Our first rescue in honor of Jojo was Alpha. We got a plea at the end of August from Dekalb County Animal Control about this sweet 8 year old Collie that was in pretty bad shape and running out of time. They had him for about a month, and had treate
d him for heat exhaustion and kennel cough. No one had come forward to claim him, he was getting overlooked at the shelter surrounded by younger dogs, and hadn't found a rescue. Dekalb feared he wouldn't make it, so we stepped in to help. We went to pick him up and found this poor boy to be extremely emaciated. He weighed a horrifying 27 pounds, his coat was matted, he had horrible heartworms, and was full of internal parasites. Our amazing foster Lisa and her husband Chris decided to open up their home to Alpha and so he became the first of Jojo's legacies.Alpha struggled in foster care initially. He wouldn't eat, had no energy, and wasn't potty trained. We've always known Lisa was a miracle worker, because every day Alpha made progress and seemed to be coming back to life! Before we knew it his fur had grown back and he had almost doubled in weight going from 27 to 46 lbs!
Lisa writes:
"Alpha came to us not able to walk. If you remember, the shelter had no hope for him and was begging someone to get him out. They thought he was old, but he acts about 4 or 5. Guess we will never know his true age. Now, he LOVES life. He is the best foster story ever!"The day finally came when Alpha was adopted into a new forever home. We couldn't have found a better one, because Alpha was adopted by Lisa's sister Whitney! Now, Alpha lives happily with the Purinton family. He has a doxie furbrother named Duke and is now happy, healthy, and loved.
In the shelter reality we face today, Alpha didn't have much of a shot at survival. Cast away by a family, he beat the odds in the shelter and wound up getting a second chance at life. It is stories like Alpha's that remind us why we do what we do and keep us focused on rescuing one by one until there are none.
