Monday, May 10, 2010

How a Dog Got a Home

 
Our dog, Juno, has been with us for two years this May.  She has a sad, pathetic, tragic story so I thought I would share it with you.

Two years ago we were talking about getting a dog, and then we were asked to look after a 10-month old puppy for a weekend.  After that we all decided NO DOG.  Way too much work.  So a few months later hubby and I were at a party with our bridge group and I was telling the story of looking after this puppy who was into everything and how we had decided not to get a dog.  The woman beside me obviously thought we could still be persuaded because she asked me if I wanted a dog.  The previous evening a little Yorkie had shown up in her breezeway (and she lives out in the country) all wet and shivering and covered in burrs.  She couldn't keep it so she wondered if we wanted it.  

We went home and discussed it with the kids.  We didn't even know what a Yorkie looked like so we Googled pictures of them.  We saw pictures like this:


and this:

 and this:


Yikes!!!  Apologies if anyone reading this has a Yorkie that looks like these ones, but they just weren't to our taste.  Then we found some that looked like this:


and this:


and we were reassured that they actually were normal looking dogs.  So we decided that we should give this little lost Yorkie a home.  After we picked up our new dog, we called around to the Humane Society to see if she was lost, but the Humane Society told us that another Yorkie (a male) was found in the same general area and they had run ads in the newspaper and noone had responded.  The Humane Society thought that both Yorkies were from a puppy mill and had been dumped together out in the country.  We took our dog to the vet and found out that she was probably about 6-7 years old and had been the mother in the puppy mill.  She has very enlarged nipples, had a lax belly, and had dark marks on her belly that the vet said were likely the marks of an old uterine infection.  So she had probably had one litter after another and now that she was older they got rid of her.  Thankfully the blood tests and her examination showed that she was a very healthy dog apart from being a bit thin.  

We picked the name Juno because we wanted a name that was not too feminine (scared off  by those crazy bows-in-the hair photos), but was still a girl's name.  Juno seemed to reflect the following, in no particular order:
  • Juno is the Roman goddess of marriage and childbirth (seemed appropriate given her past)
  • William wanted a tough guard dog sort of name so he expanded her name to "Juno-the-war-dog"
  • Juno beach given that our daughter, Kate, had just returned from Normandy, France three days before we got our dog
  • Juno the movie because Kate likes the movie - a lot - okay that was a weak reason but somehow it still counted
  • Juno was easy to say and sounded like a good name for a dog
We have all fallen truly, madly, deeply in love with our dog.   I was probably one of the least keen on getting her and I have ended up being alpha dog.

I have to say that having a dog, has given a whole new meaning to the phrase "working like a dog".  See what I mean, this is what Juno does 23 hours a day.
 

One last photo of our camo-dog at the cottage.
 

12 comments:

  1. Oh, I love this post. My mom tried to keep our yorkie looking like the google pics but that lasted only the first year. It was too much work. So, our Yorkie had a "puppy cut" his whole life. I'm glad you gave that dog a sweet home after what she's been through. I am a dog lover and have never been without one. By the way, my parents were in a bridge group while I was growing up. Later in life, it remained their game of choice when friends came over. Reading that in your post just brought back some great memories.

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  2. Thank you for giving her a home. Dogs need people like you..she's beautiful..Rxx

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  3. I like this post alot better...stick with the furry four legged kind!
    But truly how wonderful to get a rescue! My two cats and last dog were all throw aways.
    I'm a true animal lover and I love to hear these happy ending stories!!

    I'm dying to know if you got alot of feed back from your "interesting" post yesterday...I can't scroll down and look. Actually I thought about having Sam do it for me lol !

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  4. She is a sweet little dog! Your home & family are probably paradise to her! You did a good deed!

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  5. You are officially a doggie hero, and mine too. We breed King Shepherds (a wee bit larger than Juno there) and are actively involved in shutting down puppy mills. I'm so glad this little momma found you and you her and Juno is a great name! "Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole" Roger Caras.

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  6. Juno is a very lucky puppy dog to have found such a wonderful place to "retire"!! Dogs really do provide so much happiness and joy in our lives, and it breaks my heart to know that people exploit them through places like puppy mills! So glad your sweet Juno is loved and well cared for!

    Kat :)

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  7. Aren't rescue dogs the best?! Yours looks like she found the perfect home. Love the camo pic.
    Connie

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  8. Adorable dog! Loved the other pics - hilarious actually. The only dog that has ever bit me was a Yorkie so I take some time to warm up to them.

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  9. Oh my word—I'm nearly in tears! Juno was meant to be yours...a good home and a loving family is certainly what she needed. And who wouldn't love that little creature? She seems so sweet.

    Thanks for sharing such a heart-warming story :)

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  10. I have never chosen a pet of my own but I have never been without at least one or two or more. Seems like strays just know where to come. We now have 4 cats and had a beautiful little Yorkie that we inherited from our daughter when her first child was born. She was a sweetheart and we loved her so. She developed cancer and we lost her at age 5 two years ago. We still miss her. We had never had a small dog before and did not think we would like one but she sure changed our minds. They are wonderful little dogs.

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  11. Oh how lucky for her and for you! I'm sure she will bring you many years of love for what you are now giving her. My heart is so happy!

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  12. Oh my...I can't even imagine anyone dropping little Yorkies out in the wilderness to fend for themselves. My heart breaks just thinking about it. Juno was one lucky Yorkie pup!

    And, yes, Simon also has lost some teeth ~ hence the tongue "tickin" out!! As we call it ~ it's so darn cute!

    I really think that photo of Juno sleeping in the sunlight could be Simon. He has the exact same bangs and hair color!

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