The email was a “last chance” call for the
dogs listed. That dog in the photo needed us to foster – we were her last
chance, so we told the transport to tag her for rescue.
She arrived on a large horse trailer on a Friday
night, and was skinny and smelly, but so sweet and gentle.
As soon as we got her home, we fed her and
she gulped down her food – she literally didn’t chew a single morsel, just swallowed
it whole. After that, the first order of business was a bath, which she did
well in – making cute noises with the warm water on her back.
About halfway through the first evening with
this little pup, I noticed that despite her bath, she still smelled a little
strange. I checked her ears, nothing. I checked her coat, nothing. Then I
checked her teeth and almost dropped her from my reaction to what I saw.
Her teeth were covered in the worst gingivitis
I’d ever seen. I googled pictures of gingivitis and still couldn’t find anything
worst. The poor thing wouldn’t let me near her mouth … it then hit me that she
wasn’t swallowing her food just because she was starving, she swallowed it so
she wouldn’t have to chew.
Long story short, we found a vet that would
do the dental for a discounted rate, and Colorado Canine Rescue didn’t miss a
beat in saying they would cover her dental surgery.
After the surgery, we picked up the little sweetheart
that we had named Annabelle, and were told that our little 8-pound cute foster
pup had only five teeth left. Every other tooth had to be extracted due to the
damage.
Over the next couple days she recovered quickly.
About a week after the surgery we were
sitting on the couch with the pups and Annabelle picked up a soft toy. It took
us a moment to realize what she had done, and then another moment to grasp it.
She picked up a toy. With her mouth, she picked up a toy.
A minute later we played our first game of
fetch. It was on.
Annabelle quickly became the dog she was
meant to be.
She finally didn’t feel awful – she probably hadn’t known what it
was like to feel good. She became spunky, playful, and silly. She’d throw her
own toy if you didn’t do it for her, and would curl up under the covers every
night and snuggle into you sweetly. She gave kisses.
About a month passed and Annabelle had long
stolen our hearts, but as foster parents we knew by getting her adopted into a
great home, we’d be able to save more animals. A good friend of mine who is in
flyball competitions invited me to a tournament and suggested I bring Annabelle.
Fast forward a couple days and we brought
Annabelle to flyball. We pulled up to the tournament and noticed a woman
walking her rat terrier outside the complex, and walked in while humorously noting
that they were twins.
Inside there were hundreds of dogs. We found
our friend and she introduced us to a woman standing next to her, noting that
Annabelle was up for adoption. The woman immediately led us to someone she said
we had to meet.
We found ourselves in front of the woman we
had seen outside with the other rat terrier. She had lost her German Shepard to
old age and said she had been waiting for the right dog to adopt to fall in her
lap, because it had always happened that way. And there we were.
The adoption was complete that afternoon and
we left Annabelle with her new family: a brother rat terrier, sister Siberian
Husky and her new mom.
Looking back at each dog we foster is such a
gift. We had Annabelle (now Leilah) for about a month and that little dog taught
us so much about perseverance.
Our little Annabelle has a lesson for all of
us that rough starts – even rough “middles” – can still give way to beautiful
second beginnings. And what a beautiful beginning it is.
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