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Solomon/by Indigo Glover
CODY IS MY HERO/by Deb Joslin
Cody helped me save the life of another dog yesterday morning.
We were walking on our morning trail when he ran over to the swale and started pacing back and forth. I just figured there was some kind of wildlife critter under all the brush and called him off. He came to me reluctantly and Cody, Karly and I continued our walk. At the end of the trail, we turned around and headed back toward the car. As soon as we got to the same exact spot on the trail, Cody returned to the top of the swale and started whining.
Not sure what to think, I headed over to the spot to take a look. There amongst the brush was a dog lying in the ditch. I could see the dog was breathing and climbed down to take a closer look. Cody and Karly cautiously followed me, and when we got closer they started to sniff the dog when she picked up her head and looked at us with the saddest of expressions. I slowly put my hand near her muzzle so she could sniff me and she licked my hand. I noticed she had a tag on her collar, but upon closer examination realized that the phone number had been worn off. I tried to get her to stand up by taking Cody's leash from around my neck and hooking her up. She was very weak and looked very skinny and bony. I half pulled and picked up her back end to get her out of the ditch, ending up carrying her up the small embankment.
Once she was on the trail and standing, albeit very shakily, I pondered my options of who to call. There was a man approaching on the trail and I asked him if he knew who the dog might belong to. He said that a family who lived 5 houses down on the other side of the swale had a dog that looked similar. So I had to half carry, pull the dog down and up the other side of the swale with Cody and Karly right behind me. I was hoping my dogs wouldn't take off to explore this new neighborhood we were walking through, and gladly they stayed right at my side. I did end up putting Karly on the leash, but kept Cody's leash on the stray dog. The people in the 5th house on the left did not own a dog and had no idea who she belonged to. I saw a man taking his garbage down to the curb a few houses away and asked him if he knew or recognized the dog. He said that folks a few more houses down had a dog that looked like that. It took a while to walk further down the street as this girl was lame and very uneasy on her feet. I rang the doorbell and another dog ran to the door barking.
I was very discouraged as I figured this was also not this dogs' home. When the man came to the door he looked shocked and yelled to his Wife. She came running outside and collapsed to her knees, crying and hugging the old dog. She told me they just arrived back in town the night before to find out that their son let the dog outside a few days ago, and forgot to let her back inside. She couldn't believe I found her dog and returned her home. She cried some more, as did I, and we hugged each other. I told her, if it was not for Cody's insistence, I never would have found her dog. I really don't believe she would have survived another night as we had a cold front coming in and it was going to get down into the 40's over night.
Since I couldn't get this old girl out of my mind, the three of us went to check in on her this morning. The owner was so happy I came, as she told me for months the family had been struggling with the decision to have their dog (Autumn is her name) put to sleep. She has been suffering with arthritis, could barely see and had no bladder control. She barely ate or drank. When they would pick her up she would lose her bowel and relieve herself all over the house. Lorraine (the owners name) said it was a miracle we brought her dog back so she didn't die alone in the cold or gotten hit by a car, and that this was a sign that Autumn was ready to leave this World. The family is at peace with the decision now and later this morning Autumn will cross over in comfort and warmth.
Here's a photo of is my 14 year old Hero, Cody, and 15 year old Autumn. 
Rest in peace old girl!
