Maddy
is absolutely without a doubt, my life. I work for and have been
volunteering for the local animal shelter for the past ten years. A little
over a year ago, I got a plea for a family of dogs and a couple of their
friends who were going to be euthanized at a kill shelter in
Illinois-needless to say I offered to rescue them. This family was Flo the
mother, Mel, the dad, and Flo's ten, one-week-old puppies (along with a
couple of other dogs). Soon after setting up the rescue, the family made
the long journey to update New York.
This little - well actually pretty big - family wasn't out of the woods
yet. Soon after arriving to us, the already very skinny Flo was rushed
to the vet with a uterus infection. While she recovered from the near
fatal infection, the shelter staff bottle fed all ten puppies and
miraculously all of them made it. Then, as if the family had not been
through enough, the puppies came down with a severe case of ringworm,
which Flo had been showing signs of when she came to us and must have
given it to the babies. The poor puppies just could not get rid of it
and had to remain isolated until they were four months old.
After spending so much time with these great dogs I decided that I
needed to adopt one, Brooklyn one of Flo's kids. Tragedy struck soon
after I decided to adopt him. Brooklyn and my other dogs were playing
around on the bed and he stumbled off and broke every bone in his foot.
He went in for surgery the next morning, and well, they lost him during
surgery; no reason, they just lost him. Needless to say I was beyond
heartbroken and inconsolable. And this is where Madison became my life.
Madison, still waiting for her forever home at the shelter when I lost
Brooklyn, came home with me to help me cope with the loss. Well, she
never left. While Brooklyn is irreplaceable, Madison helps me to keep
connected with him. She is my amazing shadow who follows me everywhere
and never leaves her mom; she even gets to go to work with me at the
shelter and play with lots of other dogs there. A video of her playing
with them can be viewed here.
(she is playing with the big white dog).
It took her maybe a day to learn her first tricks of "sit," "shake,"
(with both paws), and to "touch" my hand with her nose. Since then she
has blossomed into a gorgeous pit bull girl. Although she is usually
shy with new people due to the unavoidable lack of socialization as a
puppy, I believe as she ages more she will be able to fill into that
role of a spokesdog for the pit bull breed and hopefully an avid
therapy dog.
Madison makes my life complete and I could not imagine life without her.
I hope you enjoyed her story.
