On X/Twitter, I follow a number of what I call my “animal accounts”, which post about dogs, cats, and other pets and farm animals. Being a cat person, my readers will know of the many beautiful and active kitties that I follow and post about here. But I follow an account of a woman who is a farmer with her husband, and the adventures of a cow they acquired, who had been mistreated and who they are restoring to good health. I have also been following a man who lived in Utah, and had two Jack Russell terriers.

The Doggy Daddy actually described the two very active dogs as his kids. He would feed them the same food that he ate, keep them in tip-top shape, and post videos and still photos of their antics every day, sometimes multiple times in a day. He lives in southern Utah, and would often post beautiful photos of the surrounding snow-capped mountains. Doggy Daddy was an industrial engineer for a packaging company, and would sometimes post photos of the machines that he was responsible for.

Doggy Daddy had an uncomfortable past, and would sometimes do a post about how he came to be the way he is. One time, he did a long post about how, over two years ago, his wife left him unexpectedly (with no notice, while he was at work), stripping their house of anything that was movable, including their dog and their bank accounts. It was a huge shock, and he never really got over it. I think that horrid experience caused him to look on most women with a jaundiced eye, and never quite trusting any one. He gradually put his life back together, got a new puppy, Woody, re-furnished the (very lovely) house, and carried on with his Twitter account. I only joined in November of 2022, but I remember following his account quote early, just for the fun videos of Woody running circles around their outside deck.

In 2024, he bred Woody with a female Jack Russell terrier owned by another person, and when the puppies were born in June, he got the pick of the litter. Thus, Maddy the little girl puppy, joined their family. If Woody was fun to watch before, Woody and Maddy were a total circus! Those two dogs had such fun, chasing each other around the house, sleeping on Dad’s bed, and fighting over the many toys they had. I thoroughly enjoyed all their antics. Dad was also a meme-maker, and did lots of fun ones.

So early this week, it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen a Doggy Daddy post in a few days, when he always posted a few times a day. So I went to his page to see all his posts, and discovered that his last post had been “five days” ago. This worried me, once I found the post. In it, he said that he had been having stomach pains, and that he was going to see his doctor. In all the hundreds of comments on that post, it became apparent that that was his last post ever, and that he had passed away. I didn’t scroll down any further, because I was so shocked. This guy was everything to those two doggies, and he had left them so abruptly. He seemingly didn’t have time to say goodbye.

I did read enough of the comments to see that someone said that his wife would be taking the dogs, but that wasn’t a very comforting thought, knowing how she had left him in the first place. He had many thousands of followers and friends on X/Twitter, and everyone was shocked and saddened by his untimely death. I feel like I have lost a friend, even though we had never spoken except in the comments on his Twitter posts. I think all of his followers feel the same way.

I hope this is a fitting tribute to Woody and Maddy’s Dad, who showered love and affection on them for every day of their lives. He didn’t deserve to have his life cut short, and he gave those dogs and his followers hours of fun, and many beautiful photos and videos. Rest in Peace, Woody’s Dad. You will be missed, and fondly remembered by thousands of loyal followers.