No More Dogs! Became Just One More…….and she changed my World

Love at First Sight

By Fiona Plumridge Walsworth

I was thrilled when I heard my sister was getting a new puppy through a rescue organization (Although I hadn’t heard of MMDR, I have always had rescues.) I was there with her the day her previous dog had died, and knew the pain from when I lost my beloved Cody, four years ago. As fate had it, instead of one puppy, my sister fell in love with, and adopted, the mother of the litter AND one of the pups!

Of course, I ended up wanting one of more sister’s dog’s pups, too. But my husband was quite adamant that we were not going to adopt one. He gave me all sorts of reasons. Most made sense. I finally let it go, and, actually, was not as sad as I thought I would be. To be honest, I wasn’t happy with much in my life at the time, I was in a depression, so what was one more disappointment?

A few days later, I saw her on the MMDR site. A picture of a little puppy on a pink and white pillow. She was black and white (my favourite dog colors) and it instantly felt like she was mine. I tried to show her to my husband. He told me to stop looking at pictures. No more dogs. But I couldn’t stop. I looked at her every single day.

She went for professional pictures a couple of weeks later. I looked them and sent a text to my sister, saying, “Oh My. Brooklyn is getting bigger. But I still really want her!” Gone was that puppy on the pink pillow. She looked completely different. She was now taller, longer andskinny. And mine. Except I had been told no more dogs. I knew I could never meet this dog. To meet her and leave her behind would have broken me. No volunteering, no adoption fairs, no nothing, until she was adopted. I was aching to become involved with MMDR. But I resolved that I would have to wait until she was adopted.
I will never forget the morning I woke up and read the post from her foster mother that she was sick. Lethargic, throwing up. She needed to go to the vet. I started shaking and reached out immediately to help. I had a car, I would take her to the vet. I had no choice. My puppy needed me.

She threw up five times in my car that day. But it didn’t matter. She was mine. I was terrified the entire time until the vet said she had likely just eaten something wrong and sent her back to her foster home. I drove her there, came home and filled out the application. Fighting it was over, now I just had to figure out how to break it to my husband.

He’s still mad about it. But Brooklyn won’t let him be mad at her. She goes over to him and cuddles. When no one is looking, he cuddles right back. When someone is looking he tells her to go find me. But she insists that he play with her. She bugs him until he does. He may be stubborn. But no one is more stubborn about love than my Brooklyn. She won’t give him a say in the matter. I think he secretly likes her already.

My other dog, Angel, needed her, too. She had not been the same since we lost my previous dog to cancer four years earlier. She seemed older now, mopey, no energy and no play. Maybe she felt like I did. But when Brooklyn came, she seems like a puppy again sometimes. And sometimes, she’s her teacher.

Brooklyn saved me. She has helped me see life in a new way, including myself. I feel something again, a peace I have not known for some time. I feel happiness, needed, loved.

I am fooling myself if I think I rescued Brooklyn. The truth is, she rescued me.

Sleepy Brooklyn

Brooklyn and Angel