"I'm a big, brown dog. I'm a big, brown dog. I love kids and ice cream!"

That was the theme song my brother and I wrote for Koko several years ago. If you had heard us sing it, and knew Koko, it would make perfect sense to you.

Koko was an incredible dog, and an inspiration. I adopted this gentle giant at the age of 3 years. She was a 70 lb bundle of retriever energy. I knew she had medical problems at the time of adopting her, but it didn't matter. Her charisma and love for life kept her soooo alive.

Shortly after adopting Koko, she was diagnosed with an intrahepatic, portosystemic liver shunt. This basically meant she had no filter for her blood. She was put on a special diet and medication for it. A surgical attempt at fixing the shunt was made at CSU, but was unsuccessful. The veterinarian who performed the surgery described her liver as a ball of rubber.

Around a year later, Koko wasn't feeling well. A radiograph of her abdomen was taken to look at her liver. We happened to catch the apex of her heart on radiograph, and knew something wasn't right. A chest radiograph revealed what we feared...an enlarged heart. Later an echocardiogram confirmed a diagnosis of dilated cardiomyapathy. Koko was about 4 years old, and given approximately another year to live.

She would show us...

At the age of 10 years Koko was still loving life. Even though her health had been a roller coaster ride for years, many people never even knew she was sick. She loved everyone. I had to hold Koko back by her collar, or put her outside when company came over so that in her excitement to see an old friend, or meet a new one, she didn't knock them over.

Koko especially loved children. One time while at the park, Koko saw a group of children in the parking lot of the school and took off running. The kids were boarding a bus for summer camp, and Koko followed them onto the bus. I ran after her calling her name, but all she could focus on were the children. Luckily the bus driver just laughed. On several other occasions, Koko climbed over the fence in the backyard and took herself to the park. When I would show up to claim her, she would runt to me excitedly with her tail wagging and her tongue hanging out. I couldn't get mad at her for being such a social butterfly.

Koko also loved other animals. She loved "kissing her kitties". She also loved all of the foster kittens that would stay with us. She let them climb all over her and play with her tail. She even tolerated my terrier, Kizzy, who was constantly berating her. Out of the dozens of times Kizzy bit Koko, not once did Koko bite back.

Koko could teach a lot of us a lesson. With all of her health problems she was constantly being poked, prodded, x-rayed, etc...
She didn't let it bother her.
She always trusted me - even letting me draw blood from her by myself.
And she never let her health problems get her down.

There were many times that Koko got sick an I thought I was going to lose her,
but she always got better...until Feb. 17th, 2008.

Koko was my miracle dog. She defeated all odds and loved with no inhibitions. I will miss her terribly. She is an irreplaceable member of my family.