My sister has gotten two dogs from the York County SPCA. The first one, Gus, was a spectacular yellow lab. He looked purebred, like an English Lab. Lanky. He was the worlds smartest dog. Not knowing anything about his history, we didn’t know how old he was, but we thought he was a young dog. He did eventually have a fatal health issue…he collapsed on the kitchen floor, and died on the way to the vet. The family was devastated. It took some time before my sister could bring herself to even think about looking for another dog. We went to the York County SPCa and looked at the dogs. It was a sad thing to see, all those needy animals, hoping that they would be “THE ONE.” I looked at my sister and I could see she was getting teary eyed. Not only for her lost dog Gus, but for all these dogs here. There are so many of them. They didn’t have another dog like Gus, so we left.

Some weeks later, it just so happened that I, being a cat person, was going to the SPCA with my cat Alice Marley to have her spayed. While I was there, I walked through the kennel to look at the latest group of inhabitants, to see if there was something that my sister might be interested to see. I knew she wanted another yellow lab. Well, I didn’t see another dog that looked like Gus, but I did see a possibility. There, in the last kennel, was a shaggy yellow lab/airdale mix. He had curly yellow hair all over his body, and his head had lots of long stray hairs, and he has a beard. In short, he looks like a bad taxidermy job gone terribly wrong. He stands up in the kennel, and presses himself against the cage. He has this hopeful look in his eyes, as if to say…Please…PLEEEEEse, take me. I went on about my way, went home, and told my sister about him. She didn’t seem to want to go look at him, and I kept mentioning it…describing what he looked like…etc., and well one day, my sister’s daughter Megan, called me, and says “You gotta come see our new dog” I said…”Let me guess, is it a yellow dog that looks like a bad taxidermy job?” She said…Yes, and so, I knew before I even went to see him, that it was the same dog.

The dog was named Woody, in honor of our dad who was a duck hunter who always had Labs. We live out in the country in se PA, and let me describe Woody’s life. First, my sister has tweny acres and a beautiful PA stone farmhouse..18th century. About ten of these acres are fenced with invisible dog fencing. There is a large pond, woods, a stream, and plenty of groundhogs to chase. I live next door on two acres. Woody has the best life any dog could have. He is in the house when he wants to be, and outside when he wants to be. He has been known to catch and kill those rotten groundhogs, and bring them up to the house for inspection. He often comes across the pasture to sit at the fence by my house and bark at me. Fortunately the invisible fence keeps him over there, otherwise he would terrorize the birds and frogs around my pond by my back door. He is a great watchdog, he stands guard over his kingdom, but is friendly and would never bit anyone. My sister recently got two yellow kittens. She was going to make them barn cats to keep the vermin down, but they are so cute, she can’t bring herself to put them out of the house. So they have the run of the house, and Woody spends lots of time mouthing them and getting them all wet. He would like to carry them around, but they squirm and he can’t figure out how to carry them. He is very gentle with his mouth. He even allows the kittens to eat his food. When I walk thru the pasture to the barn to feed the horses, he comes out to say hi. He would like to chase the horses, but he got kicked by one of them, so now he keeps a respectful distance. They won’t run from him, which is another problem for him. But, I can tell you Woody has a wonderful life. He has been to a dog spa even.

To this day, we can’t imagine how someone could have abandoned such a good dog.

Nancy from Pennsylvania

ps…I don’t have a pic of Woody, but I can post a pic of my two British Blue Shorthair cats, English Ivy and Alice Marley…and they are the worlds greatest cats.