On a very warm summer day, I was sitting in a very cramped van with tinted windows about ready to step out not as my self but as a 6 foot costumed dog named K.C. I remember it was very hot, and the costume didn’t have a working fan to allow me any air conditioning. I knocked on the door to allow my companion Kim to let me out. She opens the door and helps me as I carefully step out of the van. My tunnel vision allows me to see but just barely.

I stepped up onto the sidewalk in a town house complex when a little girl about 5 years old sees me and runs up to me. Her name was Jessica. She was the cutest girl I had ever seen. Very smart, always caring, and very sweet. I get down to one knee to see her eye to eye and her arms instantly wrap around me in as big of a bear hug as she could. “Hi K.C.!” she says. Jessica then lets go as I get up and grab her hand to walk with her to hand out flyers for tomorrow’s kids program.

It was moments like those that I realize I loved being in that costume.