RIP to our dog, Paddy
Everyone, it’s with a heavy heart that I report to you some sad news: our little dog Patrick, aka “Paddy”, passed away several days ago. I tweeted about it right away, but I wanted to let a little time pass before reflecting on what we’ll miss without him in our lives.
Paddy and I go way, way back – he had nearly reached the proud age of 17 years old at his passing. It’s hard to describe how important this little man was to my everyday life. When I first met my would-be wife, Courtney, back in 2001, Patrick was THE MAN IN HER LIFE – an attentive, loyal, incredibly clever and devoted Jack Russell if ever there was one. When we both finally stopped snarling and competing for Courtney’s attention and accepted each other some months later, I knew the relationship with Courtney had a real chance. Quite soon, my friendship with Paddy grew, and deepened.
When I started the BigDog blog many years ago, my second post ever introduced Paddy and our other dog Contessa, who has since passed away too. When I first established my Twitter feed, I had Paddy as my profile badge for a good long while. I travel quite a bit for work, and having Paddy there to welcome me home from the road was as much a part of that comforting ritual as the all-important hug from Courtney.
It may sound funny, but Paddy epitomized a lot of qualities I admire too. Like many terriers and other smaller dogs, Paddy was fearless, scrappy, and resourceful. He could be single-minded in pursuit of a toy or animal he’d locked in on. Every larger dog who ever visited or shared his home soon learned to give Paddy a wide and respectful berth – he knew how to stand his ground despite his tiny size. He was unfailingly smart (but also quite cute in those rare times when his smarts revealed his essential dogginess). And he was damn loyal and just good. When I look around at the family, friends and colleagues I love most, and at the business we’ve built at TradeKing, I find lots of those same qualities reflected in all of them. Paddy was all those virtues in concentrated form, and we’ll sorely miss him at my house, and at TradeKing’s Fort Lauderdale office, where he was a frequent visitor and virtual mascot for the team.
There were many times over the past several years where Courtney, my “farm-girl” wife (a true animal whisperer nicknamed “Ellie Mae” by some), had to remind me that Patrick was in fact not human, and could not be thinking the thoughts I attributed to him. She also reminded me often that, “Jack Russells rarely die of old age,” and “he’s certainly clever, but not so wise.”
Indeed, he was a gifted athlete, well-trained by Courtney and truly game for anything. “Athlete” is the only word I can think of that fits, and he was pound-for-pound the very best I have ever observed. Like all great athletes, he was part performer, too. He appeared on America’s Funniest Videos after our friends recorded video of him “surfing” on our raft and diving to the bottom of our pool for his toys. He made Greg Louganis look clumsy, and Michael Phelps sluggish, by comparison. If you ever spent an afternoon trying to throw a ball past him, you’d have sworn he could sub for Derek Jeter. He was also an accomplished hunter and killer of rodents and the occasional ill-mannered and out-matched squirrel. There was, truly, no limit to what he could learn and do, it seemed.
Prescient as always, Courtney was right about Paddy not dying of old age. She had always warned me that as smart as I thought he was – he would never be able to resist the temptation to cross traffic in pursuit of a squirrel, or to adjust his tunnel-vision when consumed with some other passion. I like to think in the end, he was his own man, who went on his own terms.
Life will always find a way to teach you balance. The night I signed the papers, up in Washington, D.C., to seal the deal for our impending merger with Zecco, Courtney came home from a visit with some friends to find that Paddy had gone out his dog door one last time, taken a plunge in his beloved pool, and never made it out. She found him, sadly, floating, but looking peaceful. Rougher on us than him, but maybe not as rough as that drive to the Vet we had been preparing each other for as we watched his faculties rapidly declining with age lately. I like to think his last act of love was sparing us that ride, and the inevitably tough conversations leading up to it. For that I thank him.
Rest in peace, buddy!
Be good,
Don Montanaro
TradeKing Bigdog, Chairman and CEO
www.tradeking.com
Follow Don on Twitter, hone your skills at TradeKing All-Stars. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.
Online trading has inherent risk due to system response and access times that may vary due to market conditions, system performance, and other factors. An investor should understand these and additional risks before trading.
(c) 2012 TradeKing Group, Inc. Securities through TradeKing, LLC. All rights reserved. Member FINRA and SIPC.
Paddy and I go way, way back – he had nearly reached the proud age of 17 years old at his passing. It’s hard to describe how important this little man was to my everyday life. When I first met my would-be wife, Courtney, back in 2001, Patrick was THE MAN IN HER LIFE – an attentive, loyal, incredibly clever and devoted Jack Russell if ever there was one. When we both finally stopped snarling and competing for Courtney’s attention and accepted each other some months later, I knew the relationship with Courtney had a real chance. Quite soon, my friendship with Paddy grew, and deepened.
When I started the BigDog blog many years ago, my second post ever introduced Paddy and our other dog Contessa, who has since passed away too. When I first established my Twitter feed, I had Paddy as my profile badge for a good long while. I travel quite a bit for work, and having Paddy there to welcome me home from the road was as much a part of that comforting ritual as the all-important hug from Courtney.
It may sound funny, but Paddy epitomized a lot of qualities I admire too. Like many terriers and other smaller dogs, Paddy was fearless, scrappy, and resourceful. He could be single-minded in pursuit of a toy or animal he’d locked in on. Every larger dog who ever visited or shared his home soon learned to give Paddy a wide and respectful berth – he knew how to stand his ground despite his tiny size. He was unfailingly smart (but also quite cute in those rare times when his smarts revealed his essential dogginess). And he was damn loyal and just good. When I look around at the family, friends and colleagues I love most, and at the business we’ve built at TradeKing, I find lots of those same qualities reflected in all of them. Paddy was all those virtues in concentrated form, and we’ll sorely miss him at my house, and at TradeKing’s Fort Lauderdale office, where he was a frequent visitor and virtual mascot for the team.
There were many times over the past several years where Courtney, my “farm-girl” wife (a true animal whisperer nicknamed “Ellie Mae” by some), had to remind me that Patrick was in fact not human, and could not be thinking the thoughts I attributed to him. She also reminded me often that, “Jack Russells rarely die of old age,” and “he’s certainly clever, but not so wise.”
Indeed, he was a gifted athlete, well-trained by Courtney and truly game for anything. “Athlete” is the only word I can think of that fits, and he was pound-for-pound the very best I have ever observed. Like all great athletes, he was part performer, too. He appeared on America’s Funniest Videos after our friends recorded video of him “surfing” on our raft and diving to the bottom of our pool for his toys. He made Greg Louganis look clumsy, and Michael Phelps sluggish, by comparison. If you ever spent an afternoon trying to throw a ball past him, you’d have sworn he could sub for Derek Jeter. He was also an accomplished hunter and killer of rodents and the occasional ill-mannered and out-matched squirrel. There was, truly, no limit to what he could learn and do, it seemed.
Prescient as always, Courtney was right about Paddy not dying of old age. She had always warned me that as smart as I thought he was – he would never be able to resist the temptation to cross traffic in pursuit of a squirrel, or to adjust his tunnel-vision when consumed with some other passion. I like to think in the end, he was his own man, who went on his own terms.
Life will always find a way to teach you balance. The night I signed the papers, up in Washington, D.C., to seal the deal for our impending merger with Zecco, Courtney came home from a visit with some friends to find that Paddy had gone out his dog door one last time, taken a plunge in his beloved pool, and never made it out. She found him, sadly, floating, but looking peaceful. Rougher on us than him, but maybe not as rough as that drive to the Vet we had been preparing each other for as we watched his faculties rapidly declining with age lately. I like to think his last act of love was sparing us that ride, and the inevitably tough conversations leading up to it. For that I thank him.
Rest in peace, buddy!
Be good,
Don Montanaro
TradeKing Bigdog, Chairman and CEO
www.tradeking.com
Follow Don on Twitter, hone your skills at TradeKing All-Stars. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.
Online trading has inherent risk due to system response and access times that may vary due to market conditions, system performance, and other factors. An investor should understand these and additional risks before trading.
(c) 2012 TradeKing Group, Inc. Securities through TradeKing, LLC. All rights reserved. Member FINRA and SIPC.
Comments
Follow commentsBillionaire posted June 07, 2012 (03:53PM)
snowman posted June 07, 2012 (09:23PM)
bigdog posted June 11, 2012 (12:15AM)
snowman - thanks for your thoughts also. I am trying to think of a novel that Paddy reminds me of - maybe The Sun Also Rises, which I have read more than once, and so it meets your definition. Plus, Patrick shared a certain "war wound" with Jake Barnes. ;)
Don
Oracole posted June 11, 2012 (02:09PM)
The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man's. - Mark Twain
goldensax22 posted July 31, 2012 (10:37AM)
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