Nola
Beautiful and resilient, Court Case Dog (CCD) / Ambassador Dog / awesome companion dog and family member Nola was really special. She came to Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC) petrified and with ten other dogs on a hot day in August 2014. Our CCD team named her Capri. All the dogs had bite scars, some so fresh from a fight that Capri required staples and stitches to close her wounds. She had to be carried from her kennel to participate in manners and socialization classes. What joy to watch her confidence grow with our volunteers and with other dogs in our off-leash playgroups. She even participated in the VALOR program while at CACC.
When @StephenXGazaway and his significant other, Rochelle, met Capri, they said they knew she was the one. Transferred to @Friends of Chicago Animal Care and Control, they fostered her and soon adopted her, renaming her Nola. It was a match meant to be.
We met Stephen (now a Safe Humane Board member) through our working partnership with the K.L.E.O. Center on the south side. We later completed several Lifetime Bonds programming sessions there, which led to our relationships with many young people in that community and the Animal Welfare League on Wabash. In her recent years, Nola became an official Ambassador Dog and met the Explorers of My Block My Hood My City. And perhaps she’ll always be remembered as the dog in the Diamonds dog studio last fall who mesmerized our host, Jeanne Sparrow.
Nola enjoyed a great life, running around her yard with her doggy brothers and snuggling with her parents. Cancer took her this week. She is sorely missed, we know; but please know that her legacy is a significant part of Safe Humane Chicago. Thank you, Stephen and Rochelle. What a life you gave her!
Said Stephen, "She blessed this house with an abundance of love and happiness. She was my little girl and she knew it. ... Tears fall, hearts ache and a void exists, but the joy you gave to us and many more lives on. … Forever loved, you will remain my sweet baby. Thank you for choosing us to be your forever home."