[StarfishSaving]

The "How it Came to Be" thread had me typing and once I started, all this came out. I knew it wasn't going to be postworthy to that thread but I thought I'd post it here anyway.

Maybe I should just write a book. I've had enough fosters and experiences, lol!

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Sally was our first dog, but just barely. I'd never had a dog, not even growing up, and Ross finally relented to my childlike pleading. However, he said, we would have to wait until our vacation to Ocean City, Md was over so we wouldn't have to worry about boarding a dog which would be both costly and stressful for all of us. As our vacation date got closer, a woman walked into the retail store where I worked and asked me some questions about dog supplies. I talked to her with the giddy pride of someone who is "in the club" or well, almost. Soon. She told me that the dog she was shopping for was a stray and she didn't know what to do with her, but she didn't seem to like men and would urinate with fear around them. She had decided to name the dog, a white shepherd/lab mix, Crystal. Crystal? CRYSTAL!? That's *my* name... the woman asked if I wanted the dog, and I told her that I couldn't possibly, it was still three weeks before we could bring home a pooch. (Oh, how I wish I had the willpower that I had back then to keep me from making the impulse rescue decisions that often get me into trouble now...) She was sad that she wouldn't be able to keep the dog.

Weeks went on, until we were just a few days from our scheduled vacation. In my nightly obsessive perusing of the local shelter's dogs on Petfinder.com I saw something strange. "Crystal," a shepherd/lab mix peered at me, awaiting her new home. No doubt this was the same Crystal I'd learned about the month before. I looked at her cute pink nose and eyeliner on a decidedly husky muzzle at the end of a lab's head, with her plush white coat that just said "hug me" despite her eyes sending the message, "I'm scared." Oh, surely this must be fate. MY name. She had MY NAME! It was as if she'd been placed there for me! I dragged Ross to the shelter the next day after work and we met the infamous (okay, just to me) Crystal and took her for a walk. She was hesistant around Ross but seemed to trust us both and she was so scared and helpless. This was over 8 years ago now, and long before I'd even worked in a shelter, let alone had any thoughts of starting my own rescue, but my heart and mind have always felt for those who need someone the most. I had to have her. I asked the shelter if we could adopt her and have them hold her- yes, I was naive- but they informed me that they could not. We figured that we would be arriving home after business hours on October 11th and I was planning on being at the shelter's door on October 12th as soon as they opened to bring MY dog, the one with MY name, the one who had been put there just for me, home at last.

When we arrived home, it was around 3:30 and the shelter would still be open. I couldn't believe my luck, an extra day! Ross was unsure whether or not we should get involved with bringing home a dog but back then, we didn't have much responsibility and it would be easy, I promised, to unpack and get everything taken care of. Let's go get my dog!! I was too excited to wait the 10 minute drive to the shelter and called ahead to let them know we wanted to come and adopt her...

...but she was gone. "Adopted yesterday!" I can only hope that they weren't lying but I guess it doesn't matter in the long run. My face fell but I still wanted to see the dogs and find a new best friend forever and ever and ever!

Scouring through the aisles, I never made a connection with anyone, but I really liked this plain little lab/beagle mix, all black, who sat peering at us calmly while he wagged his tail. We took "Jack" for a walk and he was a lovely dog. We decided to take him home on a trial foster period to see if he was a good fit. We took him to the store where we worked, where I'd first learned about Crystal, and while I bought him a new collar (the one I'd picked out for "Crystal" was too big for him) all our coworkers and friends came out to meet him where he sat in the truck. He was friendly and handled it well. We were surprised that our pizza dinner didn't bring about any begging from this well-behaved dog, and we took him to bed with us where he was allowed to sleep right between us. He was a great dog. Still no connection, but I loved him just the same because he was Dog, and Dog was made to be loved.

We spend a lot of time at my in-laws' house. The next day, we took Jack to meet them, and he greeted both my brother-in-law and father-in-law by attempting to bite them- their hands, their face, it was not a friendly or playful behavior and it scared me, but I knew we could work with him. I didn't know how, but the internet has a wealth of information. Unfortunately, Ross was not pleased with Jack's behavior and was much less interested in bringing him back to our house. We called the shelter, asked what we should do, and they told us that they understood and we could bring him back. I had never cried so hard at that point. Jack was not a bad dog, but our lack of experience drove us to make the decision, in my case kicking and screaming quite literally. As a note- I was told later that Jack did find a great home with a single woman and was happily adopted but I can only hope that's true as there's no way of knowing.

We walked the shelter rows, not sure if we'd be taking home another dog or not, and still, no connection. The dogs were mostly the same and they were lovely but not for us. When we walked through the door to the outside kennels, there were some new faces but no one really seemed to be "it." I was so sad. Sad about Jack, sad about Crystal. Sad about being dogless despite these rows of beautiful dogs that all needed a home, that I wanted to oblige, but couldn't bring myself to adopt. Then, I saw her. "Sally" was her name and she was amazing and beautiful and radiated a warmth and a glow that to this day has us mystified. How on earth could a dog's smile wash away your pain and sadness as thoroughly and completely as this dog's smile? She was still a puppy, probably 8 months old or so, but carried herself in a way that said she was generations wise. I stood sentry at her kennel gate while Ross ran to find an employee of the shelter. I was prepared to say to any person who walked up to her kennel that "We're ADOPTING this dog!" and scare them away any way I could. Ross came back with a shelter worker who told us that she'd only been brought in an hour or two ago. I knew that the shelter had a policy about holding dogs before adoption and was heartbroken until he said that she could be adopted as she had been RETURNED to the shelter (they were afraid she'd hurt their kids!? This beacon of light and joy and hope!? Are they crazy, these failed adopters? Who would return a flawless diamond to the jeweler?) The staffperson warned us that they only allowed adoptions of pups under one year old, and that we couldn't take her home on a trial period. Were we sure that this was the dog we wanted? We knew, we just KNEW that we did, and that we would never be disappointed.

That was the day, October 12th 2002, that I became a real dog "owner" for the first time, and I've never looked back. Currently I've got four dogs on the couch, one in his big Marchorio dog bed on the floor, three fosters in various positions on the floor, chewing on toys and laying in front of the heater, and a hundred more in loving homes elsewhere knowing that they'll never feel unloved or unwanted ever again. It all started with my first dog, eight years ago.

[Tulip]

I love this thread! The world needs more rescuers like you - beautiful, just beautiful!

[vonissk]

I agree Tulip and what a great story. Please take time to write more mini " books" Star.................I throughly enjoyed it........

Aw, very nice! I wondered how you had gotten Sally. I don't think I've ever heard a dog with my name before lol so that is kind of neat about the other dog named Crystal. I know what you mean about the never looking back part.

Maybe we should all contribute to a book!!! I bet it would be a hit within the animal lover community

[StarfishSaving]

I thought I'd continue the story after adding to the Rescue Animals thread. Our second dog was a golden retriever. I worked at a shelter and I was at the intake desk when she was brought in. I gave her the name "Lady" because despite her slow movements and obviously aged body I thought she still had a certain dignity to her and deserved a dignified name After she was at the shelter a few days, it was apparent that she was having a difficult time due to the concrete floor and she was often stiff when she rose to go outside. The staff filled her kennel with wall to wall blankets to protect her joints, but the manager felt she was suffering and should be put down. I didn't think the dog was ready for that yet and asked my then-boyfriend to come to the shelter and meet her and see if we could foster her. I thought getting her into a home where she could get some therapy for her arthritis might show us what she was really capable of.

I made a vet appointment as soon as Ross agreed to let me take her home, knowing that the best chance for her recovery was some NSAID treatment while we worked on getting her some exercise and good diet. I took her to the vet the day I brought her from the shelter, and the vet agreed with me that there was no reason to euthanize this dog right now. We had bloodwork done and all that was just fine. The vet said she was 12 years plus, and we should expect she'll live another 6 months or so quite happily but she obviously hadn't been taken care of properly. I took her home and we had her for the weekend. She was great and she even played with Sally! We built a ramp for Lady to go up and down from the porch and we made her comfortable without ever having to go upstairs. (The one time she tried in her time with us, she had an accident. Whether she was looking for us to let her out, trying to find a place to go so she wouldn't have to go in her "den"-the bottom floor of the house- or whether she got scared because she couldn't figure out how to get back down, we don't know. She never went upstairs again.)

When I went back to work Monday, I was given great news. One of the shelter's board members was on the phone. She had a friend that had recently lost their golden retriever and were looking to adopt another one, and they were interested in having me bring Lady to meet them! How wonderful!

...I began to cry. Really cry. Cried enough to make the Executive Director concerned. She placed the board member on hold and asked what was wrong. I told her that I didn't want Lady to leave. I loved her, and was fiercely protective of her. I told them I had taken her to the vet, and we built a ramp for her, and that while we had always intended to foster her, she already felt like she was ours. A more politically minded ED would have told me I was out of luck, that we had to appease the board member and her friends, but she simply went back to the phone without saying anything to me. "Hi, Leslie? I'm sorry for my mistake, but Lady's been adopted!"

Lady and Sally celebrated together on Sally's first "gotcha day" party. She was with us when we adopted Sammy and helped teach him to play. We took her to the lake, too late to make a habit of it sadly, and she showed us that she liked to swim in the water. She was an eater of cat toys and, well, everything else, true to her retriever nature. Lady never looked that pretty, but she was beautiful to us. She was with me when I changed jobs. I left the shelter and began working at a vet's office. She got sick once and had accidents in the house, scaring us. I took off work to go to MY vet and was afraid that Lady's time with us was up. She pulled through with antibiotics and got better, though, and we were relieved that our beloved girl was okay.

Around a month later, Lady became sick again. She'd had accidents all through the night and was laying prone but not getting up to greet me when I came downstairs. I called my vet at 6am and left a message, then began getting the car ready to take her to the emergency vet. Just a few moments after I'd left the message, my vet called me back and told me he'd meet me at his office if I bring her up right now. My husband gently scooped Lady up to carry her to the car but she began convulsing and he laid her back on the floor so she wouldn't get hurt. She started panting very hard and we knew we'd never make it to the vet. My husband laid at her side and I held her head in my lap and with a few more difficult breaths, she was gone. It was 12 days before we would be celebrating her "Gotcha Day," and she left us. My husband cried, and I cried, and we began missing her immediately. He came to work with me that morning at the vet's office and we left her there to be picked up by the cremation service. I did the most necessary of my work quickly and as it was a slow day they allowed me to go home.

Lady left us with a legacy of love, patience, and understanding. She made our lives whole and the place in our hearts where she lived will always be made of gold.

That was a beautiful story.