Today two heart broken women began to heal and in two separate instances, two dogs found their forever home. Though the stories of the heart break are not mine to tell, I’m honored that I was able to be a part of the healing process and in one of the instances, one of my favorite dogs found his destiny.

No More Dogs

Today a family of three adults stood before me, two of them barely holding in the tears that welled up in their eyes until at last they spilled over.  I held the woman who feared she’d never again have a dog to love but so quickly realized that the love she had to give would out-weigh any reservations so she and her family took that brave next step and opened their hearts and their home to a sweet boy named Phineus.

Phineus, thief of hearts ♥️

Today a young woman strolled through a Farmer’s market with her handsome (and nearly perfect) dog in tow for the first time. I imagine a small yet quivering smile on her face as she basks in the moment as young hands reach out to pet her dog, who laps up the attention with such unabashed joy. 

This sunlit trip to a local Farmer’s market was probably being played out a thousand times through a thousand locations with a thousand people and their dogs but what made this special was that this trip sealed the deal. Upon returning home, Wilfred finally was home. 

Wilfred. Wilfred has a long and sad story full of allergies and skin issues. The pain and discomfort he must have been living with took months to figure out a solution for and after two failed adoptions which resulted in the return of a nearly hairless dog with angry, seeping, red skin we found him a great foster family who nursed him back to his handsome good health and we set down some rules for Wilfred’s next and last adopter. His care will cost x amount annually. The brand of food he needs to eat and the medicine he needs daily and weekly will not be negotiable. When inquiries came in, I’d lead with the dollar amount and I rightly scared away plenty of potential adopters.

And then an application came in. It wasn’t for Wilfred and I wasn’t going to pay it much attention. Because of the location I mentally counted how many dogs were sitting in shelters between here and there and I felt immediately pissed but then I asked a mutual and highly respected friend who gave a glowing recommendation, so I called the applicant. After hearing her story and chatting with her I became certain that not only was she meant to meet Wilfred but I believe I was meant to help her find her next dog. 

Rambling 

Much of both stories are really for myself. Without sharing the details, a reader (are you still there?) won’t really understand the significance of each story and like I said, they aren’t my stories to tell. The thing that amuses me about some people is how few understand why we have out process in place. We received a message one night at just after midnight – “I just filled out an application so when can I come meet dogs?” Ummm, well, not right now…. I want to ask these people if they fill out job applications and then just “show up to work” without he benefit of oh say an interview? 

I take my “job” seriously and am more than a little bit proud of the process. We don’t just give you a dog because you fell in love with the look in her eyes. We talk to you, we ask questions, we get to know you and by the time you’ve adopted we feel like friends and we are happy to have shared in the journey. We are certainly not perfect at it but with each day we learn and we get better.  Some days we are hugged by broken hearted people who are beginning to heal. Sometimes we shed a tear for a dog who deserves all the wonderful things in life and we know he has finally gotten the great life he deserves.

We are rescuers and we save lives…and heal broken hearts.