Piper Mladonicky

On a December Tuesday night we said
our final goodbye to Piper, the sweet energetic dog I adopted 11 years ago. Dan and I married in 2009 and quickly moved to separate states, he to Minnesota and me to Colorado. A few months later on a rainy day, I picked Piper up from the shelter in Fort Collins
and her muddy paws dirtied up the white seats of our brand new Outback. I remember seeing her excited face panting in the rearview mirror and feeling a mixture of excitement, fear, but no regret. I also suspected Dan wouldn't be as excited as me - the detail
not immediately disclosed to him was that she had been adopted and returned 3 times before, came with adoption warnings a few pages long, and had once escaped the shelter by scaling a 7 ft fence. Somehow, I knew she would be the perfectly imperfect dog for
us. Piper was with me throughout vet school, during our distant early marriage years, and she helped us welcome Brewer (another Balck Lab) and two boys into our family. I lost count of the number of screens and windows I had to replace because she jumped through
chasing squirrels, raccoons, delivery trucks, and who knows what else. For most of her life she was the fastest dog at the dog park, had incredible ball skills, and could swim for hours. After a rocky break in period, she and Brewer became fast friends. The
Outback now has 100,000 miles on it - almost all of them spent with her in the trunk on our way to a new adventure. I am incredibly grateful she shared her life with us and incredibly sad it couldn't have been longer. I am grateful for the animal control officer
who found her in the streets of Cheyenne, Black Dog Animal Rescue and Animal House who knew she would be an amazing dog. She certainly was. Thank you to everyone who shared a piece of your life with her (and me). Piper was such a spirit, full of chaos and love,
and will always be a part of our family.

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