We adopted Lady in February of 1997, the shelter said she was about a year old, as a companion for Duke, our nine month old black lab. She quickly determined that she should be the alpha dog, and Duke was fine with that. Lady loved to run and explore, and would take any and every opportunity to do so, and would return when she was ready. She loved looking for critters in the bushes, and never missed a lizard running across the sand. In the spring I would plant a garden in our yard. she loved to graze in the garden and eat the cherry tomatoes. As Lady aged she had a hard time getting around so I would pick some tomatoes for her. In what turned out to be her last summer, I cleared the tomato vines out of the garden around the end of August, because they weren’t very good. We lost Lady on September 13, 2012. I gave her some lovees, and told her to give Duke our love. A few days after her passing I went out to the garden to pick some chives, and there in the pot covered by the chives were three ripe cherry tomatoes, which I shared with Sox and Mr. Mattie. They were truly tomatoes from heaven.

— Michelle from Las Vegas, NV