The legend of Carlton

Carlton was the first dog my wife and I had, and the first dog I’d ever been around for longer than an afternoon. My wife challenged me to write a song for him and I went with the most obvious solution: Cowboy Pop song where we imagine Carlton as a vigilante hero patrolling the Wild West like a canine Lone Ranger. Incidentally why did the Lone Ranger have a partner?

We lost Carlton when he was only three and a half. As a direct consequence of his loss, we started volunteering at a dog rescue, where we made life-long friends and my wife has started her own not-for-profit organisation – Rescuemania – that raises funds and awareness predominantly for animal rescuers. All our holidays involve animal rescue and supporting rescuers. From a combination of volunteering on a farm and chatting with vegan volunteers, we became vegan ourselves. We’ve changed our living habits to try and affect a tiny change for the better on the global climate and our planet. We have a rescue dog from Romania who defied the odds to escape a life of human cruelty and grow old gracefully with a sofa he can literally call his very own.

Carlton, that little guy who left us too soon, has somehow managed to influence the greatest change in our lives possible. He’s helped save thousands of lives. He can be remembered as not only an amazing dog in our lives but as the catalyst for huge change in our lives. I’m glad he has a song fitting of his achievements. He is somehow as awesome in death as he was in life, and the legend of Carlton lives on.

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