Pets Of Broadway: Meet Caroline Bowman & Austin Colby's newest family member, Kodak!

BroadwayWorld is excited to announce an exclusive collaboration with Pets of Broadway! From the cats of choreographers, to the dogs of dancers, to the birds of belters and the many pets in between, Pets of Broadway shares the stories of your favorite Broadway stars' best friends!

This week Pets of Broadway introduces you to Kodak, a German Shepherd mix puppy adopted by Kinky Boots's Caroline Bowman and Jersey Boys's Austin Colby! Read below as Bowman and Colby talk about raising their new pup!

Austin: I didn't grow up with dogs. He's my first one. I was chased by a dog as a kid so I think I've always been nervous, because we never had dogs, no one in my family has had the chance to get comfortable with them. Once I got bigger than most dogs, I realized I didn't really have to be afraid. When Caroline and I met and I told her I never had a dog. She later told me that she thought that was going to be a deal breaker because dogs mean so much to her. But I quickly fell in love with her dog. I'm a dog person, I just didn't know it. The dog that chased me when I was a kid just wanted to love on me. Just wanted to lick my face. It was just a big dog running at me so I got scared.

Caroline: At the beginning of September we decided that we would start looking for a dog on September 16th. On that date we would try to start planning for a dog and see if it was something we could actually do. I had been looking on petfinder for about 6 months. On September 2nd, a friend tagged us in a picture on Facebook and it was a picture of Kodak, this teeny tiny German Shepherd mix puppy.

Caroline: He was being fostered by a family in New Jersey so we decided to go meet him. He was about 10 pounds. I've never seen such a small German Shepherd. We weren't positive that he was our dog but we said we would meet him. We thought he was just adorable and then I started singing and he got up on his hind legs and put his front paws on my shoulders and started howling. He was singing with me! Then he sat in my lap and I said 'I think he's our dog."

We asked the people he was staying with if they could keep him for another week and they gladly agreed. Everything worked out so perfectly. We wanted to prepare because we wanted to do it right. We brought him home a week later on September 10th, six days before we even wanted to start looking for a dog. We wanted a small to medium female dog and we got a large male gentle giant. But that's how it works sometimes and we love him so much!

Caroline: We aren't positive that he's a full German Shepherd. We want to do a DNA test to find out. The vet thinks he's a mix. I grew up with a female German Shepherd and he looks like a purebred to me. Austin got to meet my girl, Matty, before she passed away. She passed away while I was on the Evita tour and she was my everything. She was my baby. Such a good dog and so loyal. I got her for my 13th birthday. I remember as a kid I saved up every dollar in elementary school to buy myself a puppy. I thought that's how you did it. But then my parents got me her for my birthday. She was my dog. I definitely have a soft spot for German Shepards but I never thought I'd have another one. The way we see it though, big or small, they're all the same amount of work. If we had a small dog we wouldn't leave it alone all day and we would still take it out and exercise it. He's just so smart and we're working with him all the time. He's in puppy class and we work on training everyday. Because he's at least part German Shepherd we know how smart he is and he can pick everything up so fast. I love seeing his little wheels turning.

If Kodak could talk, I would ask him want to ask him if he would be ok if we left him out of his crate. 'Can we trust you?' Also, if he can see ghosts. Sometimes he barks at nothing. Or at least we think nothing....

Austin: Since we don't know that much about where he came from, I'd like to know 'who was your mom? Did you get separated from your mom too young?' Just so he could talk it out. He's very cautious about certain things and noises. I bet he's dealt with some sort of trauma. He's also a puppy so it's hard to tell what is him just being a puppy and what's conditioned in him. His name was Kodak when we got him. His first owners named him Kodak after the rapper Kodak Black. We loved it so we kept it.

Caroline: We're kind of obsessed with him. He's our baby and for sure meant to be our dog. We feel lucky he chose us.

See Caroline Bowman in Kinky Boots at the Al Hirschfeld theatre and Austin Colby in Jersey Boys at New World Stages!

And don't forget to check out all the Broadway animal stories at Pets of Broadway and on Instagram at @petsofbroadway