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Approximatley 1 Year Ago...

2K views 22 replies 17 participants last post by  Ranger 
#1 ·
A litter of puppies was born in the Kansas City area after an accidental breeding or due to an irresponsible breeder. They were golden / lab mixes. There were at least two girlies in the little, a lab-looking girl of chocolate color, and a fuzzier, golden-looking girl with black fur. Some weeks later, the irresponsible tried to sell / give away these puppies in a Walmart parking lot. No one wanted the two girls though, so the irresponsible person dumped them.

Thankfully the good people at Second Chance Pet Adoptions rescued them and put them into foster care before the puppy mill owner nearby took them in as breeding stock. They called the black one Rachel after someone's girlfriend.


I had been searching Petfinder.com and well, just about every other avenue for a second dog almost since we bought Lucy, because we just love her so much. One day early in October I ran across the ad for Rachel. I always wanted to rescue a black lab / golden mix, too. Something in her eyes told me I would love her a long time. I sent her info on to Bart. He loved her too.

So, the next weekend we drove up to a suburb of KC to "look" at Rachel. I held her once and knew she was supposed to be with us. On the drive home, we discussed names for her, since we both didn't think of her as a Rachel. I had named Lucy, so it was really Bart's turn to name this one.

Bart is a weather nut, so we tried to think of something weather related like Stormy or Windy. Then we realized we were taking her out of Kansas. Gale is weather related. What about Dorothy Gale? I decided we should shorten it to "Dory" for training purposes though.

All was great until we got home. Lucy didn't like this nippy puppy at first. We worried we had made a huge mistake. Then they grew on each other. In a week's time Lucy had grown very protective of her little sister. She still is.

Nine months and a little later, Dory is as much a fixture as Bart, Lucy, or me. She sleeps on the foot of our bed every night. She has since the first night at the house, because Bart couldn't handle listening to her crying. At first she had some separation anxiety, probably due to being dumped. That's all but gone now. Because she's had Lucy as a guide, she hasn't been as difficult to train in some ways.

She's the biggest sweetheart and just loves to love and be loved. She does a little dance with a toy to get Lucy to play with her or chase her. She saved my life when we were out swimming recently and Lucy unknowingly tried to drown me. Every time I started to cry after our miscarriage in the winter, she ran (even hurdled the couch) to try and comfort me. I couldn't do without her.

I'm thankful that she was born this time last year every day.








With her cousin Apache who is just a week or so younger than her.


This is how they used to play tug of war, with Lucy dragging Dory.




Giving Daddy snow kisses

















Running with Cousin Apache when she came to visit us before Uncle Boone deployed to Afghanistan last week.




Her favorite way to rest
 
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#8 ·
l love this, what a great story.

That picture of them both looking at the camera (backpack in the background) is wonderful.
 
#13 ·
What a wonderful story and a beautiful dog. It sounds like it was fated that you found each other. Thanks for sharing, I needed something uplifting :)
 
#19 ·
What a beauty. I did a double take at the pic of her and Apache. We had an Apache.... a black lab/springer mix that looked so very much like your Dory. SUCH a love. We got her as a pup and had her until she went to the bridge at almost 15.

BTW, we named her Apache after the Apache tears rocks found in Arizona. The legend had it that a terrible illness had spread thru the tribe and many young ones were lost. In mourning, the women would go to the side of a cliff and cry over those lost. The stones found along the side of that mountain are jet black and shiny as glass and said to be good luck pieces.
 
#23 ·
Wow, gorgeous dog! LOVE the pics of her and Lucy together! What a happy ending for such a sweet looking girl!
 
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