Two for One

Tala and Lobo

Tri-City Tales Issue No. 44

John Coward of Cedar Hill has always had an affection for wolves, and for older dogs. So when he spotted 8-year-old Lobo at Tri-City Animal Shelter in March of 2024, he knew he had found the dog he was looking for. Lobo was a husky, but his coloring and features were most definitely lupine.

Lobo had arrived at the shelter as a stray months earlier, passed up again and again for adoption. He was friendly and animated, even while battling a case of heartworms. But when John came back to the shelter a couple of days later so his wife could meet Lobo, “He was an entirely different dog,” John recalled. “He was listless. He was shy. And I said, ‘Is something wrong?’ ”

The shelter staff said Lobo was probably missing his friend. “His friend?” John asked.

He was told that another husky had come in at the same time as Lobo, and that the two had bonded. So John asked to see Lobo’s friend. As soon as she came out, Lobo lit up. John watched them play for a few minutes. “Okay she comes, too,” he told the staff. “I could not imagine breaking up that kind of love.”

Because he was taking home two dogs, both of whom were being treated for heartworms, the shelter waived the adoption fees. But in truth, he said, “I would have paid whatever they wanted.” John and his wife named Lobo’s friend Tala, in the Lakota Sioux language, to also honor her wolflike features.

Since they became part of the Coward family, Tala and Lobo have rarely been apart. When one goes to the vet without the other, the one at home will whine until they are reunited. They take walks together, and sleep side by side. They are rarely more than a few feet away from one another.

Although John went to the shelter with the intention of only adopting one dog, he is happy he came home with two. He could not imagine Lobo living without Tala, Tala living without Lobo, or him living without them both.