My dog, Chica, has multiple “rescues” to her resumé the first of which dates back to her sire.  Odd statement considering she has technically never seen the inside of an animal shelter, huh?  I’ll explain shortly.

Well, I consider her an extra special blessing in my life for all the normal reasons like companionship, unconditional love, etc., but extenuating circumstances have bonded us even more.

A friend of mine rescued a stray male dog right off the street (the first rescue in Chica\’s story …her sire).  Well, unfortunately, the female dog he already owned had never been spayed and must have been in heat.  What you would expect to be the outcome of those two dogs meeting actually did, and his female dog became pregnant.

When the time came, she had a difficult labor that required general anesthesia and cesarean section delivery.  My Chica was the first born (the second rescue to her story).  One other pup was rescued from the distressed labor before the remainder of the litter unfortunately permanently succumbed to the general anesthesia administered to the mother (apparently the anesthesia is harsh on the pups and they must be delivered as quickly as possible).

My friend was in no financial situation to support more than two dogs (he kept the “father” dog after getting him neutered), so both surviving pups would have had to have homes found for them or go to the animal shelter.  I fell in love with my Chica as soon as I saw her, so I claimed her (the third rescue for her story).  The other pup that survived did eventually find a good home, so there is no sad story there either.

Several years ago, my wife and I lost virtually everything we had in an apartment fire (fire inspector said it was wiring/electrical).  My wife and I were at work when it happened, so neighbors called the fire in.  Fortunately for Chica, the firemen broke the front door down (the fourth rescue for her story), but, unfortunately, Chica was so spooked that she ran.  Neighbors tried to catch her, but that only ended up spooking her more and she ran further and further away.  She got lost.

Long story short, my wife and I had a great friend and family support system and didn’t really care much about the possessions, but we were terribly heart-broken over not being able to find Chica.  The very forst weekend after we lost her (Chica), there was a record-breaking ice storm that blanketed our town in between 1 to 2 inches of solid ice.  I really didn’t know how Chica was going to survive on her own out in that.  I couldn’t sleep during the whole thing just thinking about what I knew must be her suffering the ice storm.

After many silent tears, a multitude of prayers, and multiple hours-per-day searching all nearby neighborhoods, getting the word out (word of mouth), flyers, etc., I received a specific tip on a possible sighting.  I’d followed up on several fruitless tips before, so I tried to isolate myself from disappointment by not getting my hopes up too high, but investigated anyway.

Three weeks (to the day) after her escape from the fire, we drove up upon the area that we got the tip on, and as a small, dark, shaggy form rounded a parking lot in front of us around the corner of a building, my wife screamed, “There she is!”.  Sure enough it was!  I opened my car door, called her name, and she ran warp-speed toward the car, bounded up onto me (difficult because the steering wheel was VERY MUCH in the way …I seem to recall a few horn honks escaping).  She had lost an incredible amount of weight, was nasty-filthy (had probably rolled in some things I don’t want to know the details of), and had some superficial injuries, but otherwise seemed in decent enough condition all things considered.  She was so happy on the way to our new apartment that she kept sounding like a monkey.  We were so happy; maybe we sounded that way too!  That was the fifth recue to her story.

I love her so much that I honestly do not want to even imagine my life without her!

She’s a little shaggy in this recent picture (she’s 12 years old, believe it or not!) because she’s in between haircuts and desperately needs one here, but she’s a cutie (IMO) nonetheless!

Dean from OK