Precious. That was her name and it described her and her family perfectly. When I posted this photo on the Animal Shelterâs FB page, it went viral. I had calls from rescue groups near and far wanting to take her and her pups into their foster programs. But before anyone could, the Retriever familyâs owner came to reclaim them.
Itâs not normal for a mother and her puppies to be reclaimed due to the amount of money and time it takes to care for so many dogs. But when the owner came to reclaim, I understood. In walked a mother with her daughters and one grandchild. They were here for their four legged members of the family. The mother was thin and walked as though she had been on a long journey that was slowing her down bit by bit. But her children were as lively as the puppies. Originally they had thought they were going to have to surrender the dogs because the apartment they had just moved to was not going to allow all of these dogs to move in with them. But they made the mistake of saying one last goodbye.
I led them down to see the Golden Retriever and her pups and the moment the mother dog caught sight of her owner she let out a joyous yelp! âOh Precious, donât make me cry!â The mother scolded the Golden but I could see tears were already welling up. The children gathered around and stared at their dogs locked up in a kennel. Talks of saving one of the puppies started to spread amongst them. Then I heard another daughter mention the possibility of saving two. Then the granddaughter began to cry as she saw her favorite puppy sitting in the corner in an empty dog dish. Suddenly it was determined, they were going to get their dogs back! Calls were made and soon an uncle was reported to have said the dogs could come to his farm out in the country. It couldnât be better! I watched the daughters each grab their favorite pup and carry them to the car as the mother signed the reclaim papers.
But it wasnât long before the Golden Retriever family came back. The uncle, after seeing how many dogs there were, revoked his offer, leaving the four legged family stranded without a place to stay. On the return trip, only one daughter came, walking Precious through the door slowly, with her puppies bouncing in beside her. I was struck by how similar the Retriever family reflected their human family. Precious was thin and had seen a lot in her short life but there wasnât a mean bone in her body. In fact, her gentle spirit had almost brought her down fall for though her puppies were old enough to eat food, she was still allowing them to nurse. All that suckling had shriveled her up to skin and bones but still she wagged her tail and tolerated the puppiesâ mayhem. But now this mirror was about to be shattered as the family broke up and got adopted out to different families. Precious was adopted first. Though she was the mother, her looks and personality were truly golden and she got snatched up into a wonderful new family. The in-laws of the new owner of Precious came to pick her up from the shelter since the owner was working and wouldnât be off until we closed. They told us of their grand-dogs and how they lived just across the street from their son and daughter in law. I thought it was fitting for Precious to be heading into another big family.
Thanks to the puppies being young, cute and sponsored, they all ended up getting snatched up and into new homes in no time at all. But as I took pictures of the pups with their new family members, the faces of their human family were being mirrored back to me. Here these adopters stood with a piece of these dogâs past ownerâs heart. It was sad to see the first owners leave a part of themselves here at the animal shelter. But it was wonderful to see others find value in what the owners left behind. Their broken hearts were picked up, adopted and deemed precious by perfect strangers.