The Life and Times of Kylo Ren Medina - Chapter 1

Before Kylo (BK)

Our dear pup Kylo passed away on November 20, 2021. He had congenital renal failure so he had a very short but very happy life. This is his story.

My partner and I had been talking about getting a dog for a long time, like maybe two years. But it never felt like the right time to get a dog - we were always busy with work or whatever but then Covid hit. Jose was furloughed from one job and he was working from home for his other job so he was home basically 24/7 which sucked for him but we decided would be great for a puppy. So then we started searching for our dog. We knew we wanted a medium sized, squishy faced, healthy, chill dog. We found that pugs tended to have a lot of health problems and boxers were a little too big for what we wanted so we landed on what seemed like a good mix of those two - a Boston Terrier. We had found that Bosties were the right size, generally pretty chill dogs, and they are generally pretty healthy for squishy faced dogs.

When we decided on a breed then we searched out Boston Terriers in our area that were available right away. We found someone in Kansas City who had a “special little guy” still available from a recent litter, also known as the runt. We would have to wait for him for about 4 weeks but he was ours if we wanted him. We talked it over and decided that this little one was our little one.

But really, how could we say no to that face? From that moment on, he was our little spoiled puppy. While he was chillin’ with his mom and brothers and sisters, we got to work. We signed him up to get a monthly box of toys and treats, we got him a new bed, food, and toys to play with right away. We got our apartment ready - we cleaned and put away clutter that we didn’t want a dog to eat. We told everyone we knew that we were getting a puppy, we asked for name suggestions and got some pretty great ones but we decided to go with Kylo Ren because Jose is a big Star Wars nerd and Kylo sounds like a dog name anyway.

Our wait was over, the 4 weeks had passed and so we got in touch with our person and they let us know that Kylo needed some extra time with his mama. wah wah wah. So it was a let down but we decided we could wait another week for the cutest little dog ever.

The following week we made the journey to Kansas City. It was about a 3 hour drive so we decided to make a trip out of it. We were planning on driving there the night before, finding a hotel room, and then doing some KC touristing that morning before we picked up Kylo around lunch time. But our plan was thwarted by a tire blowout on the highway. We were about 45 minutes to an hour from home, and we had a tire blow out while driving 70 mph on a 2 lanes on each side divided highway. If almost anything had been different we probably would’ve been dead or seriously injured. There happened to be no other cars around us, no side rails, barriers, or signs but just a grass ditch on the right side of the road which is the direction our car went when the tire blew out. So when the tire went out, Jose was driving and he reacted so quickly and I yelled for him to get us back up onto the road so that we wouldn’t get stuck in that muddy/grassy ditch and he did it perfectly. We stopped on the shoulder of the highway and assessed where we were. It just so happened that we were staring at an exit for a tiny side of the road town that had a hotel, tire shop, gas station, and restaurant in the same parking lot. So we drove on the side of the highway super slow with a blown out tire until we reached the tire shop parking lot. They were closed already for the night so we left the car there and walked over to the hotel. We talked to the receptionist and told her what happened and she was super helpful and transferred our hotel reservation from the hotel in KC to her hotel. We got some dinner from whatever the restaurant was (I think we were still in shock because I don’t remember what it was) and we went to bed.

The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn or at least whatever time the tire place opened and I went and dealt with the car guys. I told them what happened and they got us in first thing. We got a brand new tire but the car was still driving kinda crazy so we stopped and went to a carwash so we could get all the mud out of our tires and from under the car. But even the car wash didn’t get everything so we got some plastic forks and spoons and dug out all the dirt from the tires. It finally sounded better but Jose was still traumatized from the accident. So we decided to get a rental car for the trip across the state.

We went online and reserved a car. Then we drove to the wrong Enterprise. Then we drove to the correct Enterprise and got the rental. It was a nice car but I barely remember it because I was just happy that we were on our way to go see our Kylo and bring him home with us.

So we were finally on the road again. I was in contact with Kylo’s human the whole time so that she would know that we might be a little late but we ended up being pretty much right on time to pick up Kylo. We had a little trouble finding the place just because it was in the middle of nowhere and there weren’t many street signs. But we found the house. It was a confusing layout because there was a barn area, a caged area for their monkey to play outside, and then the regular house. We ending up parking kind of far from the front door so we walked through the yard and up to the front door and then we knocked. They were ready for us and we walked in. The house was really nice on the inside from what I remember. Minus the monkey cage that is. We were looking around for Kylo but we didn’t see him right away because he was hiding behind his person’s foot.