December 10th 2019 volunteers with a local animal rescue responded to a horrific animal hoarding case. They rescued 28 dogs and puppies. Some dogs were outside in mud up to their shoulders and others were inside an old house and had never stepped outside to breathe the fresh air or feel the lush grass. The rescuers waded through several feet of feces in the house where they caught the scared, dirty, matted dogs to take them to safety and give them new lives.
I saw the story on Facebook and followed it for the next few months. I saw many of the dogs recover and one by one they were put up for adoption. We had talked about getting Charlie a sister to comfort him at home if he had a seizure while we were gone. I saw Sarah’s picture on Facebook and I showed it to David. We didn’t know what it was about her but we knew we had to meet her.
We made the appointment, loaded Charlie up and took him to meet Sarah Jessica Barker. We arrived and the staff told us Sarah’s story. They said we would most likely never be able to pet her because of her bad experiences with people. We didn’t have a problem with that because we wanted her for Charlie not us.
Sarah was a small black and white border collie mix. She came outside in the meet and greet area where she looked sad and lost. Her eyes were dull and her movements were slow. She slowly walked up and sniffed Charlie. They seemed to like each other and were the same size. Charlie was smitten with her so we decided to take her home.
We let Sarah out of the car and David walked her down our driveway. She stopped just to look around at the trees and mountains. She seemed in awe because it was so different compared to the nasty house she lived in her whole life and the concrete kennels she just came from. For the first time she felt green grass beneath her paws and proceeded to rub her head on the ground. Charlie taught Sarah how to play and with time her eyes became brighter and her tail began to wag.
Two weeks after we brought Sarah home I was walking through the front door and without knowing she was waiting on the other side she bolted passed my legs. I ran off the porch chasing her down through the yard. Faster and faster she ran until she made it to the road. She turned left, ran down the road becoming smaller and smaller until she was out of sight.
I called David in a panic as I was running down the road hoping and praying I would see her again.
We looked all day and most of the night but couldn’t find our girl. We put up flyers and asked around hoping that someone had seen her so we would know where to look next.
The next day several of our family members went out to help us look for her, we saw her a few miles from our house on somebody’s farm. They allowed us on their property to try and catch her where she slipped through our fingers again. We searched for hours and decided to go home and try again the next day.
Sarah had been outside alone for two nights and both nights it rained. I remember standing on the front porch in tears because I knew her beautiful long coat was getting soaked, the thunder was scaring her, and this was her first time she had been in the woods.
We went hiking in the woods behind the farm where we saw her last. But after several hours we came up empty handed again. David was getting hungry so we decided to go home for lunch and resume the search after. We came to a stop sign at the end of the dirt road and as we sat there I told David to go right and drive to the end of the road. He wanted to listen to his stomach and turn left to go home but I insisted he go right. I didn’t know why but I felt like God was telling me to go to the end of the road.
We turned right and about two miles up the road on the side of the bank there was Sarah! We slowed down and she ran in front of the car crossing the road into a hay field. I called my sister Britni for help because her house was in sight. I couldn’t get my words straight but she managed to understand we saw Sarah up from her house. She grabbed a box in her house to put Sarah in then drove it down to us.
David had Sarah cornered between him and a steep cliff on the edge of the hay field. We counted to three and jumped into action. David grabbed Sarah and out of fear she bit his hand. As blood poured from his hand, me and Britni got her in the box. With a sigh of relief, we had her! We picked up the box to set it in the back of Britni’s jeep. Britni drove us home while I sat in the back and held the box closed.
We let Sarah out of the box in the house and cried happy tears as we watched her be reunited with Charlie. After Sarah’s adventure it took her several months before she would go outside in the dark or in the rain. She would back away from the door whenever we opened it. She was scared to leave the house, it took years before we were able to walk her on a leash.
Today Sarah loves to go for walks, she sleeps at the foot of our bed and loves to be rubbed. The scared depressed little dog we first met who had no contact with humans now prances through the house wagging her tail with excitement knowing she’s safe and loved. She was the perfect gift for Charlie and they had a wonderful bond up until Charlie’s death. Sarah still goes on adventures and is proof that with a little patience and a lot of love even the most broken dogs can become whole again.
Not long after we got our beagle Bj. Read his story here, ” Bj’s Spoiler: The Tale of the Spoiled Beagle“.