With the hectic lifestyle of an IT Project Manager and a traveling Sales Engineer, how could we ever adopt a dog? We have a nice house with nice furniture. We have cats. We don't even have a fence. We don't have ANY free time. We don't know anything about dogs. Yes, we had dogs when we were children, but it has been a while. We like to travel. We had every excuse in the book.
Fast forward to a nice day in July, we see a courtesy post on Facebook from a senior dog rescue called Promise 4 Paws. Champ is a 14 year old lab that needs help. We don't know what to expect, we don't know the exact situation, but maybe we can help this guy for a little while. Worst case, we can foster for a couple weeks until we find him a permanent home. His humans are moving and he can't go with. How heartbreaking for him that his humans are moving and they picked the one apartment complex in the city that won't take dogs. What a poor excuse to abandon this old boy. Well, anyways, their loss. We'll step up and help this old guy for at least a couple weeks.
A day later, we meet the family at Champ's house. They aren't home yet but should be there in a few minutes. We go inside and there he is! Wait a minute, there is NOTHING in the house but Champ. He is laying on a worn spot on the carpet. No bed, no blankets, and no furniture. "We had to move last week and we've been coming back once or twice a day to let him out to stretch his legs." Once or twice a day? This dog is 14 years old. Enough said, we'll take him home.
The next day, he walks nervously through the front doors of his new home. He is a little timid from the high ceilings, but at least he'll have furniture, a soft bed, and a couple cat companions to snuggle with. Champ immediately fits right in and we know that we aren't ONLY fostering him. He doesn't bark, he doesn't beg for anything, he doesn't make a mess. He fits right in with our laid back lifestyle and you can tell that he is immediately grateful that he is home and his family is living in the house with him.
We didn't consider that Champ's time could be short although he was a very senior dog. We provided him with the best care possible. We unfortunately found out he had some terminal health problems that he wouldn't overcome. He went over the Rainbow Bridge only two months after we brought him home. Time moves so fast and we are eternally grateful for two short months of time that he gave us. This experience was a piece of our lives that we didn't realize we were missing. This short experience was difficult, but we gained so much more than we lost. We get asked all the time how we can do this because it is so daunting to think about rescuing a pup and having to say goodbye only a couples months later. The answer that we always give is "how couldn't we do this?"
Only two weeks later (and through another friend posting on Facebook), we began chapter two in our dog rescuing journey.
Love,
Troy Cogswell, Cogs Dogs Dad
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