Reunion photo with Mowgli after running away and being lost for a few days.

He was a rescue dog. Easily an 80 lb dog. He had a big ol’ bulldog head and the body of a shetland pony. He was about 6 months old when Cole and Samantha first saw him in a PetSmart in Athens, Ga. Already a beast of a dog. No one in their right mind would pick this dog.

He was a brindle, a reddish tan with black highlights. Standing 3 foot high. He looked like he could be ferocious. He looked like a gangster’s dog.

Cole and Samatha browsed though PetSmart, then came back to this Tyrannosaurus Rex of a dog, and laughed as they watched him trying to destroy the kennel he was in.

They asked if they could take him out for a walk and the PetSmart employees responded with a sense of relief,

“YES!!!, PLEASE take him for a walk”.

So that very day they got their first lesson, you didn't take this dog for a walk. He took YOU for a walk. This dog was strong as a horse and it was all you could do to hang on. There was no other choice.

Afterwards, Cole and Samantha went back home to think about it. Then decided the next day it was a match, and after the weekend they would pull the trigger.

However, come Monday he was gone. The PetSmart employees didn’t know where he was now. But after a few days of online google searches, Samantha found him at a local dog shelter.

So that day in June, 2017, Cole brought home his new “puppy”.

Cole named him “Mowgli”, after the Disney movie Jungle Book boy.

Cole is my Adventurer. He loves an adventure. The next 8 years would be just that, an adventure. Cole and Samantha and Mowgli. Later they added a cat named Khan (Shere Khan).

They wouldn’t have it any other way.

Mowgli was there with Cole during one of the most important phases of his life. Together Cole, Mowgli and Samantha went from recent college graduates, to getting engaged and married, to moving from Athens to Columbus. Starting Medical School, buying a home. Several job changes, Working from home. Then moving to Denver to start the next phase of life.

Along the way, Mowgli chewed though a sheetrock wall, infamously destroyed my mom’s golf cart vinyl and foam rubber seat. He got lost SEVERAL times, long enough that at least twice we thought he was gone for good. He had NO sense of direction. He had to have dog ACL surgery and rehab. There goes the covid stimulus money.

He was a handful.

But he was much more than a wrecking ball of a dog.

Mowgli, like Cole was an enthusiastic arms wide open lover of people and life. He had an infectious goofy grin and would wag his whole body when he met you. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. He wanted to be petted, he wanted to go have fun. Mowgli loved an adventure and he wanted to snuggle. He could be a bad dog, but he was a good boy.

For Cole and Samantha, it was a match made in heaven.

Three weeks ago now, Cole called to tell me that Mowgli was diagnosed with dog Lymphoma. He could barely speak. The prognosis was dire. He had …. no THEY had weeks maybe months left at best. There was no cure.

21 days later our beloved Mowgli was gone. There is never a good day to say goodby to a loved one. There is never a good way to go. That is the ebb and flow of life.

There is no doubt that Cole and Samantha rescued Mowgli. Also, there is no doubt that Mowgli, rescued them right back.

Cole said in one of his last moments with Mowgli, he told him that HE (Mowgli) had taught him a lot. That because of Mowgli, he was a better husband and would one day be a better dad.

One of my favorite movies is Lonesome Dove. The main characters in this epic western are, Augustus McCrea and Woodrow F. Call. Together they spend a life of adventure as Texas rangers. In the end as Augustus lays in a bed near death, he wakes up one last time and addresses his life long friend Woodrow.

“By God Woodrow, It’s Been Quite a Party Ain’t It.”

— Augustus McCrae

It’s all Woodrow can do to quietly whisper his reply.

“Yes sir”

— Woodrow F. Call

It’s Been Quite a Party.