Sophie

This is Sophie’s story, from her foster mom…

I saw Sophie on a Facebook plea, she was at Animal Control Services, San Antonio (ACS). I could tell from her picture that she looked to be in a terrible state, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Her sad face and poor physical appearance tugged at my heart. I called ACS and arranged to meet her. I was shocked when I met her; she actually looked worse than her picture. She was just skin and bone, missing fur, covered in fleas and ticks, had pressure sores, and had an obvious trauma to her head.
They said they believed that she had been used for breeding and it was clear she’d had puppies recently. I knew I had to get her out of there.

She was heartworm positive and also had ringworm. ACS spayed her, and we took her home a couple of days later. Initially, she was very sad and quiet, probably wondering what was going to happen next. Her tail hung awkwardly and we really thought it was broken. We got rid of the fleas and ticks, bathed her, gave her love, and fed her good quality food to get some weight on her skinny frame. We treated the ringworm, she just accepted everything we did, and she was so gentle and accepting the whole time. After about a week, her tail started to wag, and her spirit seemed to lift little-by-little, and from then on, her tail never stopped wagging.

Once she was clear of the ringworm and she’d put on a healthy amount of weight, we got the heartworm treated and over the next few months she really seemed to start enjoying life and she learned how to be a dog and have fun. It was wonderful when we got the all clear on the heartworm.

We took her for some basic obedience training, she was very uncomfortable around other big dogs, very submissive, but the training really helped. Then the opportunity to take her to Starmark Training Academy came up, we had no idea how she would do but she did great! She made it through the whole 12 week program, we were so proud of her! When we went to collect her at the end of training, she knew us straight away and looked so happy to see us. She looked amazing, she was muscular and had a new confidence about her. We took her home and then set about trying to find a wonderful forever home for her. We love Sophie very much, but we weren’t able to keep her; we foster cats and she doesn’t care for them at all.

Just one month after Starmark, I received a wonderful application for Sophie; a young family with two small children, I couldn’t have picked a better situation for her! They met Sophie and fell in love with her at once, she was amazing and gentle with the girls and showed herself to be everything I knew she would be. They adopted her and have never looked back. They take her running in the evenings and she really loves life. She has a big yard and a doggie door so she can come and go as she pleases. She sleeps in the girl’s bedroom at night. Her new mom has thanked me so many times for saving Sophie and making it possible to have this wonderful girl as part of their family.

I still get updates about how Sophie is doing and I pet-sit for her when her new family goes out of town.