Kibou

In August, there was a stray dog in our neighborhood. A neighbor had already contacted Animal Control because he was "terrorizing" her cat.

He followed my husband into our apartment. We kept him in our back yard until Animal Control came. He was very cute and young. Our dog did not know what to think of him as he was trying to play with her. We tracked him down and found out he was brought to the shelter. We gave our number and said we were interested in adopting him should no one claim him.

Two weeks before our wedding in September, we unexpectedly had to put our beloved dog down. We were devastated. We received a phone call from the shelter about the stray dog being available. We said we weren't sure if we could handle a new dog after our devastating loss. We went on our honeymoon and decided we would see how we felt when we got back.

When we came home, we decided to call the shelter and see if he was still there. He was. We went to visit and decided to take him home. We couldn't stand the thought of him being in the shelter when we knew we could give him a loving home, though we missed our dog so much. We thought we needed time to grieve before adopting another dog. We took him home on October 13, 2009.

We were told he was an anxious dog. Boy, was he ever! He peed a lot! Little by little we saw him becoming more comfortable in his new home (after many sleepless nights). We walked him, played with him in the yard and took him for car rides. He was known to the shelter as a black retriever mix called Benton. We renamed him Kibou (Kee-boe), Japanese for Hope.

We CANNOT imagine life without him! He has brought us so much joy and laughter! He is such a loving and affectionate dog. He LOVES his toys and tries to put three toys in his mouth at once!

Thank you, MHHS!!!

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