A firefighter from South Carolina and the adorable puppy he posed with for a sexy-calendar spread are now real-life best friends.
Because the holiday season just keeps on giving, Rob Tackett, a 34-year-old Army veteran with washboard abs and a tender love for man’s best friend, has adopted Kimber, a German shepherd puppy, People reports.
The two met when they posed for the annual Charleston Animal Society Firefighter Calendar — with Tackett shirtless and tenderly snuggling the pooch.
Proceeds for the calendar go to the Animal Society, which rescued Kimber after she was found on the side of the road malnourished, with mange and a bacterial skin infection.
Tackett and Kimber cozy up during the shoot.Charleston Animal Society“He carried her around like a baby all day,” Jen Coleman, assistant producer for the calendar shoot, tells the Post. “She had an abusive past, and she’s not great around men, but there was this instant connection and she warmed right up to him.”
Kimber was first adopted last winter by Steve Hall, an elite Marine sniper who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Hall loaned Kimber to the fire department for the shoot in May.
When Hall became injured and could no longer care for Kimber, he reached out to Tackett.
“Kimber knows exactly how to elicit smiles and joy, how to comfort, how to defend and how to protect,” Tackett wrote on Instagram earlier this month. (He also shared their love story in a Dec. 10 Facebook post that has more than 500 shares.) “Kimber is a soldier’s dog. I plan on continuing to train her as a PTSD dog, with the intent to allow her to visit with other veterans, providing them with the same ferocious love that can only be given by this soulful German shepherd.”
