Princess

We’ll start with Princess–the Matriarch.

Princess will be 12 this coming September, and from our best guess, she is most likely an Australian Cattle Dog (ACD)/Border Collie (BC) mix. I know, I know…you’re probably thinking how the hell a college student can handle a mix of those two neurotic breeds. While Princess does exhibit other traits of those breeds, she is not some spaz-tastic lunatic of fur.

We adopted Princess when she was about six years old from a friend of a friend. She had been sitting in the local shelter for some time when she finally got adopted. Good, right? Well, good for us, but not good on the shelter’s part or for the family who originally adopted Princess. The family already owned another female herding breed, and having two alpha dogs in the same house, especially females, is not something you want to have with two small children! It’s asking for trouble.

So, they called the shelter and asked to return Princess but only if she was not in danger of being euthanized (in a gas chamber nonetheless). The shelter said she was in no danger, but in reality, she would have been put to sleep if Shelli had not stepped up.

Shelli was the nextdoor neighbor of my supervisor and volunteered at the shelter while setting up her own rescue organization. Shelli had a friend from Colorado who was VERY interested in Princess, but he lost out after his girlfriend said there was no way he would be bringing that dog back home with him.

All this time, I had no idea of what was going with this beautiful girl whose brown eyes pleaded with me as I browsed her listing daily on Petfinder.com. She was listed as “special needs,” but there was something about her that captivated me. For two weeks, I checked her listing to see if she had been adopted, and when I found out from my supervisor that she had been moved to a foster home (Shelli) and two adoptions had already fallen through, I got an overwhelming feeling that it was meant for her to come home with us.

Princess had heartworms. Something so preventable would slowly kill her if she was not treated soon. This was her “special need.” We met with Shelli that night and discussed our options as we’d never dealt with heartworms before. She waived the adoption fee under the condition we would have Princess treated immediately. It was the best $300 I’ve ever spent.

Princess is the reason for us being involved with rescue work. If it had not been for Shelli and the group she established, we would not have known the seriousness of the homeless animal population, we would not have known the amount of love that oozes from these souls after being rescued…

Princess is my girl. She is a typical ACD in that she is a velcro dog–never leaves my side. Princess is content to lounge around and watch TV all day, but if I’m up for a game of soccer or a trip to the beach, she’ll happily join me. She’s what you’d call a “heart dog.”

Princess has been with us for almost six years, and I can’t imagine how things would be if we’d never had the opportunity to share our life with her. She has served as a rescue ambassador to churches and daycares and would most likely be a certified therapy dog if her dad and I had more time. She’s already proven to us that she’s pretty good at the therapy part.