Vincey's Story

On March 20, 2007 I adopted a five week old chocolate lab (so I decided her birthday was Groundhog Day, February 2.)  I'm not sure how anyone looked at these pictures on petfinder and decided NOT to adopt her!  Cutest puppy ever:

 

 

I'm a Longhorn alum, and our BCS National Championship win over USC was still a pleasantly recent memory so I decided to name her after our quarterback.  But being a girl dog, I couldn't name her Vince Young - THAT would be a silly name!  So I went with Vinceabella Young.  I fully intended to call her Bella for short but V.Y. or Little V.Y. always came out of my mouth instead.  (So we're clear, that's pronounced Vee-Why, as in the initials, NOT Vie.) 
 
It wasn't until I met Sarah that the name Vincey was added to the mix, and at that point VY was two and a half years old.  Why the name Vincey didn't occur to me in the first place is beyond me.  (Other possibilities that I DID consider?  Vincearina, Vincea, and Vincetta.  Yep, seriously.)  As if this wasn't potentially confusing enough for her, our sweet doggie eventually also answered to Vinceabells, Vinceypants, and of course just Pants.  I also recently found out my dad started calling her Vinchenza, even though we are German and not Italian, though I suppose that is prettier than Vinctrich.  (She developed quite the vocabulary, and not just for all her names.  On the one hand, she was obviously smart, but on the other hand her head was filled with so many of her own names it's a bit surprising she ever learned any other words.)

 

You'll notice all of the above is in the past tense.  We thought we were battling allergies in the summer of 2013, but it turned out she had developed a malignant nasal tumor that had spread to her brain.  On October 15, 2013, about a month after her diagnosis, it was evident she was in pain, too much pain to continue. 

 

Our house is empty without her but our lives are that much fuller in just six and a half years.

 

This is Vincey's story.

 

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