Three letters you ask? Why yes because the three letters that mean love to me are D-O-G! I have always loved animals and growing up on a farm made that part of my being. We raised Champion Arabians horses and also had chickens, cats and lots of dogs, a Newfoundland, German Shepard, Bloody Hound, Labs, Old English Sheepdog and more. I owe a lot of my upbringing to these animals as they taught me compassion, patience and understanding. It wasn't until I moved to NJ and got my first dog that was mine and only mine did I really under unconditional love. Her name is Dakota and I met her at the mall near my home. She was this beautiful brindle boxer puppy and I had never felt a connection so big as when we took her into the cubicle to see her and she licked my leg. That was it, she chose me.
She was MY first dog, MY first boxer and from there on out boxers became my favorite breed. A few months after I brought her home, I quit my corporate job in NYC and was now an entrepreneur starting my own Marketing and PR firm. Always in the back of my mind I thought, I would love to open a dog store and call it the Dakota Dog Company. Several years went by and I didn't start it. Then when Kota was 6 1/2 she contracted Thrombocyclopenia (an auto immune disease where her immune system kills off her white blood cells). We got her over the first attack but 3 weeks later she had a terrible infection in her back lymph node that she couldn't fight because we were suppressing her immune system. She went septic and was in critical care for 8 days, every day was a challenge, I had never seen an animal so sick. She fought for 4 days until the doctors were able to grow the bacteria culture and saw that the antibiotics they were giving her were not working. So she fought all by herself to live. for those four long days. They gave her a different antibiotic and it worked! She would have one more relapse, that counted as the third time I almost lost her. It was then that Kota taught me one of my biggest lessons, don't put off what you can do today because tomorrow is not guaranteed. The Dakota Dog Company was born.
My beloved Dakota has taught me patience, unconditional love, ambition and to live for each day. My other girls Montana and Sedona continue to echo these things and give me a reason to wake up every day. My girls are my everything, my best friends and I love them more than I can describe.
D-O-G is a three letter word, L-O-V-E is a three letter word.