Sunday, August 23, 2009

A Dog's Tale

It's been entirely too long since my last blog entry. But lots of stuff has been happening. Most blogworthy is the story of Bo the Rescue Dog.

It all started when I got a message from a fellow church member and animal person, on Thursday the 6th. There were several photos attached, including this one:


The message made it clear that this was Bo, a stray who had been picked up by Sulphur Springs Animal Control, and he was scheduled to be... well... gone, one way or another, on Friday the 7th.

Something about him got my attention. So I posted him on my profile in the social networking platform referred to herein as Tracelook and asked if anyone could help. I got several comments. Enough that the next morning, I called the animal control officer's number listed in the email, and sure enough, Bo was still there.

But, there was good news: There was someone who wanted to adopt him! In Houston. With a schedule that didn't permit her driving to Sulphur Springs to get him (a 300-mile trip, one-way). I told the animal control officer, who had totally fallen in love with Bo, that I'd see what I could do... and went back to Tracelook.

Several people (including RevGals from several different states) offered up prayer, and I'm pretty sure it worked... It couldn't have been much longer than 15 minutes before I had offers of a possible ride for Bo to the DFW area, someone willing to keep him for a few days if nobody else surfaced to fill that need, and a ride from the DFW area to Houston the following Thursday from a friend who was headed there anyway.

Within a few hours, each of those elements worked themselves into place. A former boyfriend of Susie's lives in Sulphur Springs and is as much of a sucker for animals as we are. He filled out Bo's adoption forms after work that day and drove him to Dallas. He and Susie made arrangements to meet Liz and Ken for a foster-family handoff. Liz kept him from Friday night until Thursday morning, quickly becoming attached and deciding that this fostering thing wasn't something she could do all the time (I don't blame her!).

Here's Bo in his temporary home, sitting with Ken and Angel (he's the little blurry one on the right):


...and here cuddling with Liz while Angel watches:


The following Monday I got to go meet sweet Bo at Liz and Ken's house. What a doll...


And on Thursday, Mary Brooke and Clayton picked him up and took him to his new home in Houston. Here MB (on the right) is leaves him with Vickie, his new mama (left):

Bo now has his own page on Tracelook and many people involved in his trip to Houston are keeping up with him. We're glad Vickie is sharing him with us in that small way.

Yes, social media's uses are limited. It's not the same as face-to-face relationships. But I'm mighty glad that in this case, it provided the framework for our impromptu Underpup Railroad, and we know one little dog has a happy home because of it.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Love this! Love you and your love for dogs, too.

God_Guurrlll said...

I second what Songbird said.

RevAnne said...

Great job! (and--what they said!_

Kirsten said...

I love this story! A happy ending for all and a forever home for Bo.

Michelle said...

So happy that you were able to make it all work out. I have found that "tracelook" is good for a lot of those things. I got to see my 7th grade English teacher at brunch on Sunday by accident, and I totally wouldn't have recognized him in person had I not seen his pictures. :)

Anyway, I'm proud of you and see you next week! :)

Korean Cowgirl said...

Nice story. Not enough happy endings these days.

zorra said...

(I have been so out of the blogloop this week.)
You know I love this!