It is with great sorrow that I say goodbye to the Most Handsome Man in the  Universe, Franz Alonzo, who passed on Wednesday, 27 March 2024, at the esteemed age of 17 years.

Franz was alternatively known as Puppy San (from the Japanese Papasan, also from where John got his alternative name Papa San or Papa), Count Franski (to my Anna Karenina), Petit Loup-Garou, (Little Werewolf), El Poopo, Sweat Pea, Sapfoot, (his Indian Nation name), The Little King, His Royal Handsomeness and My Favorite Boy.

From Downey to Redondo Beach

In search of The Carpenters, Franz found himself at the Downey shelter in the Los Angeles area in 2008 where he was adopted on Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. He was estimated to be one year old at the time but many of his friends have since theorized he was actually a year or two older.

He came to live with us at our Redondo Beach house on Alvord Lane and we had many fun adventures there, including a wedding, a honeymoon trip up the coast of California and Oregon, chasing possums, racoons and the daily digging up of my flowers (which Papa San covered up every afternoon before I got home) in the big, green backyard Franz loved.

Click pics to enlarge the cuteness.

He was preceded into the afterlife by his bff and mentor, television star The Edgar Winter Dog. They had many playdates, as they did with their other L.A. friends Zella, Kizzy, Audrey Pickles and Petunia.

His grandmother, Donna McCray, was a big fan of his and liked to take family portraits.

Franz took many trips to Arizona both to the Grand Canyon and to La Posada in Winslow,

Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Abroad

Franz moved to New Mexico with his pack in 2010 where he went on many camping and archaeological trips throughout New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado and many cross-country trips through many states to California and to Pennsylvania and Ohio.

He was a cuddler who loved sleeping in.

He was a highly opinionated individual and usually won most of his arguments, his pack of humans going so far as find houses and yards he might like to live in. A picky epicurean, he was eating London Broil by the end. He was also serenaded by his humans his whole life with hundreds of reconfigured popular songs. His hobbies included humping his hedgehog, barking at balloons, solving pet-store dog puzzles and staring into your soul.

He relented to dress-up with his peoples.

 

It took us a long time to figure out we should be grooming him.

Early on he liked to catch an open door or gate at the Redondo Beach house. He was a runner, we like to say. We could usually catch him smelling flowers in a neighboring yard. One day I sat him down for a heart-to-heart and asked him to stay, that he would have a very good life with us if he didn’t get lost running away somewhere. Miraculously, this somehow worked and he stopped running (so much or so far, anyway). It is my hope that he never had any regrets about his decision.

He is survived by his pack humans, John and Mary, and his sister since 2012, Bianca Jean.

He changed our lives in so many ways and he was a phenomenal blessing.

 

Goodbye, my sweet prince.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His first Christmas
(Oh my gosh!)