He was picked up as a stray in Redwood City at the age of two months. I always wondered what those first weeks of his life were like — Pomeranians are small, so he must’ve had to work hard for whatever food and drink he could find — and whether or not there was a family somewhere who lost and mourned a wonderful dog.

We met him for the first time at a San Carlos Educational Foundation Spring Fling event where he was that year’s auction dog. I outbid a number of other people to get him because we wanted a dog who liked people and we figured if he could be that excited in a room full of hundreds of loud, tipsy humans he must really like people.

Which he did. But there was a more important part of his personality that we soon came to cherish: he was always up for a new adventure.

Not that he was foolhardy or aggressive. He was just really open to what life had to offer.

In fact, his personality inspired my programming website, https://jumpforjoysoftware.com/. Because if you don’t jump into life you’ll never know what wonderful experiences you may have missed. Thanx for serving as a constant reminder of that, Diego.

We may never have been able to talk to each other but I know you cared for your friends and family as they cared for you. Requiem en pace, my friend.