Molly

Today is Molly's 6 mo anniversary of her adoption by us. She was a puppy mill breeding dog rescued in August last year and she was sent to a foster home to learn socialization skills and to learn to trust humans. She's done very well and is very sweet. The foster mom even said she is the first dog she has fostered that she seriously considered keeping.

On October 18, 2007 Molly flew on a plane from her foster home in Tennessee to Des Moines and I went to the airport to pick her up. I was so excited & nervous...like an expectant new parent. They called me up to the ticket counter and set her crate up and asked me to sign for her. All I could see were these huge eyes peeking out at me, so scared and unsure of what was going on, and I started to cry. I'm sure the lady at the desk thought I was nuts. LOL

I knew that it had been 8 hrs from the time she got to the airport in TN to now, so I wanted to let her out to go to the bathroom, but there really wasn't a place at the airport, so we went to the rest stop north of Ankeny on our way home. I got her on a leash. She was so shy and afraid, but allowed me to pick her up and carry her to a grassy spot where she could go potty. On the way home I left her out of her crate and let her lay on the front passenger seat on "her" new tie blanket we made for her. She kept watching me and then she laid her head down and went to sleep. I'm sure she was exhausted.

This is a picture of Molly that I took on the way home from the airport. Notice the sad look in her eyes. You can just tell she's had a hard life. Her fur looks good in this picture, but the foster mom told me that when she got her she had to be completely shaved down because her fur was so dirty and matted and she was full of fleas. The poor baby.

Since that day, she has grown and changed by leaps and bounds. She keeps coming out of her shell more and more. When I think of how she started life (in a tiny cramped cage pumping out litter after litter) it not only makes me sad, but really angry. She has had surgery for mammary carcinomas (breast cancer) twice, which female dogs are at a high risk for when they have multiple litters. Now that she's been spayed her risk has dropped, but given her previous history she still has a higher than normal risk. She gets chest x-rays every 6 mo to make sure she is still cancer free.

She only took one or two times of me helping her to figure out how to use our doggie door. She and Gabby get a long and love to sleep together, but she adores Ringo and follows him everywhere, which cracks us up, because Ringo ignores every other dog in the world. Acts like he doesn't even see them. LOL

Molly loves car rides and she listens so well. She now runs to the kennel office with me and the other 2 (I let them go over to go out and run around with some of the other small dogs) and she never tries to run off. Her tail wags non-stop, you can just tell she is so much happier and it makes my heart swell with joy knowing we have helped her to have a happier life.

Mollys newest thing is that she LOVES playing with small balls. Austin was cleaning out his golf bag before their Spring Break golf trip and Molly grabbed one of his golf balls and started playing with it...tossing it in the air and chasing it. It was so fun to watch her actually playing. However, I didn't think having a golf ball as her toy was what I wanted for our wood floor, or her teeth, so the next day while running errands I found small rubber balls and she LOVES them. She will play and play and play with them. Here's a couple of pictures of her playing and batting at one:

I have always been a dog lover...always. And adopting Molly has been such a rewarding experience that once Austin has graduated and moved out, I have considered fostering them to help them learn to trust humans the way Mollys foster mom did.

When you look into her eyes now, you see the sadness and fear has been replaced with happiness and contentment and it does my heart good knowing we helped her to feel that way.