[Kodiak]

In the 2005, My wife and I lived in Colorado. I was suffering with a severe bout of depression and was in a very dark place. One Friday, my wife was going thru the classified section of the newspaper (a very old statement). Unknown to me, she was looking at ads for dogs to try and bring me to a better place. We answered an ad from a vet clinic across town about a dog that they had up for adoption. We hopped in our truck and made the trek across town. We walked in and told them we were the folks who called earlier. We sat in their waiting area as they went to get the little guy. They opened the door and a little dog came out. He walked up to my wife, sniffed her, walked up to me, sniffed me, then went back to the door not taking to either of us. We were ready to leave when the owner of the clinic said "Well, we do have another dog here. She was brought in a few weeks ago by someone who found her on the side of the road. We were closer to than the shelter and left her here. We canvassed the neighborhood, put up flyers, but had no response. We are going to keep her. But since you guys drove across town..... eh I'll go get her." Wifey and I sat back down, not too enthused with that statement. The owner opened the door to the back, and out ran a 5 month old little golden retriever, border collie, aussie shepherd mix.This pup was all brown fur and looked like a bear cub. She looked up, saw me, ran full bore , and hopped up into my lap. She licked my nose, hopped off, ran to Wifey, licked her nose, and ran back to me. I melted right there. the owner chuckled and said " Well, you guys have a dog." That was our first day together. The day i met the dog that saved my life. My job was to train our pup. She was already partially housebroken, so that was easy. The first day as she was tugging on her leash trying to go everywhere, I picked her up, looked her in the eye and told her "As long as you listen to me, you wont have to wear the leash." I put her down and removed the leash. She ran around and explored. I whistled for her and she ran over to me. This continued every time we went outside. I whistled, called her, or used one of the hand signals we had, and she was right there by me. In the future, the leash was only used when it was 100% needed. Going on a walk in our neighborhood, going to the frisbee golf course/park, it was never needed. Kodi understood. I talked to her as I would to any human.Bounced ideas off of her. She was basically my psychiatrist. I lived right across the street from my work. Wifey and Kodi would come pick me up after work on our 5pm walk. Kodi would tear around the warehouse looking for me and saying hi to all my coworkers. My boss kept treats in his office for her. He would make her do all the stupid human tricks for him.She was a beautiful girl. And knew it. Everywhere we went, the park, the bank, hardware store, people wanted to meet her She wasn't service dog, but was practically allowed as one. She was almost human. We met a lot of new friends. Kodi and I were outside playing. A new dog came running up on me. My back was turned. Kodi jumped and tackled this new 55 pound black lab mix. Not mean, just to protect me. That's the day I met my best friend and his pup Camden. Kodi sure had a way of bringing things together. The years went by. Kodi experienced everything with us. From highs like our wedding, our bringing home her little brother, our min-pin mix Jamey. And she was with us through our bad times also. She was always there to lick away our tears and be our furry jester. In April, Wifey, Kodi, Jamey and I embarked on our journey to Florida. I had the opportunity to come down to The Villages and work with my father again. Since our clients are basically all in TV, we set out to find a place to live. We had a hard time finding a place to rent. No one wanted Kodi's 65 pound fuzzy butt living in their rental. Finally, we found some one to rent to the four of us (thanks Larry!!!!) A few months went by and we bought our house. After years of condo living, Kodi had her yard! The one thing Wifey and I made good on our promise to Kodi about her own yard. She sniffed everything and loved to lay in her grass. Kodi was home. Through the renovation of our house, we noticed that Kodi was aging. Her arthritis was getting more noticable. She was going deaf. She also got more social and loving in our home. This last Sunday, Wifey and I went to breakfast. We walked into our house after eating and went to get the pups outside. Jamey was laying on our bed and hopped up to greet us. Kodi got up out of our shower (one of her favorite places along with the bathtub).Kodi took three steps towards us, lean If you take anything from this, please let it be that no matter what you might think, your furry child and even you, leave a huge impact in people's lives. People you would never think of. Complete strangers . ed up against the wall and collapsed. Wifey and I rushed to help. We rushed her to the vet, but nothing could be done. Our fuzzy girl had died in our arms. The dog that had saved my life, was gone. The most awesome dog in the world, at the end of her life, did the most selfless thing. She let nature take her instead of forcing us to make a decision later and us having any guilt associated it gnaw at us. 72 hours ago we lost her. Kodi was awesome. If you met her, you loved her. In the last few days we have received an outpouring of support from family,friends and even former friends. We'll get through this. We'll get used to a new routine. Jamey will quit looking for her in the yard. Time will heal this wound. Sadly the one time we need Kodi to lick our tears and be our furry jester, she can't. Her absence is the reason for those tears. If you read Kodi's tale, I thank you. If you take anything from this, please let it be that no matter what you might think, your furry child and even you, leave a huge impact in people's lives. People you would never think of. Complete strangers . Be the person your pet thinks you are. Keep your tails wagging. RIP my sweet fuzzybutt Kodiak Q. Puppydog 1-23-05/ 1-22-17

[ColdNoMore]

WOW!

Thanks for sharing.

[HimandMe]

Thank you so much for sharing this. I've felt this way about my pets, cats and dogs. They have personailties, they love and we love them back. They are family.

[Christopher schneider]

We said goodby to our incredible Aussie little girl 3 weeks ago of 16 years. She was our child and did take care of us. God bless you for sharing your story.
Thanks so much your in our prayers.

[LMZ1963]

So sorry for your loss.

What a wonderful dog you had to share your life with.... what blessed memories.

[Bonnevie]

they do leave holes in one's hearts.....but what a wonderful life you gave your dog.

[JoelJohnson]

Story too long to read. I'll wait for the movie.

[Taltarzac725]

I have found the love of a dog is the best therapy.

So sorry for your loss. The best thing IMHO is to go look for another canine psychiatrist so to speak as quickly as your heart will let you.

[doran]

Thanks for sharing--time to adopt a new dog--there are so many available!
Love the story--what would we do without our dogs?