My new dog Cookie, and Cadence, sharing a joke. As many of you know, I lost my previous dog Boxxie last November. I spent every day for months, looking for her. One of the things I did was to go to the animal shelter every other day to see if Boxxie was there. I found Cookie there, hiding from people in the back of her kennel, unlike the other dogs which all came to the front when ever someone passed by, begging to be rescued. Each day for a week, I would go into the cage and spend some time with Cookie. She was six months old then and had obviously been badly abused, but under the fear I could see a very sweet girl. With her fear of people I knew she would not be adopted, and she was at the limit of her time before being put down. My heart went out to her, but I resisted the urge to take her. I felt that doing so would be tantamount to giving up on Boxxie. One day, after checking for Boxxie and visiting with Cookie (who was un-named at that point), I stopped at a Chinese Restaurant for lunch. I was feeling very low; the long search for Boxxie was wearing on me. When I looked at the fortune in my cookie after lunch, it said something unlike any of the soothing platitudes usually found there. Three words; “Get over it”. In my state of mind, this was like an unexpected slap in the face. But after some thought, I left to get my new dog, and I knew what her name was before I got out the door. Now that I’ve moved to Tennessee, I still look for Boxxie through my contacts in Kentucky. But the months of helping Cookie overcome her fears was just the medicine I needed, and I was rewarded for my efforts with a very sweet and loyal friend.