This story is told by the father of the family.
In September of 2003 our son adopted "Spot" from the Lexington Humane Society. He just couldn't resist. Spot was completely deaf, and our son just automatically fell in love. In the spring of 2004 we enrolled Spot into obedience school at Dogs Day Inc. Our son, with the help of the entire staff, trained Spot in sign language. I know this may not seem very amazing; however our son was only 7 years old at the time. We thought it was pretty remarkable. Since then Spot had become a staple in our lives. Though he could not hear he just always seemed to know when you wanted to communicate with him. He became one of the kids. Everything had been going great. No problems whatsoever. Until that fateful day.
On September 30th, 2007, we noticed someone in our back yard when we pulled into the driveway after coming home from helping my wife's family paint their house. I quickly ran to the fence but found no one there. I then heard a noise on the other side of the house. It sounded like something hopping the fence. I ran to the other side but was not quick enough to see who or what it was. We really didn't think much about it figuring it was just an animal. That was until the next day.
My wife calls me the next day at work. She says "Honey, come home. There is something wrong with Spot". When I arrived, the kids were crying. Spot was convulsing violently. My son had tried to calm him down, but could not. He said, "I try to make him feel better by hugging him but nothing helped!" I rushed Spot to the vet. After running some tests the vet said there was nothing he could do. He proceeded to tell us that Spot, would not recover. We then did the only thing we could and had the vet put him to sleep. The vet told that Spot's death was a result of poisoning. That hit the entire family very hard. He said Spot probably had ingested poison with either an opiate (speed, meth, cocaine, etc.) or cyanide.
The reason for this foundation is to honor the memory of Spot. You see, on that day he died he became a hero. He prevented my kids from playing with something in the back yard that might harm them. He also saved "Ginger and Oscar" the dachshunds from two doors down. They were rushed to the vet the next day after they began to show signs of poisoning. The owner said he probably would have not bothered except for the fact that he knew what had happened to Spot. He acted quickly enough to save them. Several days and over $4,000 later they were able to come home.
Thank you for your interest and support in Spot's story,
Travis, Amanda, the kids, and most of all SPOT!