Today was a great day.
In September, I happened upon a 6-year-old Lab named Emerald on a shelter website. It said she had been there two months, which I thought must have been a typo. She was a beautiful black Lab, and she looked happy in her shelter picture, which is rare.
It turned out that Em was a cruelty case, having been kept in a crate as a breeder dog for virtually her entire life. When the authorities finally caught up with the owner, in July, she was pregnant again. She gave birth in the shelter and her puppies were adopted.
This shelter has the illogical and unkind policy of not adopting animals to rescue groups. The shelter people were rude and would barely talk to me. It pissed me off. What gave these public employees the right to ignore a citizen? Would county residents be in agreement with this effed-up policy? And who was thinking about the poor dog?
I sent a series of certified letters to those in authority in the county, aided by one of our volunteers who told me what statutes to cite and how to file Freedom of Information Act requests. They must have finally figured out that Lab Rescue wasn't going to let up, because on Nov. 16, I received a call from the shelter saying we could adopt Emerald. That same day, I was told the shelter had changed its policy and would now allow animals to be taken by rescue groups after 30 days in the adoption area. I'm guessing there had to be one or two animal lovers among the seven or eight county execs we bombarded with letters and e-mails.
But once the exhilaration of knowing we had prevailed had worn off, I began to worry. What if this dog's personality had been completely warped by a life of neglect, followed by her four months in the shelter? What if she was neurotic, unsocialized, fearful? I had had one of my volunteers take a look at her early on, but she wasn't able to interact with her. She just confirmed she was a purebred Lab.
But, amazingly, Em is the sweetest, most loving dog you could ever imagine. She's beautiful, with a gorgeous glossy black coat and kind eyes that look right at you. She comes up to you slowly, sits in front of you, and licks your face, then moves on to the next person. She loves other dogs, loves car rides, loves walks. Her only small issue is she howls when people leave. Not for hours, just when they first leave. But she's not destructive and she doesn't go nuts. She's just missing you. It's sweet and sad.
Anyway, this week we put her up on the website, and I sent a note out to all volunteers highlighting her story. I said I was looking for an active retired couple who could spend a lot of time with her. Yesterday, I got a call from a couple I thought would be perfect. They had just lost their dog, but they really loved Em's story and wanted to meet her. They are retired, love to travel, doted on their last dog (they sent me pictures of her) and were looking for an older dog to love.
Today I met this couple at the foster's house and I could tell they were taken with Em. She seemed to love them too. She looked a lot like the dog they had just lost. The husband thought they should take some time to think. The wife was crying when she left. I really wanted these people to adopt her. I had a great feeling about them. At around 2 p.m., I emailed them and said it was very nice meeting them, and that I thought they would be a great match with Em but of course it was totally up to them. About 15 minutes later they called and said they wanted to adopt her. The wife said she had cried because she didn't want to leave her.
Like I said, a great day.
No comments:
Post a Comment