

a steak and i'm calling people because I'm just sad. I call my dad and I'm like, yeah, Luther, we got to put Luther down. Like I was devastated. And I don't cry a lot. Like I cry, you know, when I watch my music videos on Sunday nights, you know, and I'm really hammered. And I'm like, I don't call him daddy. I just watch that shit, you know. Humble and kind, I'm going to cry.

And that's when I do that. But I don't really cry in front of people, really. And I never really show emotion. I was just distraught. And I called my mom and granted my mom not too long before that lost her husband. So you feel kind of weird. Like you feel dumb and almost kind of like a jerk being sad about a dog. You know, like my mom just lost the husband she'd been married to for a decade plus and is living alone and I'm like mom my dog died and I'm just sobbing about this and she was very understanding about it you know which I appreciate it but I again like every time I get super sad about this I'm like I'm like remember Josh your mom lost her husband there are people that lose children so yes it sucks to lose a dog but try to keep it in perspective but man for the

first couple of weeks I was just in bad shape after that so you know we go we put him down we get his ashes and stuff and a couple days later and I'm like like I would just drive around and just be set now at the time I still had a job mind you so you want to talk about a really bad three or so weeks? So Luther dies July 9th. And I'm sad about it. I'm driving around just like everything makes me sad. I'm just like crying over everything. Every song that comes on the air, I'm just like crying. I'm calling people, you know.

Because I'm bad about that. I don't call people until I'm really sad about something. Then I'll call you, you know. I'm just not a big phone call person. I remember I would never really call mom or anybody until a girl broke up with me. And then I would be on the phone constantly and bothering them constantly. And I'm like, Josh, you're really just a bad son. But I would just be sad about it.

And I would drive to work. And then one day on the air, I started crying about it. And I spent nine minutes on this music radio station crying about my dog. And then, three weeks later, I get fired. I wonder if they knew they were gonna fire me when my dog was, maybe they were gonna fire me before then and they're like, we can't fire the guy like the day his dog died.

So let's give him another month before we fire him. But yeah, so I had a really shitty three weeks. Dog dies, get fired fired what a time it was but um luther was just a fucking amazing dog and that's and that's the thing like like i look at other dogs on online i'm like i'd like to get another dog i think i need to get another dog right but there's this part of me that's like i don't want another dog because there's no other dog like jilly no other dog. Like Jilly found this dog on pet finder that she thought was cute.

I didn't, I was like, I didn't want to tell her. I eventually had to, but I was like, I just don't, I think he's ugly. She's like,

he's got Luther qualities. I'm like, you shut your mouth. My dog was the most beautiful, handsome puppy ever. This dog is a, this dog, this mutt is not as beautiful as my Luther.

And it's just so weird. Cause like, I feel like feel like almost a guilt. Like I got a picture of my dog on the wall and he stares at me every night. And he's like, oh, you got yourself another dog, huh, dad? That's interesting. Very interesting, dad. You think you can replace me, huh? That's certainly something, dad.

Huh. Interesting. You're going to try to replace me with just some basic-ass dog, huh? Oh, is he going to make you feed him by hand? Oh, is he going to make you cross the street at a weird diagonal angle and hold up traffic like I do, Dad? Huh. Interesting, Dad. So I've been gone for only, what, three months?

Four months? Actually, five months, Dad? I've been dead for five months and you want to move on? Dad. Interesting, Dad. Very, very intriguing, dad? I've been dead for five months and you want to move on? Dad, interesting, dad. Very, very intriguing, dad. Very interesting. Like, I just, it's weird. And maybe you guys will listen to this and think I'm a lunatic, which is totally fine.

But I'm like, I feel like, and this is exactly how you feel when you break up with someone. You're like, I'm never going to be able to love somebody like this ever again i don't know but i'm still in that mental stage where like it sounds really cool to get a dog until it could happen and then i'm like what if i don't like this dog what if this dog isn't as chill as luther what if this dog doesn't like to go to the same parks that luther likes to go to what if this dog doesn't uh what if this dog is like kind of what if he doesn't like me like luther thought i go to what if this dog doesn't uh what if this dog is like kind of what if he doesn't like me like luther thought i was the biggest shit on the planet like i like he would sit in the window and wait for me to come home jilly would be in one room luther would be in

the window waiting for me to come home what if this dog doesn't like me what if this dog like really doesn't like me what if like he's like snappy at me and shit and then i'm stuck with i'm not gonna bring him back like a total asshole those are the things i think about a lot when i think about getting another dog you know there's part of me that wants a more energetic dog that'll go play fetch like luther like luther would chase some toys on occasion but he wasn't affected hated water like you know he wouldn't you know go get in a pool or anything like that unless you put him in there so like what if i found a dog that loved to do all that kind of wacky shit but what if I find a dog that sheds and I think shedding's gross what if this dog hates me what if he's a fucking mental case like these are all

the things I think about I mean I'm a mental case thinking about it that's what I worry about all the time and I'm sure some of you have dealt with this before like every time I talk about dogs and I think oh no one's gonna give a shit I start getting messages from people like when it happened on on the radio here texts were blowing up messages blowing up with people saying dude I feel like I feel fucking terrible for you because I've lived this and like there are people that were telling me that like like they still get sad and their dogs like I guess there's something to be said about like a particular dog like I think no matter how many dogs you get and this is the first dog that I actually had like we had dogs at my dad's house when I was in high school and stuff but I didn't really pay attention to those dogs and they were

big fat bulldogs and I just never really paid much attention to them because I was never there but this was like the first dog that was my dog and I think that everybody's got one of those like even though you get a new dog and you love the dog and the dog is great like I think everybody has a certain dog that you can't replace not necessarily the first dog you have but there's a certain dog that you just struggle to replace and I and well again i've only had one so this is the obvious answer but for me it's luther and i just and like i would get frustrated with him a lot he was a pain in the ass a lot and i mean like and maybe you know what's amazing we could go find a great dog that eats like luther was a pain in the ass to eat this dog might go chomp chomp and eat other

people's fucking food we don't know other dogs food like i don't know you know maybe this dog will be a perfectly behaved dog that does all the shit we need him to do and is obedient everything but there was something about the quirky asshole personality of luther that was special so like i i might sound like a lunatic right now i get that and i respect that you might listen to this and go this fucking guy is a mental case but I look at these other dogs and I'm just like, they're not my dog. They're not Luther. Now, of course, I got to give them a chance. But like this dog that Jilly was interested in, I'm just like, Jilly, she's like, he's got a human face like Luther. I'm like,

Luther had the most beautiful face. This dog does not have the most beautiful face. He looks like an asshole human. Luther looked like an amazing dog, but was an asshole, but he didn't look like it. He looked like a little perfect gentleman. So that's where I'm at right now. That's my mental state right now thinking about this. Like, yes, I'd like it. By the way, speaking of getting dogs, I know we've talked about this they call it adopting a dog how many of these places do you see that are like 450 for the adoption fee 500 for the adoption fee dude like I went I don't know how much we paid

for Luther maybe a hundred bucks and again if you go to like a full-on like pound or something like that they're a lot cheaper you know humane societies or you know like the county animal shelter they're a lot cheaper but like some of these places you'll see, oh my God, that's a gorgeous dog. $600. There's this place that has all these amazing looking schnauzers that are, you know, in their, um, facility is somewhere in Illinois. And I'm like, that's drivable. Every one of these little bastards is $700. And I'm like, I'm not going to spend $700 on an adoption. I'm saving a damn life. What happens when I spend $700 to adopt a damn dog and then can't feed the fucker because I'm broke?

I mean, like, it's a racket. They're like, well, you know, we had to get him snipped and then we had to do his vaccines. I'm like, yeah, I'm sure that doesn't cost $800. So that's where we are right now, though. So today, Luther's gotcha day back in 2012. Still, 12 years is a fucking great run. I mean, he was like almost 12 and a half years old, give or take.

So, I mean, the guy had a hell of a run. I think we have to start acknowledging how great the run was. And really, I thought he would live to be like 15 because he still got around great. Like he didn't show signs of being like an old man. Like he was still jumping up and down off of couches, jumping into the car. I mean, he was still killing it. You know, he just had this issue that no one really knew about.

And it really kind of, you know, I guess it's been something that kind of festered for a couple of years and then kind of finally came to a head, which was unfortunate because I really thought we'd have Luther until he was at least like 15. Another thing that was fascinating about when he died is just the reaction from people because I talked about him on the radio all the time everywhere I lived. And he had his little Instagram account with like 1500 followers or whatever. But he would just start getting messages. And people would send mail to the house. And they would send us nice presents.

And I'm like, shit, man, my dog was really impactful to a lot of people. They loved him, you know. So, again, I assume some of you will find that interesting. Because I think most of you, if you're dog people, are like, I've lived this or I'm going to live it or I get it. So, there you go. Luther got you today. Spectacular. 12 years ago, we adopted Luther and now might adopt another one.

But for whatever reason, I don't feel like any of them will ever be my boy.