Keto the dog has a new home for Christmas. Who is coming to pick up Chloe?

It’s a simple story, really.

The story of a twice-rescued dog with the dastardly name Keto who needs a forever home this Christmas.

On December 9, Keto’s 78-year-old adoptive owner died, likely asleep in his bed. Once again, Keto was alone – an easy candidate for euthanasia as a former rescue dog without a permanent home and staunch advocate.

But in that moment, the 5-year-old beagle-husky mix was a terrified dog standing sentinel alongside the body of his deceased owner, Michael K.a widower whose wife, Maggiehad died a few years earlier.

“The police were trying to figure out how to remove the body without hurting the dog, which refused to leave it,” said an Edison Park neighbor. Jeanie Kacprzak. “It was so sad.”

Let’s unpack the story of this dog.

It begins in 2019 with Crackle, a small puppy found abandoned in Nashville, Tennessee, who was sent to the Chicago Canine Rescue, a well-respected no-kill shelter in Jefferson Park.

The puppy was immediately given an ID chip from the shelter, quickly adopted, apparently under the name Keto by his new owner, whose name, recently discovered by Sneed, did not match the last name on the adoption card shelter official.

“It’s a mystery, but it’s not unusual, Keto was probably given to someone else later,” said Abby Matzkethe precious lifeblood of Chicago Canine Rescue.

On Dec. 9, police conducting a health check requested by a neighbor at the Edison Park residence encountered Keto who was aggressively guarding his deceased owner and refusing to let him approach, said Kacprzak, a rescue dog advocate and next door neighbor.

Kacprzak, who often let Keto frolic in her yard, talked with her husband, Tom, and the 16th District police in Jefferson Park about ways to deal with Keto in order to get the body to the morgue.

“No one wanted to hurt Keto,” she said, describing him as a brave and loyal sentinel.

“So I grabbed a piece of smelly salami from my fridge and headed next door to keep what must have been a Keto starving body away,” she said. “It worked.”

She also managed to put on Keto’s collar while he was eating, then take him for a walk while the police removed the corpse.

Then magic happened: a confluence of dog rescue avatars joined in an unexpected crusade to keep Keto alive in hopes of finding him a forever home.

Police in the Jefferson Park District, where Keto was screaming frantically in a cage, invited Kacprzak to deal with him at the station. It worked.

Well done! Retired Jefferson Park Police Lt. John Garridoco-founder of the Garrido Stray Rescue Foundation, has been following loved ones who may want Keto. No. He checked the contacts of the Chicago Animal Protection and Control Agency, where Keto was currently being held, and he wrote about Keto’s rescue dilemma on Garrido’s Facebook.

Bingo! On December 12, Animal Care and Control verified a microchip identification on Keto. It saved his life. No-kill shelter Chicago Canine Rescue had inserted the chip when Keto was a puppy, so euthanasia was goodbye because Keto now had a real home: “We don’t turn away any of our dogs if the adoption doesn’t work out and they are sent. back,” according to Matzke, the shelter spokesperson. “That’s why we identify the microchip.”

Hooray! Kris O’Malleywho read about Keto’s plight on Garrido’s Facebook on December 12, adopted Keto on December 14!

“It was meant to be,” said O’Malley, who has had six rescue dogs since childhood. “Within 10 minutes of meeting him, Keto was on my lap licking my face. At home, it took him less than two days to find our bed and he’s been there ever since.

Meanwhile, 3-year-old Chloe, a brindle-colored mountain dog mix at Chicago Canine Rescue, faces a similar Keto future, Matzke said. “The old man who adopted Chloe two years ago died six months ago and she’s been here ever since.”

It can break your heart. Chloe for Christmas? Fingers crossed.

Visit chicagocaninerescue.org to see animals available for adoption.

Hindman Hoopla…

Damn it, Ms. Leslie! Chicago’s Legendary Auction Expert Leslie Hindman recently welcomed a battalion of friends to Paris to celebrate its 70th anniversary, turning the three-day extravaganza into a big “do whoppa do!”

From the Left Bank to ruin, La La Leslie treated her group of more than 80 close friends to Parisian day trips; fine dining at the legendary 1930s Hemingway restaurant, Les Deux Magots; camaraderie among fossils and stuffed animals at the legendary Deyrolle taxidermy workshop; and dinner on chef Alain Ducasse’s boat on the Seine. It was really too much too… and exaggerated! Who was there? Almost everyone is bloated…and I’ll never say it.