After waiting a year and a half and then searching for several months, we have finally found a little girl to adopt. She’s an adorable 8 pound Maltese/Poodle mix puppy!
When I lost Checkers a year ago, I knew I would want another rescue dog in a couple months. Then I got engaged and knew life would get hectic. A wedding, moving, a new home — not the environment for a new puppy, so we decided to wait. It was a long wait!
The day we got back from our honeymoon, I was on Petfinder.com, a website where you can see available pets at rescues and shelters across the country. We were looking for a small female Maltese mix, which is difficult to find. But searching had a lot more ups and downs, than I anticipated. We’d see an adorable pooch, get our hopes up, call and she’d already be gone. This happened several times — sometimes they’re gone within hours. I called about one dog that had been on Petfinder.com a couple hours and someone was already filling out adoption papers!
We looked all across the country and that’s when we saw this picture and fell in love!
My husband immediately called, talked with the rescue, and the next day we found out she was ours! We were thrilled!
She was a rescue in Phoenix.
The Citizens of North Phoenix Strays say they pulled her out of a local shelter a day before she was scheduled to be put down.
I flew out to Phoenix the day after Thanksgiving to bring her home. Noemi and Toni from the rescue met me at the airport with our new puppy and we flew back the same day.
Since Checkers was named after the famous political “Checkers” speech, I wanted our new dog to be connected somehow. After some research, I found Checkers’ Mom was named Boots, and one of Checkers’ litter mates was named Bootsie. However, her rescue name was Bellerina, and my husband likes Bella. I like both, so now we’re not sure. Any suggestions?
Bootsie is about a year old and is very shy and skittish. She’s very sweet and loves to be held. She’s already made a lot of progress, and still has a way to go, but I think she is settling in nicely in her new home.
During this process, I met some wonderful and dedicated animal lovers at local shelter and rescue groups. They work hard to rescue and place pets in homes 24/7. Since many rescue groups don’t have an actual shelter, they are always in need of foster homes. If you’re thinking about a furry friend for the holidays, please look at adopting from a shelter or rescue. They make the best pets!
