Leo

My last Bernese Mountain dog, Deefer, died quickly and unexpectedly, only 7 years old. My heart was broken and I knew I had to have a different kind of dog.

I started searching some rescue organizations, and found the wonderful Helping Paws Okanagan run by Lesley Chapman. She rescues dogs from Texas, through Helping Paws in Chamber County. There was this lovely boy called Cowboy Cole in the pound who was just one week from euthanasia before they had scooped him out of there to a foster family. The pounds in Texas are so full that at time the dogs got 6 months before they were put down – and Cowboy Cole had just one week to go.

He had been found on the streets, weighing only 40 something pounds and almost green and hairless because he had mange. 6 months later, he had put on 10 pounds and was getting all his hair back – a couple of patches never came back and look suspiciously like burns.

We decided Cowboy Cole needed to come to us, and that he needed a new name – Leo!

In December he came to us, driven by Homeward Bound Transport through a massive snow storm that delayed the transport for over 20 hours. We picked him up in Blaine, Washington, at midnight, and he spent his first night with Mad and I in a hotel in Vancouver. Next day, he made his way home to Kelowna.