These kids are the inspiration behind what we do.
The original FunkyPuppy:
Goofy
The first member of the FunkyFam and the original inspiration behind the name. We adopted Goofy from the Lawrence Humane Society in 1997. He had been there for months and had become a staff favorite; they were thrilled to see him find his forever home.
The Goof lived with us our last few years of college and we made it a point to only find housing that would allow us to keep him (which can be a serious challenge) as we moved to Kansas City, down to Tampa Bay, and then back to the KC area.
He was super smart and enjoyed being around people – except those in uniform. He also never became a very big fan of the human child who entered our lives while living in Florida. Sadly, we lost our buddy in August 2011 to cancer.
The 2022 Fur Kids:
Starbuck
The baby of the family at nearly 9, Starbuck came to us by way of Great Plains SPCA in 2014. Of all of the animals we have adopted over the years, she has been the most challenging. She was a stray brought in on a catch pole just weeks before, so she had some serious socialization issues. Bucky is extremely wary of new people, highly protective of her space, and experiences separation anxiety (though that has waned some over the years).
She also absolutely adores Cali and is just about the sweetest girl you’ll ever meet if she considers you one of her people.
Starbuck is almost too smart for her own good and is highly food motivated. She gets so excited at mealtimes that she does her “carousel” move – runs in circles with her head bobbing up and down, similar to a carousel horse.
She has experienced occasional seizures over the past few years. Unfortunately, in the fall of 2020, they became frequent enough that she is now taking Keppra twice per day. We were actually relieved that was the medication the vet recommended because it worked incredibly well at controlling Goofy’s seizures later in his life. Fingers crossed it does as well for our baby girl.
Cali
Cali is…obviously not a puppy. She is a much-loved member of the family, however, so it wouldn’t be right to exclude her. Plus she’s just so damn pretty.
Technically, Cali belongs to the human kid. Our vet generally has kittens available for adoption in their waiting area. In December of 2011, our kid saw this gorgeous calico kitten in the cage and immediately fell in love. We called back to let them know we planned to adopt her and, when the kid got home from school the next day, we told him he could open one of his Christmas presents early. After explaining to him just why we had given him a small collar with a heart-shaped tag on it, he was super excited to go pick her up.
Porkles – as she is affectionately known (the girl likes her food) – is turning 11 this year. A few years back, we discovered she has a congenital kidney disease. So we have to keep a close eye on her kidney values, which means lots of blood tests. The vet brought up the possibility of a kidney transplant, but in addition to the price tag ($30,000+), there was a requirement that we adopt the donor cat. We would have welcomed another kitty. Cali, on the other hand, well….she has made it very clear that she actually kind of likes dogs, but insists on being an only cat.
Since the beginning of June 2021, she has been on medicine to control her blood pressure. To maintain her quality of life as long as possible, we have to subject her to 100 cc of subQ fluids daily (it’s an ordeal for all of us). We also feed her a prescription kidney diet. Now that we’ve added wet food to the mix, she has trained us to obey when she demands to be fed. It’s both impressive and embarrassing.
Outstanding Underground 