My family and I have always been animal lovers. I got my first puppy in 2008 and we’ve been best friends ever since. Carla, my 12-year-old shorkie, is the queen of the house. In 2014, I rescued a kitten off the streets and cleaned her up. My cat, Trouble, is one of the fiercest cats we’ve ever encountered.
We continued to foster and rescue animals after Trouble, but they always found homes in the end, which is the ultimate goal. In October of 2017, one of our fosters didn’t exactly leave the nest as we had hoped. We took in two small dog mixes who were from a kill shelter but had nowhere to go until they found their forever home. They were rescued from the euthanasia list in ACC NYC. Leo, a 5lb tan chihuahua mix, and Nena, a 7lb black and white jack russell mix. They arrived at our home one night at 10 p.m. and couldn’t stop shaking. As the weeks went by, Nena wasn’t doing well in our home. She was acting out, which happens when in a new environment, but we knew she’d thrive better in a calmer home. We eventually found her a place to go, and we think of her often! Leo, on the other hand, was another story.
As I said, Leo was 5lbs. This was very underweight for a dog his size, and they told us his last home only fed him hot dogs, which explains his poor teeth. According to his papers, he was in three previous homes and given up every few years. He was labeled “unadoptable” because he couldn’t stop shaking and wouldn’t let them really touch him. This upsets me all the time. They were going to put him down just because he was scared. A week after his sixth birthday, his owners said they didn’t want him anymore. This caused him to not trust many people. The saddest part of this was that he showed signs of abuse. Whenever we’d raise our voice in the house, he’d shiver in the corner. If I had my hand in the air or even lift a newspaper, he’d snap at me. My family and I worked on this with him, and he eventually started to lighten up. He started to gain weight and let us give him affection. As we looked for his forever home, people looked down upon him. He was too shy, too shaky, too unpredictable. Spending so much time with him, we soon realized that we didn’t have to look any longer for his home. He already found a forever family, with us.
Now, I know you’re thinking, “This girl just told us this whole story, but she didn’t say why he changed her life” but the thing is, this whole story is how he changed my life. I watched a skinny, little dog go from deemed “unadoptable” to a “man’s best friend”. I used to hold him when he’d cry, and now there are times he cuddles with me while I cry. I watched him learn how to trust somebody to hold him. Whenever I raise my hand, though he still gets nervous, he realizes my hand isn’t going to hurt him. I raise my hand to give him belly rubs. Whenever I raise my voice, it’s to call for him to play or snuggle with me.
Though Leo will never forget his past, I’m so fortunate to be his present and his future. Everybody always tells me that we saved him, but I think he truly saved me.