Ty came to the shelter scared and alone. He wouldn't let anyone come near him. He would sit and cower in the back corner of his cage anytime someone tried to pet him. Somehow I knew this poor little dog had not gotten much love in his life, if any. I knew that if he couldn't handle being around people that he wouldn't be adopted. I sat on the floor in front of his cage and opened the door. I lay my hand on the bottom of the cage, a few inches from him. After a while he came to sniff my hand and, when he decided it was safe, let me pet him on the head. He didn't growl or nip when i tried to pick him up so I placed him in my lap and just sat with him. As I patted him he rasied himself and put his front paws on my chest and just stood there looking into my face. I held him until we closed for the night. The next day I came back and went straight to his cage. His tail wagged when he saw me. Again I sat and opened the door to the cage. This time he very slowly crawled out into my lap. I gushed over him, told him he was a good boy. He kissed me. I took him out for a walk that day. He wasnt used to the leash and stopped often, but he would always jump up and start again whenever i bent down to pet him. Over the next few days he got better on the leash and would even run ahead, pulling me along behind. He still feared other people and would bark when people came near his cage, but he never growled or bit. Whenever I took him out he would lavish kisses on me until I thought I would drown from the slobber but I lvoed every bit of it and encouraged him. Two weeks after he came to us I came in one day to find his cage empty. I asked the other workers if he had been adopted, no one knew. The computer said he was still at the shelter but I couldn't find him. He had come down with kennel cough. Since it can spread to the other dogs he couldn't stay in the shelter. And since there are so many animals coming through our shelter during the year we can't afford medicine for every dog and cat. He had been euthanized just before i had come in that day. I was heartbroken. I went home a half hour early because I couldn't let anyon see how upset I was. I cried the whole way home and for most of that night. When I got home I called our shelter photographer, who would remember the dog and how attached I was to him. We talked about him and about how we would have paid for the medicine if only we had known. What she told me hit me hard and was the only reason why I went back the next day. She said "The love you gave that dog was probably the only love he's had in his whole life. You gave him a friend. That's a special gift. I'm sure he loved you back and was grateful." He resides here at Rainbows Bridge now. He deserves to be remembered.