Thankful for help from compassionate neighbors

To the editor:

I would like to say a thank you to my neighbors who stopped to help us the morning of Jan. 10, but I am not sure of their names. This is why:

The morning of Jan. 10 at about 7:15 a.m., my daughter went out to catch the bus and a friend had the front door open. Our beloved Eurasier dog Brodie of eight short years ran out the open front door. While my young daughter watched, our beautiful Brodie ran right into the school bus and died within minutes.

Brodie was a large dog and had run a few houses up the road. We all got to him and he had already passed away. The emotion and devastation of the realization there was nothing we could do to help him or bring him back was tremendous.

Within seconds, there were two SUVs pulled in front and along side of us to help. One neighbor called her husband to see if he could help us to get our Brodie out of the street and back home and called her work to let them know she would be late to her job to help a neighbor who just lost a dog.

Her husband came right out and tried to start his truck, but it would not, so he headed back to his house and came back with a large sled. It was very dark and did not see which house he had gone to as I was crying terribly with my Brodie.

Another neighbor stopped to assist in any way she could. A minute later, my daughter realized our other little doggie, Abby, was missing from the house. She never goes out the front door and we couldn’t find her anywhere and thought she had also been hit and thrown and were frantically looking for our little white dog in the snow.

Then another neighbor came outside having seen the commotion in front of her house to see if we were all looking for a little doggie. We found out our Abby had ran out to Brodie when she heard him scream and then ran to the house he was hit in front of and began scratching on their door to get him help. They were not aware of the accident in front of their house and took our little Abby inside to keep her safe and called the phone on her tag. But my phone was at home and I did not get the message.

While the gal, her husband and my friend worked to get Brodie home, the other lady who stopped walked up the driveway with me to get our Abby. The homeowner told us how she found Abby frantically scratching at her door and had called the number. We told her of the accident in front of her house and she shared a caring hug and said she was so sorry for our loss.

Then the second lady who had stopped and walked with me to get Abby had offered to drive me home. It has been a rough few weeks since Brodie passed away, our home is so empty without him. He was truly a one of a kind.

We so appreciate the wonderful individuals who stopped to help and offer their time when they all had places to be, and I hope to let them know that. I would also like to thank Passages Pet Cremation and Grief Center in Palmer for their wonderful care they took with our special family member.

Dottie and Denali Coughlin

Wasilla