'Cubby's legacy': Fort Collins dog who supported mass shooting survivors across US dies

"Tears and smiles."

That's how Bonnie Fear described the last two days after saying goodbye to a dog that comforted people recovering from some of our nation's worst tragedies during the bulk of her nearly nine years of life.

"I really didn’t know you can do it at the same time," Fear said. "You’re crying, and all of a sudden you’re smiling because it’s such a good memory of Cubby that’s making you smile."

Comfort Dog Cubby died Wednesday, surrounded by members of her Lutheran Church Charities team. Veterinarians at an emergency medical care facility had discovered cancer throughout her body after Cubby experienced health complications on Wednesday, Fear told the Coloradoan.

The golden retriever came to Redeemer Lutheran Church through the program in 2015 as part of the national ministry that sends golden retrievers across the country to comfort those impacted by disasters and crises.

"We only go where we’re invited, and we never charge," said Fear, Top Dog for Comfort Dog Ministry at Redeemer Lutheran Church, which has a location in Fort Collins and another in Greeley. Fear was also one of Cubby's eight handlers in her lifetime and is the caregiver and a handler for the church's second comfort dog, Devorah.

In her first year as a comfort dog, Cubby responded to Roseburg, Oregon, following the fatal shooting at Umpqua Community College. Cubby was just 15 months old at the time, but even then was "just opening doors for these people to talk," one of her handlers, Kathy Tripcony, told the Coloradoan at the time. "It's a bridge to opening up and allowing the tears to flow and the stories to be told."

Since that trip, Cubby responded to multiple mass shootings. She walked the grounds surrounding the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.

In Parkland, Florida, she visited the home of a survivor of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, where she "just laid on the floor with her and snuggled right in, for the longest time. It was so peaceful and very moving that Cubby didn’t know this girl, but she knew what to do," Fear recalled in a conversation with the Coloradoan on Friday.

"Cubby knew. She knew what to do. She just knew when to sit, when to lay down, when to hug someone, or when to lean into them," Fear said.

And last year, she took that gift of comfort to Uvalde, Texas, twice — once shortly after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers and injured 17 others at Robb Elementary School in late May and again in September, when students returned to school.

Cubby and other responding comfort dogs went into classrooms during that trip, and Fear recalled how the dogs brought kids together and got them talking to each other — not necessarily about the shooting, just "anything," Fear said.

"Handlers are trained not to do a lot of talking because frankly there’s not a whole lot to say," Fear said. "... We invite them to pet, and then we let the dog and the person take that relationship wherever it goes."

Cubby also made regular stops closer to home, including to support those working in emergency dispatch, the Larimer County Sheriff's Office and Fort Collins Police Services.

Most recently, though, she was at worship at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Collins on Sunday. Though Cubby and Devorah visit the Fort Collins and Greeley locations regularly, their trip to the Fort Collins church Sunday was a last-minute schedule change.

"In a way, it was a blessing that Cubby was there and people got to see her, not knowing it was for the last time," Fear said. "We’ve noticed a lot of those little things in hindsight, where Cubby was seen with people where usually (she) would not have."

The ministry's work all goes back to "tears and smiles," Fear said. "They start tearing up, and they come, by the time they leave, they’re smiling. ... No words need to be exchanged."

Now Devorah will carry on that legacy. Fear said Redeemer's comfort dog team was already in the process of acquiring a third comfort dog before Cubby's death. That dog is expected to join the team, which is the only Lutheran Church Charities comfort dog site in Colorado, in the next year or so.

"Our ministry will carry on," Fear said. "We will carry on Cubby’s legacy because that’s what God wants us to do. … It’s not about the dog, it’s about the people.

"... This is not a dog-loving ministry. You’ve got to love people. This ministry is about loving people, and these golden retrievers are our bridge to do that. They are our warm, furry bridges to connect to people who are hurting and in need."

How to support Redeemer's Comfort Dog Ministry

Learn more about Cubby's and Devorah's work at bit.ly/redeemercomfortdogs, where donations can be made in memory of Cubby.

To read about the work of comfort dogs across the U.S., visit lutheranchurchcharities.org.

Where Cubby responded

In addition to multiple regular local stops, Cubby responded to multiple locations across the U.S. during her time as a comfort dog. The below stops were included in a memorial post on her Facebook page:

• 2015: Roseburg, Oregon

• 2016: Orlando, Florida, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana

• 2017: Houston, Texas, and Las Vegas, Nevada

• 2018: Parkland, Florida; Santa Fe, Texas; and Thousand Oaks, California

• 2019: Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and El Paso, Texas

• 2020: Medford, Oregon

• 2021: Boulder, Arvada and Louisville, Colorado

• 2022: Uvalde, Texas, and Colorado Springs

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins dog who comforted mass shooting survivors across US dies