Thank you Jill for sharing your love story with Alma! It is sure to bring a smile to many faces:
“My husband and I lived with our pack of three dogs for years. We had two girls, a blue heeler and a brown mutt, and a little male terrier mix. A pack of three distinct personalities is a bit of a challenge but also terrifically fun and rewarding. Our darling girls reached the end of their lives, both between 15 and 16 years old, within 7 months of each other and suddenly our hearts and our house were far too empty.
When we were ready to start looking for another dog I cast a wide net, checking every kind of organization from public shelters to breed rescues to private shelters and was rather overwhelmed with the variety and number of individuals everywhere in need. We only had two things in mind: we could not get another cattle dog because it was so devastating to lose our Roo, and we were interested in having a larger dog this time around. My husband in particular was thinking about a big ‘galumph’ of a guy. We took a trip up to Grass Valley to meet a shepard/ husky mix but she was still too feral from having lived on her own in the desert for who knows how long, I met a rottie mix who was a major escape artist and couldn’t be left alone in our yard, I kind of fell in love with a pit mix but she had major separation anxiety. It is worth mentioning that our brown mutt, Georgia, was very dog reactive. She required a lot of extra work and planning ahead for the twelve years or so that we had her, and though she was our darling Gigi, we honestly wanted our next dog to be plug-n-play. In other words, no drama.
As time went on we came to understand that even though we were thinking big, Dodi (our wonderful terrier mix) tends to prefer smaller dogs and that this should really be about him, of course. I also started to feel that I wanted another old soul, having just spent several years in the wonderful company of our two old ladies. I was already a fan of Muttville so one day I checked the website and I think it may have been that very day that I found Alma.
Alma was a small terrier mix about 12 years old who liked the company of people and dogs, tolerated cats, and was sporting the cutest turtle neck sweater in her photo. I filled out the application. I met Alma outside her foster mom’s house and I was astonished at how tiny she was. I took her string of a leash to walk her to the park and I almost immediately stepped on her, to which she responded with a perfunctory snap at my pant leg. I was starting to like her. Her behavior at the dog park cinched the deal though, because all six pounds of her walked amongst the running pit bulls and every other size and shape of dog as if she’d seen it all a million times (and I’m sure she has). She pee-marked everywhere and then laid in the sun, totally independent from her foster mom and myself. I called my husband and we agreed to a trial adoption.
We have now had Alma (Almie, Ammy, Yam-Yam) for 15 months and she is a huge six pound presence in the house! She and Dodi get along fine, she has a collection of cold weather coats and sweaters, and there are little steps all over the house leading up to the couches and beds. She is hysterically funny (she snorts like a little piglet), she has no teeth (and her breath is perfect!), she is proud and fearless, and she totally owns me. Alma was loved in her life before she came to Muttville and I am just so grateful and happy that Muttville brought her to us so we can now love her even more. A happy ending indeed!”
11/13/13
Are you the proud parent of a Muttville dog? Send us your story! Include three of your favorite photos and send it to success_stories@muttville.org with the subject line 'Success Story'.
