Cooper

Dogs truly are a man's best friend. When John's dad left last summer, it devastated his family. Through months of separation battles and trying to file for divorce - everything started to become very overwhelming and cold.

Then one night on Halloween weekend, John's mom talked about the possibility of adopting a dog for John, since his oldest and best friend Andy had gone to dog heaven years before. We instantly knew it had to be a humane society dog and began looking on the Animal Humane Society website. We came across an adorable female black lab/pointer mix that we knew we had to check out. The female puppy had been placed on a hold, and that's when we met Cooper (formerly known as Juan). John's mom refused to let Cooper go while other families were checking out the same litter of black lab puppies, and asked us to hold him while she ran to the bathroom. Five minutes later, one of the customer service girls informed us that Cooper was on hold, and John, putting two and two together, soon realized it was his mom adopting the puppy for him.

I'll never forget the night we took him back to John's, not only because he was instantly a hit with all the family, but because it was the first time in half a year I had seen John not worry about everything that was going on around him. So although we technically saved Cooper, Cooper in turn saved John.

Cooper is now a huge, mischievous 8-month-old puppy weighing in at 70 pounds (don't worry, it's a healthy weight) and still growing! He just graduated from puppy kindergarten, which perfectly aligns with John's graduation from college this Friday! He loves training, running, and any squeaky toy he can get his hands on. He can be a handful at times, but he is definitely worth it. Cooper is pure warmth and happiness during such a difficult time. We are thankful for the person who put our original pick on hold so we could be blessed with such a wonderful puppy!

Reyanna S. and John E.

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