In 2008, while expats living in Montreal, we adopted Cowboy. He was an energetic six month old that had been picked up on the highway by a passer-by that saw him tossed from a car.  Although it took some time for him to trust, and to travel in a car without constant barking, he found his way first into our home and forever into our hearts.  He moved and traveled with us from Canada to NC to CT.  He vacationed at lakes, oceans, parks, and mountains. We named him Kiely (KI-lee) shortly after his adoption, but Tenderfoot might have been a more suitable name.  He hated the water.  It was sometimes a battle to get him outside in wet, rainy weather because he didn’t like getting his feet wet.  He shook the wet off his feet like a cat!  He was smart.  He learned to get his needs met by barking at the right word.  He was simply an amazing and wonderful dog, and we are so very thankful that you, and all that circle your wagons out of compassion for all animals, for saving Kiely from the horrors of people at their worst.  I like to think we gave him a good life, full of adventure and safety and love just the same. Our hearts are broken with his passing, but just as we know the days and years ahead will be incomplete without him, we know the past would have been just as empty if he had not been with us for the time he was given to live. We wouldn’t change a thing even knowing this day would come.

~Maureen and Keith