Heartbroken DJ Takes His Terminally Ill Dog on a Bucket List Adventure Across America
Meet Poh. He’s a 15-year-old mixed-breed dog who has recently come back from the adventure of a lifetime, travelling with his best friend Thomas Neil Rodriguez, also known as DJ Neil Armstrong.
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The duo have been together since Rodriguez adopted Poh from an animal shelter in NYC when the dog was only eight weeks old.
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The coast to coast adventure was planned after veterinarians found two large inoperable tumors in Poh’s abdomen earlier this year.
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Poh was not expected to live for much longer.
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The heartbroken pet owner decided to make Poh’s last days count.
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So he created a bucket list of things they could do together on a cross-country escapade.
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The loving owner said, “I’m unsure of how long [Poh will live]. Doctors are unsure. My assumption is that I don’t have very long with him and that’s what prompted the trips.”
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With Poh in tow, Rodriguez and fiancee Yuko Ogino traveled 12,000 miles in seven weeks and visited 35 US cities, including places in North Carolina, Texas, Oregon, Arizona, Washington DC, California, and Nevada.
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They also went to Breaking Bad’s Walter White’s house in New Mexico, and The Goonies’ home in Oregon.
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Poh even got to take a dip in the Pacific Ocean.
“I have always wanted him to swim,” Rodriguez said.
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The Filipino-American disk jockey added: “He loved it, it was so healing for him. It was like he was five years younger.”
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When Poh became too ill to continue travelling, they were forced to return home.
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On Instagram, Rodriguez said that Poh had suffered from a bad seizure that caused him to “cry out in pain”.
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The loving dog owner is now trying to make their life in New York as comfortable and enjoyable as possible for Poh.
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Rodriguez’ job requires him to travel a lot, which made the trip easier to organize.
“I’m always traveling, but Poh is my home. I think this resonated with a lot of dog owners,” he said.
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He added that the trip “was a little bit for him, a little bit for me”.
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He said: “I got to spend seven weeks with Poh. At first, I did not think he’d make it two weeks, but he did. I am super blessed.”
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“People think I take care of Poh, but Poh takes care of me,” he added.
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Via Pulptastic
