Mr. Winkle

THE STORY OF MR. WINKLE’S PASSING

Endless thanks for the outpouring of love and touching comments in response to our last FB post. A special thanks to those who purchased Mr. Winkle’s “Prayers for the Planet” calendar on mrwinkle.com to help support the most urgent cause of our age. I truly hope his healing spirit can live on through his nature pictures and do a wee bit of good.

I finally had the strength to read and respond to the many comments, which moved me to tears. I also realized Mr. Winkle’s beloved fans were owed a more detailed account of his final years.

Mr. Winkle lived a remarkably long life (nearly two decades). His retirement years were truly golden, spent taking daily sniff-packed strolls on beautiful nature trails with three canine siblings who adored him, and being licked incessantly by his oldest sibling, Clark Cat, our incredibly affectionate butterscotch feline who loved him most of all. From his devoted humans he received sumptuous organic meals very day along with non-stop attention, incessant pets and every other form of love imaginable. He had a truly idyllic existence and clearly did not want to leave the earth.

Like so many little dogs with pom blood, he developed a congestive heart condition in as a senior, but with the standard meds he continued to thrive. The only thing he could no longer do was jump out of his little carrying case, something he had done with such adorable glee when we reached the head of the nature trails or the doggie parks. I had to gently lift him out.

What ultimately took him from us in the end was not the heart condition itself, but the side effect of the meds that, over the years, eventually compromised his kidneys. I'm not surprised his big beautiful heart never gave up. His palpable decline happened very suddenly over the course of a single day, and we did everything we could to make sure he did not suffer. Hours before he passed, he even chomped down a delicious gourmet meal and licked his paws clean.

This picture of us together in bed was taken just a few hours before he died, in his sleep, in my arms. Look at him smiling into the camera – still trying to please us all! He was cute and charming to the very, very end. How he loved the camera.
The next night I dreamt he leapt out of his carrying case into the air with unbounded joy like he used to do in his younger days. In my inconsolable, grief-stricken state, I could not help but feel Mr. Winkle signaling me that he was just fine, without pain and free.

In the next few days I organized a private ceremony for him in our back yard under majestic liquid amber tree whose golden leaves rained upon him and those in his inner circle: family, fur siblings and the wonderful humans who worked so lovingly for so many years on his photo shoots and website. It was unique, moving and beautiful, a celebration of his life and also an acknowledgment that great spirits are not always human and can come in all shapes and sizes. Close Buddhist friends in another state also held their own little ceremony. They had long considered Mr. Winkle a tiny bodhisattva whose purpose on earth was of the highest order: to relieve suffering and spread happiness.

For quite some time thereafter, I entered a period of intermittent and sometimes paralyzing depression, accompanied by a big dose of denial, all the while agonizing how and when to announce to the world he had left the earthly realm. Wanting to make the news bittersweet, I tirelessly searched for an heir to his Royal Cuteness throne, possibly a “Miss Winkle,” hoping to give fans something to be excited about to offset the sad news of his passing. When he was young I had even preserved his DNA for cloning, but ethical issues have thus far prevented me from taking that path. What I really wanted was to find another orphan doggie bursting with empathetic pathos like dear Mr. Winkle to carry on what he represented: the beauty, value potential and fragility of all the earths vulnerable creatures.

But I eventually realized there would never be another Mr. Winkle, and I did not want to force finding a replacement. Mr. Winkle and his story, how he came to be, was a one-in-a-billion miracle. I have not yet given up my search for a Winkle 2.0, but for now I concluded that using the many as yet unpublished photos from his Nature Series in future calendars to inspire environmental action and appreciation made more sense for now.

I will always be proud beyond measure that Mr. Winkle was the first viral four-legged Internet star, and grateful beyond words to those of you who were a part of it all - well before pet celebrities became so common in the social media age. Mr. Winkle news came not from FB and Instagram, but from his good old-fashioned website whose updates like new photo diaries and book-signing and charity events were announced in email blasts to his fan base How quaint!
Speaking of which, this post will also be emailed to fans, in what will be his last email blast.

And as a memorial and to introduce Mr. Winkle to a whole new generation, I FINALLY just started an official MR. WINKLE INSTAGRAM PAGE.

So please follow!
https://www.instagram.com/therealmrwinkle/?hl=en

If you still plan to buy a 2020 calendar, please keep in mind three times as much can be donated to Friends of the Earth if purchased directly from mrwinkle.com. Again, we are very grateful to those of you who have already done so.

http://www.mrwinkle.com/mrwinkle/calendar22020.htm

Warmest wags, woofs and wishes throughout the holidays and the new decade!

Lara Jo Regan

Happy Earth Day to all living things on our precious miraculous planet!