Kari is Gone – A Piece of Me is Gone Too

[This story is a tribute written by my son, Michael, to our dog, Karina who died when she was 15 and Michael was 18. They grew up together. They were inseparable. I couldn't say it better...I hope it's ok using his words.]

Kari is Gone – A Piece of Me is Gone Too

This is something I definitely never would have thought about doing or ever thought I was going to end up doing... But it is sad to say that my strong, intelligent, and beautiful girl had passed away around 4 PM yesterday at the age of 15.

I am sorry for this essay I am about to write but I feel that I have to write it in order to somewhat honor Kari and let everyone that knew and loved Kari know, that she is gone.

Karina Lutes’ story is tough but full of courage, bravery, strength, love, and forgiveness. Kari was born in California, USA and was abused up until she was about 6 months old by a previous family. She ran away multiple times from those people because she was so terrified every day and was mistreated.

The county that we lived in California, rescued Kari and banned those people that tortured Kari from ever getting a dog again within parts of the state. The rescuers brought Kari into a German Shepard dog shelter and that is when my parents walked in looking for the perfect dog to fit a family with a 3-year-old son.

My parents were looking at a different Shepard but believed he was too crazy to have at home with a little kid running around. Then, they laid their eyes on Kari and my mom’s eyes melted and immediately became drawn to Kari and she became ours after several hours of paperwork since she was abused so bad.

What everyone noticed right away, was her floppy left ear and why is it the way it was? Her previous owners hit her so bad that it became broken and required a $3000 surgery to fix her ear – which we couldn’t afford. So, we tried to fix her ear without the surgery, and it obviously didn’t work. But even though it didn’t work, I loved her floppy ear because it was her trademark. That ear represented her life because even though it was broken and hard to fix, it could still stand tall. Kari had always been a fighter and always protected the ones she loved.

She moved with us from California to Missouri, Dubai, and then even back to Missouri which gave her so much stress from the times she had to stay in kennels and fly, and I believe those times led her to believe we abandoned her. But every time she saw us, it was like she was a brand-new puppy again and we promised her to never make her travel again. So, I think she forgave us because we let her drink toilet water for the first time when we came back to Wentzville, and I have never seen her more excited than that. But we have always wanted the best for her, and I believe she knew that.

Over the last few years, we have seen Kari slowly deteriorate. Her back legs became weak, her fur grayer every day, no more chasing rabbits, hard to stand up and sit down, and she was sleeping all the time. The last week she had collapsed several times and was not able to walk throughout a course of a whole day, she was not eating, and she looked like she was in constant pain. She has always fought and battled through any sort of pain, but she finally cried for help on the early morning of her last day and we knew it was time.

In her final minutes, we were looking into each other’s eyes, and I was petting her floppy ear and beautiful strong face which represented her life, her strength, her great intelligence, her spunky attitude, her silly faces, and her love towards everyone that made her feel safe.

I grew up with Kari and I will never be able to forget my best friend that I grew up with and made my life so special. I will always miss Kari and her impact on my life could never be replaced.

Karina (Kari) Lutes

05/30/2004 ~ 06/19/2019