Our wonderful foster mom, Candy, requested I write our “success” story. I’m not sure I agree “success” is the correct word – it’s not strong enough for adding the perfect member to your family, but I’ll use it for now as no other words occur to me that adequately describe what my family and I have experienced the past few weeks.
Up until the first part of October, my family included a different four-legged member, an 80 lb golden retriever named Sage. He was extremely aggressive and destructive from the moment we brought him home and seemed to want nothing to do with us. He started developing even more odd behavior traits and was eventually diagnosed with neurological damage as all litter mates also exhibit his same behavior. he had what the vet called a “psychotic episode” and attacked me in our home for no known reason. I amazingly managed to escape with only my shirt torn and a few marks on my arm, but we decided that we had to surrender him to the vet at that time as the risk was finally too great.
We found Georgia after a few days of searching. We had immediately decided we were going to be very, very selective this time in what dog we invited to be a part of our family. I cannot tell you how much my whole family appreciates the idea of fostering. It allowed us to already know her temperament, how she got along with other animals, and especially how she got along with other humans. I emailed Candy our application along with our story (as you can tell by now, I’m kind of wordy, so it was a long email!) since I had to explain about our surrendering our Sage. She immediately emailed and called back saying she believed Georgia was the perfect addition to our family. She went above and beyond to make sure we were the family lucky enough to adopt Georgia, and for that, she will be in our thoughts and prayers for the rest of our lives.
Now, since I’m a proud new mama, I have to brag! Our whole family, extended members included, agrees that Georgia is the absolute perfect addition to our family. She already had Cassie and I wrapped around her little paw before we even met her due to all the wonderful information Candy was able to provide about her, and she won over Daddy immediately, too. Dave, who I have always known as a “I want a big dog” kind of guy but who agreed we needed a smaller dog due to our previous experience, fell totally in love with her immediately.
Our favorite is when Georgia goes “nuts” and starts running around the house and jumping on our bed and tackling whomever is there. Dave is greeted with a smile and laughter by his whole family every night, which is such a change from the anxiety that was there before. The other night, Georgia was running around the house, and Cassie ran to the bed to be tackled. She started laughing so hard, and Dave looked at me and said “I haven’t heard her laugh that hard in the house in years.” We take her any place we can because she is family and should be with us everywhere we go. She agrees. I cannot describe the feeling of peace I now have in my house and also the feeling of joy. It is overwhelming at times to think of the anxiety we had – I didn’t realize it at the time, but Georgia has taken all that away and replaced it with all the love and joy her little heart can hold.
I could go on and on with many more Georgia stories, but I just realized how long this is already! I’m not a good writer, and I apologize for that, but I don’t believe anyone could adequately describe the love, joy, and peace our family and home now have because of Georgia. Please know that I thank everyone that was in any way remotely responsible for bringing Georgia in to our lives. My daughter will now know what it is like to love and enjoy a four-legged family member every day. She is already talking about wanting to be an “animal rescuer” when she grows up. We are eternally grateful and owe everyone so much. We are also making it our mission in life to make sure Georgia is just as grateful every day of her life. I hope we succeed.
–Barb, Dave, Cassie, and Georgia