I am starting my first day without my little dog companion of 11+ years and feeling both very sad and sure that we did the right thing for her. So what was her story?
When we lived in Atlanta I had a favorite coffee roaster and coffeehouse I could walk to. Loved that place. They had a community bulletin board and one day I saw a picture of a sad looking little poodle with info saying she was a rescue in need of the right home. We hadn’t had a dog for 7 or 8 years at that point but I tore off the phone number and took it home only to throw it out. Repeated this a few times until my husband finally said “Why don’t you just call?”
The next day we went to her foster home (which became her boarding home when we traveled and she sure did love that family). We met a very scared little 1 1/2 year old dog who couldn’t stop shaking as she sat on the couch between us. She had a sad backstory and had come a long way in her foster home and they had turned down about 15 potential adopters trying to do the right placement for her. Hubby asked if we could come back the next day and see if she had any interest in us and she did. It was a match.
Start of a mutual love story, the blossoming of a dog who was very sweet and gentle but still recovering from being abused, and lots of adventures together that are fun to remember. She loved baths but hated the rain hitting her body, loved her stuffed and squeaky toys, loved walks with good things to sniff, loved her people, loved to "bake" on the hot pavement, and loved looking out the front window at our home in Atlanta. A friend called the latter "Lola TV".
She developed Addison’s disease 2 years after we got her and a great vet diagnosed it before it was too late. Same with her kidney disease that was diagnosed in 2020. She made it to 12 years and 8 months of a mostly happy life and as our much loved little companion with a big personality and a gentle heart.
