If you're ever driving from Denver to Boulder on Hwy. 36 (Boulder-Denver Turnpike), you should exit at Broomfield (Wadsworth), take a left, cross the turnpike and get back on aimed toward Denver. When you're about halfway down the ramp, pull over, put on your flashers and take a moment to remember Shep.
Shep was a stray puppy who decided to live alongside the turnpike from 1950-64, when there were toll booths there. Nobody knew where this little shepherd-mix pup came from, but he liked the toll booths and the attendants. He hung out with them for 14 years, and often slept in the tollbooths on cold nights. People would look for him when they paid their tolls, and kids would want to play with him. When he became deaf, nearly blind, and had trouble moving, the attendants had to put him to sleep.
They and had a funeral and burial there (under a marker donated by a local funeral home). RIP-1964. People would regularly stop and put flowers, ornaments, flags and other things there until 2009, with they moved his remains and the marker to the Broomfield Historical Museum, because of construction on the interchange. Shep was a Road Dog. Born that way, and lived that way. I think of him, and his life, every time I drive that highway - and even when I don't.
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