Donny Heron who took such wonderful care of Missy for many months until her adoption and last week took our much loved Jelly into his very kind heart and home, suddenly died of a heart attack on monday. Donny loved dogs and Donny took that love he had for dogs and fostered for many years for LAPS (Langley Animal Protection Society) and last year also began fostering for SAINTS. He has over the years fostered MANY homeless large and mixed breed dogs and lovingly cared for them until they found homes. He took a chance on the ones that no one else would take home and the dogs blossomed under his care...finally they had a person who truly loved them.
When I first met Donny he showed me his photo album of all of his past foster dogs, there were many. With each picture he fondly said their name and told me their story..not so much of where they came from..but about who they were and why he so loved them.
It takes a very special person to take a homeless dog home, to love them with all of your heart and then to let them go on to their new great home and go back to the shelter to pick another. When Donny met Jelly, the connection was instant, he knew that Jelly needed what he had to give. He took Jelly willingly, knowing her past but aggressive cancer may come back one day, that she had resource guarding issues and may never find an adoptive home and she might be with him for the rest of her life and Donny said that was OK. He knew that Jelly needed her own home with her own person to love, and he knew that he could give her these things that she craved.
Donny wasn't just a great foster home, he was a generous supporter of SAINTS too. I knew he did not have very much money, he was a senior living on a pension who lived a simple life. But he still slipped us a cheque every few months for a couple of hundred dollars here and there and he always insisted on paying his foster dogs medical bills because Donny was committed to helping homeless dogs in as many ways as he could.
The world lost a very good man a few days ago who loved dogs and was dedicated to helping the discarded and the homeless as much as he possibly could.
Rest in peace Donny and thank you so much for being such a kind hearted man....all of your dogs, present and past are so very grateful to you and I too feel blessed to have met you.
Sheila and Leila will pick up Jelly today and bring her home, she has been staying with Donny's good friend until she was able to contact us about his death. My deepest condolences to Donny's friends and family, he truly was a very good man.
that was a very nice tribute to him Carol, I felt that I knew him a little. Rest in Peace and my condolences to his family and friends :(