Kody McDonald
(Dakota)
October 31, 1996 to September 21, 2007

Today was the last day I was able to see my sweet angel Kody’s face.  She was taken from this world way too young by cancer.  She was the sunshine of my every day, greeting me at the door with a sweet smile on her face and a boisterous wag of her tail.  She was as beautiful as she was sweet. She touched so many of our lives, with her sweet spirit and her beautiful nature. 

It all began the first year that I was living in Charlotte.  I came home to my parents’ house for Christmas and New Years’ and they had puppies (Rebel and Shadow’s).  There was a connection between us from the first time I saw her.  She was the next to the smallest puppy, all black except for a cute little white spot on her chin.  I kept the puppies in the house as much as possible during my visit.  And each time they were inside, she would play with me, stay very close to me, and eventually crawl up in my lap and fall asleep.  I always say that she picked me to be her Mommy, and oh how lucky I was that she picked me. 

She came back to Charlotte with me when I returned from my Christmas/New Years’ visit and began to wreak havoc.  She was a playful, adorable little puppy that looked just like a bear at that age.  She was a big fuzzball covered in fur and had to be the cutest thing you ever saw.  She loved to play with her wooden food bowl, handed down from Mom and Dad’s house.  She would push it all across the floor with her nose, throw it up in the air, catch it in her mouth and run around with it.   She loved to take a running jump onto the couch, then run and jump onto the recliner, then down on the ground to frantically scratch the floor and do it all over again.  It was adorable.  She wasn’t too fond of potty training at first.  I tried everything, including puppy pads to no avail.  According to Tommy, it was only his return from Bosnia and his training skills that turned her from a tinkling on the carpet puppy into the most well-trained dog we have ever encountered.  She could have been the poster dog for house-training! 

            There were other incidents, though, before Tommy returned-including the infamous “chewing through the TV cord”, pulling out of her leash during a walk at Heatherwood and laughing (I’m sure dogs can laugh now) all the while I frantically chased her around the open fields around the complex.  She scared me so much when she almost darted in front of a furniture truck coming through the parking lot.  She helped me find the four leaf clover that I sent to Tommy for good luck in Bosnia.  She contributed to the artistic world with her piece, “Dogs Howling”, so beautifully and precisely pulled from the walls of my first apartment in Charlotte.  She pulled the carpet back and chewed it to shreds and somehow we still got our deposit back!

            After Tommy and I were married, she and Wendy loved the new back yard at the house.  She helped Tommy mow the lawn by joyously pulling the grass out in big clumps, then running as fast as she could when we told her to stop and running back to repeat her fun when we weren’t watching.  She always defended me in play fights with Tommy, attacking him whenever he would playfully tickle me.  She later took up for Peyton and Cole in the same way.  But don’t let her fool you, the extent of her love for her Daddy was evident every time that she looked up at him with those big, beautiful, adoring eyes. 

          She never was one to sleep on the bed, but she loved to come up and get hugs and kisses and play time.  One of her favorite things was to bite your hand when you put it under the covers and moved it around.   But when it came to playing, she was the most gentle dog you ever encountered.  She always made sure her bite was as gentle as it could be when she played with you.  She was the best dog ever to have with babies and children.  She allowed tugging and stepping, pulling and falling on her, without so much as a growl.  She played lovingly with Peyton and became her companion early on.  They had a great time running around and Peyton loved to throw her toys for her.  But Peyton always had to run to the end of the hall or the foyer before she would throw it to her and Kody was very anxious to get the toy by the time it actually flew through the air.

          There are so many amazing things about Kody, but the main thing is that she was special.  She was special to me, she was special to Tommy, she was special to Peyton and she was special to Cole (who called her KoKo but said Kody correctly a few times lately).  She loved her Grandma and Grandpa and her visits with them.  She loved her family and knew who they were.  She enjoyed playing at her Uncle John, Auntie Shell and Jack’s house with Monty, Cody and Roxy.  And even if sometimes it took her a little while to warm up to her family at each visit, by the end of the visit, she was bringing toys to Tommy’s Dad for him to play with her or sniffing Tommy’s Mom in a loving way.

          Yesterday, Kody and I sat outside together in the grass on a beautiful early fall day.  The temperature was perfect and there was a breeze blowing through the trees.  Kody lifted her head up to the sky, enjoying the feel of the wind on her face.  I watched my beautiful girl with the love of a mother, fighting back the pain of knowing that this was one of the last times that I would be able to share something like this with her.                                                       
          This morning I woke up and Kody was laying beside my side of the bed on the floor.  She always wanted to be near me and Tommy and I loved that so much because I loved to be near her.  She was my protector and my baby at the same time.  Peyton woke up and laid down in the bed with us.  She said, “There are 5 of us in our family:  Daddy, Mommy, Me, Cole and Kody”.  A child’s wisdom is infinite.  Kody will always be a part of our family.  I will miss her every day, always remembering the way she had of hugging me  when I hugged her, gently leaning her head towards mine. 

          Kody touched so many lives and I am so grateful for the joy that she brought to me and my family.  She is now a part of my heart, and my heart is a part of hers.  My love will always be with her.  Today we said goodbye to her, but not forever.  That sweet day will come when I will see her beautiful smile and tail wagging again and feel the touch of her soft gentle fur on my face as I’m hugging her and showering her with kisses.  Until then, I will wait for the feel of a cool breeze on my face on an early fall day and I will think of my Kody.   

 

Shannon, Tommy, Peyton and Cole McDonald
September 21, 2007