CORNBREAD AND CHOPSTICKS: Susie's Story

You know those times when you just know that you know, the times that you know that you just have to do something...

the times that you don't think, you just do...

well, the moment I saw sweet Susie's face...

and her sad little legs...

I knew that I knew that we had to do something, so I did what I knew to do...

call my awesome rescue friend, Michelle at Gimme Shelter Rescue.

You remember Michelle...

she is the one who confirmed that I am a failure...

a foster failure that is!

You see, dear Michelle brought us our Chewy and how could we have ever let him go...

I mean just look at that squishy face...

Chewy showed up and I admitted defeat...

and then along came sweet Susie...

and as much as I knew that we had to do something for this precious pup...

I think I knew from the first that she was not ours to keep...

that she was meant for another family and that we just had to hold on to her until their hearts were ready.

So we did just that...

we held on to her...

we loved her...

and then we let her go.

It was hard as we had loved her for almost 8 months before it was time but oh how thankful I am that she waited for the one family that she was meant to be with forever.

You see, Susie had been given her name by Michelle, in honor of a very special rescue dog. The original Susie had been Michelle's very first rescue, many years earlier, and had been adopted by Jim and Regina, a very sweet couple who have large hearts for their puppies!

Well, we rescued our sweet Susie right around the same time that Jim and Regina had to say good-bye to their sweet Susie after many, many years of love.

Sooooo... during the months that we were given with Susie, this sweet family stayed locked in my hopeful heart!

Imagine my delight when Michelle told me what I think my heart had known all along...

that Jim and Regina wanted to foster Susie. Their vet was familiar with the operation that Susie needed for her legs and was ready to help this precious pup have the straighter legs needed for a less painful adulthood!

As we prepared to say good bye to our sweet Susie, my heart was not as heavy as it could have been as I knew the love and the help that she was going to receive.

However, it was still hard...

we hugged her and tried to reassure her as we entrusted her to the transport who would escort her on the first leg of her very long journey.

We followed her transport car for a little while and watched as that car, along with its precious cargo, disappear down the highway. It was hard but again I was hopeful.

That very first picture after Susie was safely delivered into Jim and Regina's hearts was the best...

as was ever other picture that dear Regina sent to me, knowing how much I would need those precious glimpses into her transition and her new life.

Susie was welcomed with open hearts by Jim and Regina as well as their other doggy kiddos.

It was so sweet to watch as they eased her into her new home and prepared her for the surgeries that lay ahead and in true Susie style...

and after much love, time and attention...

she handled it all like a pro...

and I knew that she was home...

truly home...

so the day Regina told me that they would be no longer be sweet Susie's foster family...

that from that day forward, they would officially be her furever family...

I could exhale and rejoice and release that last little bit of my heart that sweet Susie took with her that day weeks before, on the first leg of that transport, when her true journey began.

Oh sweet Susie...

your quiet determination to overcome the "hard" that began your life, fit right in around here...

but I am so thankful that you are finally where you belong, where you are loved and cherished!

Soooo, not a foster failure this time...

we'll see how long that lasts, cause...

meet little Miss Pepper!

Oh boy, it's another girl!

If I can stay strong, this little bundle of cuteness will follow sweet Susie up north...

no, not to Jim and Regina...

*grin*

but to some other fabulous furever family who needs to see this precious face everyday...

and we can ~~get a farm~~ continue to love and foster more Susie's and Pepper's, cause...

the need is great...

according to The Humane Society about 2.4 million healthy, adoptable cats and dogs—about one every 13 seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year.

Chewy came to us just one day before he was scheduled to be killed.