Hi CCHS,

My dog, Madame Ko (AKA the Coco) passed last week, and I wanted to thank you for the incredible companion for the past 7 years.  I adopted the Coco from you in December of 2003.  She was probably 4 years old at the time, a pure bred German Shorthaired Pointer, maybe a little Viszla in her.  I was in college at the time, but wanted a hiking partner, and this little hunter was perfect.  She was top of her class in every obedience class, flushed birds like a pro, and everyone who knew her fell in love with her.

After college, the Coco and I started traveling together.  For months we camped across the US towards the west.  The car/tent was our home, and the Coco was in heaven.  We ended up living in Fort Collins, CO for a couple years, spending afternoons mountain biking, weekends camping.  She was a welcome guest at the New Belgium Brewery tasting room, which is one of the pictures I sent.  

We moved to the Ozarks after that, where she spent dawn to dusk roaming the woods and swimming in the lake, totally free.  She learned to canoe with me, and we would fish together for hours everyday.  The Coco never needed a leash, I always said that she would have 9 simultaneous heart attacks if she ever lost me.  We were in love.

After that, we moved to Boston.  Big change.  She learned to walk on a leash and stalk pigeons.  I started nannying for a family with a 2-year old baby and the Coco would come with me.  When I put the baby to bed, she would stay upstairs and sleep under the crib until the parents came home.  She loved her pack, even though it was always changing.  

After that, we road tripped again for a while, and ended up back in Colorado, this time up in the mountains in a very small town of 450 at 9318 ft in elevation.  We both got altitude sick for the first few days.  Although the town has a leash law, the Coco was quickly accepted as one of the dogs that were allowed to roam town without a leash/chaperone.  Everyone loved her, and she would make her daily rounds to the coffee shop, the bakery, our friends houses, and her boyfriends house (he was a very nice looking pit mix and they were in love).  She went on week-long backpacking trips with me in the mountains and in the desert.  Even as she started getting older, in the woods she was always 2 years old again.  

She died of what we think may have been a heart attack.  It was very unexpected, but very quick.  She was the happiest dog in the world up to the very end.  We had a wonderful 7 years together, and I want to thank you once again for saving this beautiful dog so that we could find each other.  

With love,
Katy Rende