Fospice mom Cathy shares her amazing memories with fospice gal, Hazelnut:
A Fospice Success Story
We adopted Tilly from Muttville in 2011. I wanted to do more for Muttville ( I wanted more dogs!) but it wasn’t until we lost our Skipper in 2014 that I felt it was time to try fospice. In September Hazelnut came to stay. When she arrived it was an “Awwww” moment. You can see how she looked then, so old, so fragile, so needy. While showing her around I took her out to the back deck where she immediately launched herself over the steps like Wonder Dog, raced to the chicken coop and started frantically digging for ground squirrels! There was more to this little Beagle than met the eye.
So we learned about her. Cats were fun! Meals were great! Geese were to be feared! Walks were the best! We would separate on our walks because Hazelnut would always finish 10 minutes ahead of everyone else.
She loves to play “stalking the bedskirt” wherein she circles the bed half under the skirt at a snail’s pace because she just KNOWS there’s something under there. She played that game with the Christmas tree for 3 weeks also.
Things were going along great and we really thought we knew her when in December my son brought home a 75 pound black pit bull he rescued from living under a building on his campus. Haehly was sweet, shy, and loved to run in our field. All of a sudden Hazelnut was transformed into Working Dog. The big one needed to be brought into line! So Hazelnut chased, cut, nipped, endlessly trying to catch her. Haehly sees it as a big game and loves to tease Hazelnut but she sees it as a serious job. Must Control the Big Dog! The pattern continues to this day. Much loud barking accompanies all the chasing.
Hazelnut has a fantastic appetite, loves ripping into rib bones with her terrible teeth, has been fully trained by the cats (mostly). She still flies off the deck every morning to race the property with her friend Haehly, goes on a big walk every day with her 3 buddies, loves the vet where they lavish treats on her, wakes me up at dawn for breakfast and has started to play tug of war after watching Haehly. Can’t wait to get her up to the mountains where Tilly is the champion hiker. She’ll probably turn into Mountain Rescue Dog or something equally wonderful.
Hazelnut may be a fospice but she has proven that a second chance is all a dog really needs. She’s living her life vigorously, having loads of fun (mixed in with her work of course, that big dog won’t train herself!) and we are having the best time watching it all. What fun for all of us! Thanks Muttville for giving little Hazelnut the chance she needed.
Update: On Sept. 10, dear little Hazelnut passed away. She was tucked up in her bed sleeping next to me. She had recovered from her illness but then started to slow down. She kept to her daily routines of walks, car rides and minding the big dog until the end . She never gave up. Our hearts are broken we miss her so much.
Thank you for all you did for her. We were blessed to witness such a joy for life and will never forget her….
With love
Cathy
9/15/15
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'.
