Preface

If you follow Red Quill Co on Facebook or LinkedIn, you likely remember me mentioning back in January of this year that we adopted a puppy we named Bo. Earlier this month, that pup turned one, and so I want to dedicate this blog series to him and a topic I am very passionate about—pet adoption.

Dogs Make Amazing Teachers

I believe pets can teach us so much, especially when we are kids—how to love, how to take care of someone else, how to be responsible and dependable, how to forgive, how to make others feel wanted and needed, and even how to let go and say goodbye. The bond I had with my childhood dog, a golden retriever named Sasha, was unbreakable. As my very first best friend, she sparked my love of dogs at the young age of three.

Sasha was incredibly tolerant. A fluffy gentle giant, she would let me do absolutely anything—I dressed her up, laid right next to her with my head on her side, pretended to be her puppy, fed her all the foods she shouldn’t have, and let her snuggle with me at night. I could write a book about the adventures Sasha and I had during the fourteen years that we grew up together, and I still think about her to this day and what a wonderful dog she was. Losing her was the first time I really understood what grief was.

Setting the Standard to Adopt

Around our first wedding anniversary, my husband and I adopted our first dog together, a chocolate Labrador retriever named Tanner. We got him straight from his previous home when he was four years old. He never had to see the inside of a shelter, and he became the best dog we could have possibly hoped for. We constantly had people begging if we ever decided to re-home him to give them a call. Of course, we never did because we do our best to commit to our animals for life, and we were more than a little attached to Tanner.

Anywhere he was allowed, you could bet that we would have Tanner in tow. He went on trail rides with the horses and me, hikes and adventures galore, camping trips, and to all the dog-friendly stores. I even dressed him up for Halloween and got his picture taken with Santa (yes, I was that dog mom). Even though we’d missed his first four years, Tanner showed us just how valuable pet adoption can be. We knew then and there that we would forevermore be passionate pet adopters.

Rescuing, Rehabilitating, and Rehoming

During the time we enjoyed life with Tanner, we fostered several dogs who we rescued from various situations (lost, abused, owner couldn’t keep them, etc.), rehabilitated them, and found them new loving homes of their own. One such rescue who particularly stood out was a pittie mix who lived just up the street from us at the time in a well-known drug house. Her owner tied her up on short leashes, neglected her, and abused her. She had scars all around her neck, a poorly healed broken rib, and a desperate desire to find something better.

Around Christmas time 2011, we returned home late one night to find her in the middle of the street, recently escaped from her short tether. I sat outside in the freezing cold for a solid hour or more, trying to gain her trust. Eventually, she nervously approached me, and we brought her inside the warm house for the night. She was underweight, so we fed her a good meal and showed her the water bowl and a cozy bed to snuggle on. She startled at every movement and sound we made, especially my husband.

Our hearts broke for her, but we felt obligated the next morning to let her owner know we had her since he lived just a few houses up from us. She began to escape more and more often, coming straight for our house each time where we would repeat the meal, snuggles, and love before returning her the next day. We repeatedly offered to give her a home if he didn’t want her any longer, but he wouldn’t take us up on it.

One day after she’d escaped and come to see us again, we decided he could make the effort to come get her if he really wanted her back. After all, he knew just as well as we did where she went each time. When he didn’t come asking for her for over a month, we took the opportunity to get her spayed, vaccinated, and rebuild her health and weight. She was anxious around people since she’d only ever known abuse, and it took a long time to fully gain her trust, but eventually, we did. We renamed her Gizmo to give her a fresh start (because she talked liked Gizmo from Gremlins), and she became one of the most loving, loyal, and trustworthy dogs ever.

Eventually, her previous owner started coming around and asking about her more and more (mind you, this was after about six months of us caring for her). We told him if he wanted her back, we expected repayment of all her vet bills, food costs, and monthly medications. He said he didn’t want her back after all and walked off.

Anxious that he would change his mind, we realized in order to fully protect her, we needed to find Gizmo a home other than ours so she would not be within this guy’s grasp. Fortunately, Lane’s mom fell in love with her. She took Gizmo home and is still happily spoiling her to this very day.

Getting Older

Tanner enjoyed a long, happy, and healthy life throughout Lane’s and my pre-kid years of marriage, even welcoming both of our daughters into the world nearly a decade later. For the longest time, it seemed Tanner would never slow down—we were certain he was going to live forever. But by the time Karissa was born in 2019, Tanner had become an old dog, reaching the golden age of fifteen. Sadly, it was also around this time that we started to see him decline.

Tanner was turning gray, beginning to get those lumps and bumps common in older dogs, and showing signs of aches and pains from older joints. His eyesight and hearing were nothing compared to how they’d once been, and his zest for life was slowly fading. He had one lump that grew near his eye. It would grow and then shrink in a never-ending cycle, sometimes blocking his view. But he was so old, we didn’t want to put him through surgery. Instead, we decided to just watch his quality of life, trusting Tanner to let us know when he was ready to say goodbye.

The Rainbow Bridge

Eventually, I had to stop bringing Tanner on my trail rides because he could only keep up for about a half hour at most, and then he’d be sore for two days after even with joint health supplements and pain medication. He started having a harder time climbing the three steps of our front porch or hopping into the car for a ride. Then the day finally came that he didn’t want to even go on a walk and would just remain where he was, wagging his tail when we called him. We knew we couldn’t deny it any longer.

Tanner had been an amazing dog, but it was time to let him go across the rainbow bridge. He was the first of my pets that I ever had to actually make that decision for and it just about broke me. But I knew it wasn’t about me—I had to be selfless and think about what was best for our faithful dog of over ten years. So, we gave him lots of love and treats and affection to make his final day the best it could be, and the next day, we said a tearful farewell, promising to adopt our fur-babies ever after in Tanner’s honor.

To be continued…

Next month, I’ll talk about how important timing is to getting a new pet and I’ll share the story of Bo’s mama and littermates being rescued from a desperate situation.