Here Today … Gone Today?!

We can hardly believe what just happened …

For those of you on our Facebook page, you may remember Tia Marie. Actually, you probably should since it was just a week ago that she joined us and we introduced her. She was at a local animal shelter who chooses to put all of their animals down before Christmas, so no one has to work and take care of them. We, of course, find this heart-breaking (and unacceptable) and when we found out about Tia, a one-year-old Jack/pit/anything-else-goes mix, we just couldn’t let that happen to her. We were at capacity and, at the time, scrambling to find food for the next month, but we knew she was special.

We just didn’t realize how special.

We could tell that she had been treated badly. She was very scared and submissive, but inevitably incredibly sweet with a tendency to trust. We also noticed she was limping on her back right leg. We thought it might just be a socket issue, so we took her to the vet today. He delivered news we didn’t want to hear: Her leg had been broken some time ago and healed itself because her previous owners didn’t treat it. There was nothing he could do. She would be crippled for life. She was young enough now that it wasn’t bothering her, but it was inevitable she would develop arthritis later in life.

We had barely recovered from that blow when another blow (of the good kind) occurred: One of the employees at the vet’s office and her family had been looking for a sweet-natured dog for some time since losing their baby. She had met several of our rescues, but Tia just clicked. It didn’t matter what the vet did to her; she didn’t flinch. She seemed to be the perfect-mannered dog for children.

Sooooo: Tia is spending the weekend at her (more-than-likely) forever home in Covington, where she will finally learn to know what it feels like to be loved like she should be. Because her (prospective) mom works at the vet, she will receive the care she needs for her leg, plus the findings of mange and any other results from today’s tests.

To say that this is (yet another) holiday miracle is an understatement. In one week, she went from being a “throw away” mutt slated to be put down to the dog a family had been looking for, for months. What a perfect way to end the year.

Happy New Year, everyone!