Pet Adoption Story – Isaac & Jenni-Ann

 

Today’s Holly and Hugo pet adoption story is from Jenni-Ann and her beautiful dog Isaac. Sometimes the animal you fall in love with may not be your first choice, which goes to show that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (or a dog by its bark). All adoptions save lives, but Isaac had a particularly close call. Meet Isaac and Jenni-Ann:

My husband decided we should adopt a dog when we finally moved into a house with a garden. We had 2 babies, a 1 year old girl and a 14 week old boy.

We went down to the rescue centre which was situated on a farm. As soon as we pulled in we could see  8 kennels open to the elements of the vast field. Some kennels had more than 1 dog sharing and only a plastic chewed bed for comfort! As we walked in I pointed out one dog straight away and said “not that one.”

We had a look at all the dogs, and the dog I had first pointed at barked towards one of my kids. That cemented my first thought so I moved on and decided I like the look of a female dog, but for some reason my husband had fallen in love with the dog that I had judged and discarded straight away.

He went in to ask about the dog and found out that Isaac had been there the longest and was due to be put down in 4 days. My husband asked to take him for a walk and as soon as the dog was out of the kennel he was fine- he wasn’t really interested in the kids and he walked really well on the lead. We could tell he just didn’t like his surroundings, and he was also extremely underweight.

That night my husband couldn’t stop thinking about Isaac being cold and hungry, so first thing the next morning we had a dog! I was really anxious and worried, but there was no need- Isaac was obviously well trained as a pup and used to small children. He let them climb all over him, he never pulled the lead and when we gave the lead to one of the kids he would slow right down like he knew to be extra careful.

He really doted on the kids and now I know why his breed is called the nanny dog! Once my little boy let himself out and started down the road on his scooter and Isaac followed and stayed right next to him on the roadside until we came out of the house.

It took us a year to get Isaac to a healthy weight and  at first we got some nasty glances like we were starving him and mistreating him.

The only problem we had was dog aggression, and Isaac would see another dog and be off! He once ran to another field over whilst on a walk to start on 4 boxer dogs!

Unfortunately, Isaac started getting sick. He slowly started to sleep more and then he started falling over, falling down the stairs- once even knocking himself out when he fell.

Whenever he needed the toilet his legs couldn’t hold him so he would slip over and land in his business, and we had to start holding him up just so he could go! Eventually, we had to make the heartbreaking decision to put him to sleep as he was in so much pain. He was my little boys best friend, we loved him so much and were distraught for a long time after!
We’ve now rescued another dog, and we hope he’ll be a part of our family for many years to come.

We hope this story touched you as much as it touched us. Let us know how it made you feel in the comments below, and share this post with your friends so they can see the benefits of adopting a pet as well. If you want to read more about benefits of Pet Adoption please check this post. 

If you’ve adopted a pet and would like to share your story with the Holly and Hugo community, send us your story today. Stories should be between 500-700 words with five pictures (including one of yourself) sent to [email protected]