How about a second incredibly happy ending in the same week?
John and Michelle W. from Buckley, Washington, had adopted a three-legged Border Collie named Cheyenne from us several years ago. Cheyenne had just endured having her right front leg cut in half by a leg-hold trap and was sitting in the animal control shelter in Browning, Montana, about to be euthanized. She had received no medical care for her leg or for her pain, and her leg was rotting and turning gangrenous. You can read Cheyenne’s story here. Fast forward, and Cheyenne now happily runs John and Michelle’s household, along with the rest of their dogs.
We had another connection with John and Michelle, because they had adopted several dogs from the same shelter in Shelton, Washington, where we adopted our own Dolly, Dillon and Shiloh when Alayne and I were living in Seattle.
John and Michelle recently lost their dog Molly to cancer, and they had always wanted to adopt another of our disabled animals when the time came. As it turned out, John emailed me about an adoption the same week that we had been asked to take Sweetie, the dog from … yes, Browning, Montana. Maybe there’s a little karma thing going on here, but Sweetie had ended up in the same shelter as Cheyenne, had the same mangled right front leg, and was rescued by the very same lady who had contacted us about Cheyenne.
Hmm.
John and Michelle said "yes" to Sweetie, and they drove out to the ranch today to pick her up and take her home.
Sweetie had been coming out of her shell while she was here, and had learned that no one was going to hit her. Although she still cowered initially, especially with men, once she realized she was safe with us she’d start wagging her tail and beaming a big smile. And while we typically don’t let our dogs jump up on us, in Sweetie’s case she had just started doing it … and this was such an affirmation that she was trusting people and overcoming her fears that … well, we were letting her do it. (We figured there was time to work with her on this later!) So here she is, saying goodbye to Alayne this afternoon:
Thank you, John and Michelle!


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