Lori & I first met at her cousin's (Mike Short) wedding in 1997.   Five years later, I was in a motorcycle accident.  Since I wasn't working, due to injury, I visited SD frequently.  On December 31st, 2002, our lives changed forever.

On that night, Lori & I met again at a New Years Eve party, in the Franklin Hotel Deadwood, SD.  After partying the night away, we had our first date on Janurary 2nd-at Hart Ranch with Dan & Cheryl VanSickle (my sister and husband.)

It was that same day we realized the following story:

I had bought a Dalmation, in Burlington, CO, on Sept. 22nd, 1991.  He was my buddy named Niko.  When I went to pick up Lori at her house, I noticed that she had a Dalmation also.  Les, Lori's father, who was also there; started visiting about our dogs. They had bought "Stripe" in 1994 from someone in Cheyenne, WY.   Into our discussion, we discovered that our dog's had the same birthday.  Les pulled the birth certificate of Stripe, and this was our amazement..........

NIKO & STRIPE WERE BROTHER & SISTER FROM THE SAME LITTER!!!!!  We were going on our first date, our dogs were  kin, it was about that time that I started to believe in Fate.

Our beloved friends have sinced passed away, and now we cater to only one dog, Betty. I'm  so lucky to have two "girls".