The Best Dog Ever

Debbie (the snoring dog in my studio). And her favorite octopus toy. Who can resist the octopus face? Not me! Dan teasingly calls her "Road Kill" because I literally scooped her up out of the middle of a rural highway on my way to work one morning in November seven years ago. It's one of those things that I just think was meant to be. I barely noticed her as I was driving closer because I just saw this little pile of red fur in the middle of the opposite lane and assumed it was some poor creature that didn't quite make it across and didn't want to see much more of it. But as I got closer a truck in that lane straddled her and I saw this little head pop up. I immediately slammed on the brakes, pulled off to the side, jumped out and scooped her up. I had never smelled anything that smelled quite as bad as this tiny little thing and I could see she was missing most of her hair from mange. Which I'm guessing is why she was laying in the middle of the road - trying to soak up some heat from the pavement... either that or trying to put herself out of her misery. She was pitiful!

As I sat her on the floor of my truck and she looked at me with those tiny little pitiful puppy eyes I started formulating a plan of what to do next. I would stop by the local vet's office and ask where the nearest animal shelter was. I worked in Jackson county which is 2 counties over and 45 minutes away so I wasn't very familiar with where anything was other than where I worked. The vet informed me that there wasn't an animal shelter in that county and even if there was they wouldn't adopt out a puppy in her condition. They said I could leave her with them and they would euthanize her. Well that just wasn't option. Especially after I saw the desperation in those tiny little eyes. So I adopted that tiny, smelly, mangy puppy that cold day in November. I left her at the vet's office, told them to go ahead and treat her and I would be back to pick her up at 5:30 (which I'm sure they were all thinking "Yeah. Right"). Well that treatment turned into months of weekly trips to the vet for dips and daily oatmeal baths to cure one type of mange and keep the other genetic type she had under control. I remember calling Dan on my way home that day and telling him "It looks like we have another pet". And he said "Oh lord. What is it?" Because I'm known to bring home all sorts of critters. I told him it was a puppy and she had some "issues" but it wasn't anything that we couldn't fix right up ;). He wasn't exactly thrilled when he saw her "issues" and he honestly didn't think she would make it but obviously she did and now he is absolutely in love with her. I don't think a day goes by that I don't hear him saying "I love this dog! She's the best dog ever!" =)