Alba, the new addition!

by Rachel Stewart
(St. Pete, FL)

When I lived at home with my parents, one of the people in the neighborhood would walk their dog every night, and I always remember being enchanted by the large fluffy dog.

My husband and I have two children and their safety was the utmost concern when deciding on a dog. The dog is a family member, and I refused to bring anyone into the house if I knew they had a tendancy toward aggressiveness with children.

I grew up with border collies, and loved them. I knew how capable they were, and intelligent.

When I looked here in our local shelter, a sweet face came across the screen and her name was Jane. She was a Great Pyr, and she looked so sad in her cage. I read more about the breed and realized that was the enchanting dog that I always saw and had fallen in love with when I was younger.

I looked over the rescue sites and Jane kept popping up here and there. My husband knew how badly I needed to fill the empty, dog shaped space in our family and sugggested going to the Humane Society to have a look. I went right for the big dog sectionm because I knew, Jane being a Great Pyr, would probably be there, but to my dismay she wasnt, and my heard sank. We went over to the smaller dogs just to have a look and half way down the kennel on the right I spotted a mass of white. "It's Jane!" I said so happy! "She's a Pyr!" I told my husband so excitedly!!

Come to find out Jane, was heartworm positive, and there was a long missive posted on her kennel about how she was a Pyr and she was this kind of dog and that kind of dog and they were going to be very specific as to who adopted her.

The anxiety welled up in me. They dont usualy adopt heartworm positive dogs to families that have small children because they cannot be excited, but we decided to ask for a visit with her any way. There were a few people in line before us, and we waited, sitting on the floor in front of her cage, rubbing her ears through the fencing. Our time finally came to visit with her and we were escorted to the outdoor pens, and the guide brought her out to us. She was fairly aloof, almost like she was just going through the motions. We knew we loved her the moment we saw her. She regarded us with least concern, but did go out of her way to lick the baby, who is 18 months, as she babbled away to the dog.

The girl went over her treatments for the heartworm, and that she is about 20 lbs underweight. That she is a special needs dog, and we had the option to foster her untill she has her last treatment for the heartworms which will be on 06/02/14.

We had only intended on looking and brought our small car with two car seats and no room for a large dog, so we said we would go home and do some shopping to get the house ready for her, and that we would be back in the morning to take her home.

I spent the next night unable to sleep because I hated that she was stuck in a cage still.

The next morning husband went to work, and the smallest child and I went to the shelter to get our girl.

They took our leash and collar that we bought for her and brought her out to us. I called to her "Hey girl!" and she fell at our feet, tail wagging, pressing herself into me. She did the same thing to my 4 year old when she got home and saw her for the first time.

It brought tears to my eyes.

She has been home for two days now and I already love this dog like she were one of my kids, because she is. She needs some TLC, and lots of food, but she is going to be worth every penny spent and every moment taken up.

She gets to spend the rest of her days with us as a family, with little girls reading her stories and having tea parties, and being out of a cage and into a home. This dog is bursting with potential!

I know she is going to be an amazing girl!!!!