Dash was an Okie with all the drive to survive inherent in that accolade.

In cold and gray November on the Great Plains, he would need that instinct not to perish. Oklahoma, where the wind literally comes sweeping down the plain, was a dangerous refuge for a dog to thrust out on his own. There were few sources of food for a scared standard schnauzer puppy, hungry and alone, in an empty Tulsa lot. It was Caroline Nolan of Schnauzer Rescue of Tulsa who initially captured him on the day after Thanksgiving 2004. Dash finally had human arms around him, and the Standard Schnauzer Club of America was desirous of placing him in a happy home. Thus, in that Brookside field began the history of Dash's conquest of fear and his journey to me in Baltimore. Little could Caroline know how much her persevering efforts that day would change two lives—Dash's and mine.

John William Klein