CODY

     His name was Dakota, but we always called him Cody.  Because I'd adopted him from a Jersey shelter, his past remained shrouded in mystery.  We knew the people who dumped him had gotten him at the Philadelphia SPCA, so he'd already been abandoned twice in his young life.  I use a harsh word—dumped—to describe their action because they had not done right by Cody.  They'd kept him chained up in their yard 24-7 by their own admission, and then took him to the shelter because they "could not...