Ava lived a full life. She experienced adventure, she suffered tragedy and she had a peaceful “retirement” back in Saranac Lake.

Cotton brought Ava on his long-distance bike trips around America, towing her on a trailer behind his Surly. They were on a trip bicycling down the East Coast from Saranac Lake to the Florida Keys in 2020 when a speeding SUV hit them in South Carolina. Cotton died at the scene of the crash. He was 36.

Ava barely survived with a broken jaw, brain swelling, bleeding in her lungs and stomach, lacerations and a haematoma in her ear.

After the tragic loss of her best friend, Ava lived with Cotton’s mother Jenda. Two years ago, Jenda’s neighbors Heather and Sean Loase took Ava in. Heather said Ava instantly became part of their family.

Kristopher Cotton of Saranac Lake and his dog Ava stand with his bike and trailer on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in July 2020. (Provided photo — Danielle Puleo, The Coastland Times)

Last year, Ava, a brown Lab-pit bull mix, was diagnosed with cancer and was peacefully put to sleep in her home on Dec. 20. She was 12 years old.

Heather said it was her time.

“She had a pretty crazy life before,” Heather said. “She lived hard for a dog.”

She said Ava loved other dogs, loved journeys and loved people — especially children. If Heather could clone her, she would.

“She was the best dog I ever had,” Heather said.

Ava, a Lab and pit bull mix whose owner, Kristopher Cotton, was killed while cycling across the country with her, returns home with Cotton’s mother and sister to the Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear in 2020. (Enterprise photo — Amy Scattergood)

She added that this was the experience Cotton had with Ava, too.

“Wherever he went, she went,” Heather said.

Ava traveled across the country with Cotton. When she was full of energy, she’d run next to his bike until she tired out and then she’d jump into the trailer. Heather wishes she could have seen this. She never met Cotton but has heard a lot about him from Jenda.

Newspapers covered the man and dog pair as they biked through towns around America, sleeping outdoors in sleeping bags or hammocks, sharing McDonald’s burgers and fries and meeting countless awestruck onlookers — many of whom became friends.

Biking cross-country is a big thing to do. Adding a dog to it adds even more work. Heather said Cotton never questioned taking Ava along with him.

Ava, left, with Lucy and Cooper. (Provided photo — Heather Loase)

“He just did things,” she said.

Cotton grew up in Saranac Lake and went on to see the country. When he wasn’t on a trip, he would stay with Jenda, who told the Charleston Post and Courier that Ava wouldn’t go into Cotton’s room again after his death.

The man who hit the bike and trailer was charged with driving too fast for the conditions and settled with Jenda in a wrongful death lawsuit in 2022.

Ava was treated at Charleston Animal Society, a no-kill shelter in North Charleston.

One month later, Ava, still wearing bandages and recovering from her wounds, flew into Adirondack Regional Airport with Jenda and her daughter Jessica LaFever, who carried Cotton’s ashes.

Heather said they had no idea about all of this when they took Ava in. When they first took her to the veterinarian, a vet tech told them, “Your dog is famous,” and showed them the Enterprise story.

It was then that Heather realized the patches in Ava’s fur that she thought were from age were the scars she still bore from the crash.

From then on, she’d look at Ava quietly sitting in the corner of the room and think, “You’re a hero. You’re a survivor.”

She said Ava was “living her best life” in her final years.

“She enjoyed what we always thought of as her well-earned ‘retirement’ — filled with comfort, safety and love,” Heather said. “We miss her dearly.”

Ava “mostly tolerated and sometimes cuddled with” the Loase’s other dogs — Cooper, a pit bull, and Lucy, a beagle.

Heather said Ava was much more independent than Cooper and Lucy. They got along fine, often ignored each other, Ava sometimes had to remind the rambunctious Lucy not to mess with her, but they would also cuddle.

Heather said sometimes — given Ava’s thrilling life on the road — she worried Ava thought her life with them was boring. But they gave her lots of treats and took her on lots of walks. Ava loved swimming, Heather said, whether it was Lonesome Bay, the Bloomingdale Bog Trail or Little Green Pond.

“You’d look one way, and you’d look back and she’s in the water,” she said.

“And she loved the back yard,” Heather said, adding that Ava would sat out in the sun all summer long.

Ava was cremated. Heather said Jenda will take half of her ashes and mix them with Kris’. Heather and Sean will spread the other half in some of Ava’s favorite places.