To put it mildly, Ashes was a darling.
Ashes was approximately 1 year old when she was donated to us after the passing of Dottie. Ashes was a very playful and intelligent animal and even maintained her desire for play in her latter years.
She would actually smile sometimes. The side of her mouth would draw up, slightly lower her head and wag from head to toe as she walked toward you. What a way to be greeted coming to work.
Ashes was very well behaved around children and had a great deal of tolerance even when in large groups of children at the local schools.
Ashes was a tremendous asset to fire prevention programs. With voice or hand commands she would perform "Stop, Drop and Roll" on stage. We do not think kids who saw her do it will ever forget the message. To put a time frame and level of impact on her fire prevention value, in her last days we realized the first 1st graders she ever showed this to were now graduated from high school.
