When Nate and I decided that we wanted a dog, I knew I wanted to go the rescue route. There are many great breeders out there, but there are already so many dogs looking for good homes. I knew that’s where my heart was. Nate had never had a dog and I also knew that asking him to take on a dog that potentially came with a lot of baggage was asking a lot.
We also knew we needed a low shedding dog because of Nate’s allergies and anything with “oodle” in it is a competitive adoption market to say the least. Dogs are listed and within a few hours, they are already gone. I spent about a year plugged into every poodle and doodle rescue from Colorado to Florida. I heard about the National Mill Dog Rescue located in Colorado Springs, Colorado through various groups and spent many-a-hour looking at their rescues. A group of staff and volunteers take their large Sprinter vans throughout the midwest and they rescue dogs from commercial breeders who relinquish them. Sometimes they rescue 20 dogs and sometimes it’s 70. They always do an off loading when the van arrives back at NMRD and watching the dogs being brought off is both heartbreaking and beautiful. Many of these dogs are older and have a host of health and behavioral challenges. I saw a dog that I was interested in back in November and we were all set to meet her and then my nephew died suddenly. After his passing, dog adoption wasn’t an option (we were barely surviving) and felt that we had missed our adoption chance.
As healing goes, I started to be open to looking again for a dog through NMDR this spring. At the end of February, I contacted the coordinator and inquired about a dog we might be interested in meeting. Because we had built a bit of a relationship by that point and the coordinator knew the type of dog we were interested in, she emailed me and said that she didn’t think that the dog I was interested in would be a good fit, BUT she had another dog who wasn’t even on the website yet that had just arrived. She would hold her for us if we could drive down and meet her soon. She was a 2 year old standard poodle who was described as “sweet and shy.” Enter my Miley girl (named after the mile high city).
When we met Miley (Lacey at the time), I was taken aback by her level of fear. I knew she would be shy and lack social skills, but I was still shocked at how nervous she actually was. When you see it first hand, it’s both overwhelming and difficult to process. During our meeting, we were patient, slow moving, and she eventually came over for treats and let us pet her. She had likely never seen grass and everything was and largely still is new for her. I knew that we were taking on a challenge and we would have to be all in for us to give her what she needed.
The day after we had our meet and greet I received a call from the rescue informing us that Miley had had puppies that day. I honestly can’t make this up. When we met her, Nate inquired about her looking like she had had puppies and they told us that she had likely had a litter recently. She was so new to the rescue at that time that she hadn’t gone through a medical intake yet. When they walked into her kennel, she had already had one puppy and had a C-section for her other two (two boys and a girl). During her C-section, she was also spayed and she will never be forced into breeding again.
After her surprise puppies, Miley went to a foster home for 8 weeks to nurse and raise her pups till they could also be adopted. It was an option for us to foster the puppies, but Nate and I were not equipped to take on such a massive undertaking. After 8 weeks, we were able to make the drive to get her and I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t ready to give up that night. There were tears shed and I wasn’t sure we’d make it through the night. She had a tooth removed prior to us picking her up and the medicine resulted in a number of messes being made on our rugs and I have never seen a dog so nervous. She paced for hours upon hours through the night and refused to lay down. She would start to fall asleep standing up and jolt awake before she would start pacing again. At around 4 AM, she finally collapsed from pure exhaustion and for the next week she slept for 10-12 hours at a time.
Through these massive adjustments, she’s become my shadow dog and follows me diligently from room to room. Despite this, when she is left on her own, she hasn’t chewed anything or had any accidents in the house. There is howling when I leave, but her separation anxiety is manageable so far. She is shy, but never aggressive. She walks great on a leash and has gone to the dog park a number of times to meet other dogs. Her challenges are unique though and not related to behavior. If anything, it’s learning how to be a dog. There is little interest in toys or playtime (she does like to run up the stairs though.) She also loves pets, but she doesn’t seek them out and you have to go to her. She did lay on my leg yesterday and moments like that are big milestones for us. She also recently learned that she can go to the bathroom outside of our own backyard. Things like this sound silly, but she really is a blank canvas. There is a light in her eyes that wasn’t there before and her curiosity about things grows everyday. She stiffs things more than ever and is developing her own personality. We are working to get her skin and fur healthy and she is a little underweight. Right now she can eat all the treats and meats that she wants and we are content with spoiling her. I also love seeing Nate love her. He had never experienced the love you can have for a pet and seeing him dote on his dog girl makes me love him even more.
The biggest take away from adopting Miley is the patience that’s required. There are moments where all I want is for her to pick up a ball and run with it, but it’s all in her own time. We are happy to go at her pace and things will happen when she’s ready. We honestly didn’t know how much we needed her and I believe that she was always meant to be ours. Life is funny that way. She is a silly and sweet blessing that fills our days with such joy and laughter. The kindness that she shows is remarkable despite how she has been treated by other people. She is willing to trust and to forgive. Many dogs in her situation struggle to overcome that trauma, but she is incredibly resilient and every milestone is a reminder of how far she’s come.
-xo
Darcy