It was with heavy hearts and many tears that we finally had to say good bye to our long-time companion Kodi on December 17, 2017. Kodi was a dog that faced numerous challenges in his life but was always courageous and always came through with a big smile and bright sparkling eyes. We adopted him at about 6 weeks of age from a rescue facility in Lacombe and we knew he was going to be a handful when he howled the whole way home. The rescue facility thought he might be a lab/shepherd cross, but as he grew, he didn’t act (or look) like any lab we ever had. We looked up “red/brown coat with long floppy ears” and found the spitting image of him in a picture of a Rhodesian Ridgeback pup. He started out being a timid pup but that soon changed. He quickly learned to be an expert attention seeker, and not always in a good way! He loved attention and didn’t care if it was because he did something good or did something bad – he’d take his scolding’s with his ears and tail down and then smile his big mischievous grin and go find some other trouble to get into! Always curious to see how things opened it never took him long to figure out how to do it, even without fingers at his disposal. He was an extremely bright dog and an amazing escape artist! There was no enclosure that he couldn’t eventually escape from (if you could get him in). Fate was not kind to Kodi and he required several surgeries on his back legs when he was still a young dog. By the age of 5 we had to limit his running to restricted fetching and short runs. Being such a bright dog we devised games for him, like searching for treats. He loved to play that and when he heard the word “Search” he would hurry to the back door and wait for us to hide treats around the house and yard. We enjoyed watching him, nose to the ground, locating every treat. Although an extremely devoted and loyal breed he was a large dog that was extremely protective. We had to watch him carefully around people until he determined if they were friend or foe. The last few years of his life he became more accepting of strangers and became friendly and sociable enough to leave him off the leash and greet guests upon arrival. He was always friendly with other dogs, both big and small, as family gathering sometimes meant as many dogs as people. We will always remember him and hope to see him again someday in heaven chasing balls with Stoney and Nevado, our other precious four-legged companions. Forever in our hearts and minds, Love, Your adoptive parents.