Breaking up can be a ruff experience
He might have been the border collie’s “daddy,” but a Kamloops man won’t get custody of the pooch he and his girlfriend used to share.
The dog fight ended up before Kamloops provincial court Judge Stella Frame last month.
Her decision was released this week.
Richard Cole Kitchen and Deanna MacDonald used to date. While they were together, MacDonald’s father gave her a border collie puppy named Laddie.
At some point, Kitchen ended up in the doghouse and received a break-up letter — signed not by MacDonald, but by Laddie.
The letter suggested ways Kitchen could continue to see the dog after the two humans broke up.
“I know there is no way mommy would ever keep you from seeing me — that’s just not the kind of mommy she is,” it reads. “She wants us both to be happy.”
Frame said the letter amounted to nothing more than a nice gesture on MacDonald’s part.
The “anthropomorphizing” of Laddie made Kitchen think the dog was his “child,” Frame said.
“Mr. Kitchen’s interest is merely a sentimental one,” Frame said.
“That does not bestow any right of possession on him.”
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