Happy Tales

Mabel was a stray one of our volunteers pulled from the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter earlier this year, and although she was never officially put into our adoption program, she was definitely an honorary GAO dog!

Mabel is 7, blind, and very obese. When we came to get her from the shelter, she was lying on the ground like a puddle of dog, not willing to even get up. The shelter is a stressful place for any dog, so imagine how a blind dog who already isn’t feeling very well would feel there. We took her home, loved on her, and tried to get her moving again. She lost about 5 pounds while she was with us. She came to GAO adoption events and sported the Blind Dog vest that our beloved Kenni used to wear before she passed away earlier this year.

Less than a month after she was taken into a foster home, a wonderful family who found her through the Wilco website adopted her! They take her everywhere – the farmers market, the ranch, horse shows, you name it. She is an only dog and is very spoiled. She has the best life now.

I first saw Gus (then known as Otter) on the Georgetown Animal Outreach Facebook page in January of 2017. He was adorable and I knew I had to have him! I wasn’t looking for another dog at the time, I still had my 15 year old dachshund, Lexi, alive and well plus three cats to take care of. For some reason, though, I knew I had to meet this puppy. I contacted GAO and arranged to meet him the next day. It was love at first sight! He was adorable and nuzzled right up to me in Laura’s office that day. We arranged a home visit the next day. Now I had to break the news to my fiance’. I hadn’t told him I was even looking for a dog, much less a puppy! The next day came around and Gus was brought to our house. While it wasn’t exactly love at first sight for my fiance’, he reluctantly agreed to let him stay while the paperwork and foster-to-adopt agreement went through. I was smitten by his soft fur and big, brown eyes. He immediately had a home.

Six weeks later, I would be given the news nobody wanted to hear. My mother, who had been fighting ovarian cancer for the past ten years had made the decision to forgo any further treatment as the cancer had spread. I was devastated. My mother had always been my rock, and now I had to face the news that she was dying. I took a leave of absence to take care of her, but it took me away from home and my Gus. Anytime I did come home briefly, I would sit on the floor with him and his puppy-ways would stop long enough for him to lay his head on my knee and just let me pet him. I found solace in him during a time that was incredibly difficult. Six weeks later, my mother was gone. It was the hardest time in my life as i went through the motions of taking care of loose ends as well as her funeral. I didn’t see Gus for almost two weeks during this time. When it was finally time to go home, I walked in the door and just fell to the floor, my emotions quickly taking over. Gus quietly came over and just laid his head on my lap, letting me pet and hug him until the tears quit falling.

Ever since that time, he has been my faithful companion. He is never more than a few feet away, knows when I’m feeling down or not well, laying his head in my lap to comfort me. My fiance quickly grew to love him during this time, having never had dogs of his own. He saw the devotion and love from this dog like no other person ever had. Gus saved me and my life will forever be devoted to taking care of him and being his person.

Little Sofie Galaxy’s life wasn’t always a bowl of cherries. She was picked up as a stray, pregnant and with a cherry eye, and taken to the Bastrop shelter where they found that she also had heartworms. So GAO brought Sofie straight into a foster home, where she could have her pups in a calm, quiet setting.

And then she had nine(!) gorgeous puppies – The Guardians of the Galaxy litter! Sofie was a wonderful mom, and once her pups found their forever homes, Sofie herself found another great foster who would help her finally relax and get well. She went on summer vacation with her fosters to Colorado and New Mexico, spent hours relaxing at Starbucks, Tomlinson’s and Tail Waggins Bakery, and even got a few trips to
the Bark Park. Sofie was spayed, had her cherry eye repaired and completed heartworm treatment in record time. And then this beautiful, courageous girl found her own forever home just after Thanksgiving. You go, Guardian!

Kaia was barely 7 months old when she was diagnosed with a critical stage-6 heart murmur, and doctors quickly found that it was due to a large hole between two of her major heart arteries. Without costly surgery their feeling was that she would not live to see her second birthday. But thanks to the unbelievable outpouring of support from friends and fans of Georgetown Animal Outreach, and the amazing skills of the doctors and staff of Texas A&M Veterinary Hospital, Kaia was given a second chance. She underwent two critical heart procedures last November; one involving open-heart surgery to help reduce the size of the hole in her heart, and a second, less invasive one to install a remarkable device that effectively sealed the breach. The procedures together were a resounding success, and now the amazing Kaia (from Hopi for “elder sister”) will see many more birthdays, and summers and sunsets!

Kaia is in our home now, and her affectionate nickname is “Kaia: Destroyer of Worlds!” because of her seemingly inexhaustible puppy energy. She runs and plays (and runs!) with her new brat pack – Hector, Bear and Cookie Monster – and Kaia’s tutoring under them has been hectic. She quickly mastered Ball-Hawking 101 from Uncle Bear. She’s learned the seemingly endless noisy mouth-wrestling game from her soulmate Hector, who absolutely idolizes her. And she has cultivated the gentle art of full on bed-snuggling from Aunt Cookie.

All in all, Kaia is one of the most amazing dogs, of many, that we have had in our home in the past 25 years. Her spirit is unbelievable and absolutely nothing gets her down. She has the energy of five dogs and, easily, the confidence of ten. Kaia spent her first night with us in a crate before claiming the bedroom as her own, and she has claimed it as such ever since. Her intelligence is uncanny and she pretty much breezed through basic obedience classes as though she were taking a tired old refresher course. We are confident that once Kaia is completely healthy, she will one day pass her Canine Good Citizenship test and devote herself as a hospital therapy dog. She is very tolerant and considerate of all people and dogs that she meets, and she currently has 12(!) feline brothers and sisters whom she herds with affection and grace. She would ultimately like to step up to herding deer on our property, but this may be a challenge left unfulfilled. It is said that there are only few really great dogs that come into our lives, and I’m sure that we have all claimed that very special “one” at one time or other. But Kaia is more than that for us, in that her story will forever serve as a reflection of our own capacity for humanity and caring.

Animal rescue is an amazingly rewarding volunteer opportunity for us, but it is also fraught with constant heartache and sorrow. At times it seems that we wind up taking two steps backward for every step we take forward. But Kaia’s story, in itself, is the perfect example of why we should never let the disappointments outweigh the amazing successes that we have enjoyed. And our family will forever be indebted to Georgetown Animal Outreach and the overwhelming generosity of the donors and doctors who gave our “Kaia: Destroyer of Worlds!” a second chance at life and happiness.

Phoenix, a lovely brindled beauty of a dog, was found running stray along Highway 29 in Georgetown – not a good place for a dog to be! – and was taken to Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter. They realized very quickly that Phoenix had babies on board and put out a call for help to get her out of the shelter in time for the blessed event. GAO answered that call, and Phoenix was able to give birth in a clean and quiet foster home. All the puppies were born healthy, and mama and babies thrived in their foster home.

Shelters are not a healthy place for a mama to have puppies. It is loud and stressful for mama and babies. Plus the shelter is not a safe environment for puppies’ fragile immune systems.

The babies grew – and grew and grew! One by one, they found their forever homes. Phoenix was adopted too, by a nice lady who worked at the vet clinic where Phoenix received her medical care as a GAO dog. Happy endings all around!

I had never had a dog of my own before, as I have always been and forever will be, a “cat lover.” But when I moved into a house with over 2 acres of yard in Georgetown, TX, I knew it was time to take the plunge and welcome a dog into our family of 4 cats.

Every week I would look in the newspaper at the pictures of pets available at the local animal shelter and one day when I opened it, there she was looking back at me! I had envisioned a tan or blonde dog, probably small, so that I could cart her around with me, but this dog who had spoken to me through those loving and yearning eyes was large and black. She was also about 7 years old and had been found living in a field. Some kind person took her to the Georgetown Animal Shelter, where she stayed for 5 long weeks.

When I asked a volunteer why they had held on to her for so long, she said, “Because she’s such a wonderful dog.” And indeed she is. My daughter, who had been an adoption counselor at her local shelter, warned me that a cattle dog would need to be walked a lot and would have a lot of energy, which could add up to trouble in a household full of cats. But when the shelter described her as a “couch potato” they were right. She is also every inch a lady with impeccable manners and endless patience when it comes to my ‘kitties.’

When I fostered a tiny white kitten last year, Melly let the little one sleep on her tail ! In fact, all of my cats walk under Melly’s tummy and arch their backs up for a little rub as they go. So now this confirmed “cat lover” is a “dog lover” too. Melly is the love of my life and I can’t imagine being without her. Since she is older now, I know that we may not have too many more years with her and I know for certain that on the day she goes to heaven, a big chunk of my heart will go with her.

~Maggie Smallwood