One Special Dog.

Today is the first day of Stela’s real life. The life in which she will never have puppies again. She will never be thrown away again. Now we can find her a real family—one that will value this special dog.

And I mean it when I say special.

I keep telling people that she’s really special. And they all say, “But you think every dog is really special.”

Which I do.

But Stela?

Stela is different.

I haven’t had a foster dog like Stela since 2016 when I fostered Edith Wharton (And her twelve puppies!)

This dog could be a therapy dog or an agility dog or a great hiking partner, or she could just be the nicest dog a family has ever had. She’s currently been fulfilling the role of emotional support dog for my other two teenage foster dogs who both arrived with no socialization and insecurities, but who have both blossomed under Stela’s companionship.

In many (MANY) ways, I wish I could keep her, but I already have three dogs who take all of my bandwidth and I won’t sacrifice their quality of life just because I want Stela. I know Stela will be amazing wherever she lands. She doesn’t ‘need’ my house like my three do.

Stela loves everyone she meets upon introduction – people of all flavors. She has been incredible with every dog she’s met. She’s great in the car, on outings, in busy places.

Her only faults might be that she would like to chase birds and bunnies, and would possibly chase a cat if it ran (until you explained to her that she shouldn’t). And she is young enough that she can still chew inappropriate things if she is bored.

For instance, on the long drive to Harrisonburg yesterday, she was bored in the backseat. I’d left her leash on when I loaded her up. When we arrived at the vet clinic, I opened the door, grabbed the end of the leash, and then Stela jumped out and began walking across the parking lot (without me), as I stood there holding the leash. She’d chewed through the leash and only had about ten inches of it still attached to her collar.

Being Stela, all I had to do was call her and she turned right around and came back to me. (and then I grabbed my emergency slip lead I always have in the car for catching strays and took her inside for her appointment.)

I think Stela would love a job, or at the very least, the constant company of another dog or a human. She’s not a dog who will spend the day napping on your couch (I do have one of those if you’re looking for one like that!).

I recently discovered one reason for all those smarts and all that coordination. An adopter of one of Stela’s puppies shared with me the DNA analysis they’d had done on their pup. For maybe the very first time, I was right on my breed guess! Stela is Border Collie and German Shepherd Dog.

The puppies’ father was a bit more of a mutt with hints of Great Pyrenees (that’s where Pip got all that fluff!), lab, pit bull, collie, and a couple others.

I’m hopeful they all got their smarts from their mothers. I’ve always heard that’s the case with children!

The rest of the clan is doing great:

Puppies: I’ll share more about them next week, but they go live on the OPH website in the next few days. Meanwhile, if you’d like to see them in action, visit the Another Good Dog group on Facebook where I am trying (and too often failing, but I’m going to get better!) to do a Live video of them every day so you can see their progress.

Darla: She has a meet and greet today (paws crossed!).

Argus: Still amazing. Still waiting for a home of his own. Check him out here. Apply to adopt him here.

Cherry: She is almost finished weaning her pups. I’m still getting to know her, but so far she is ridiculously sweet (hence the name), really well behaved, doing better on a leash, quiet, easy to have around, already crate-trained, and seems to be housebroken! She will be available for adoption through OPH. You won’t see her on the site yet, but you can still apply for her.

It’s a full house here, but luckily all the guests are really nice.

Until Each One Has a Home,

Cara

For information on me, my writing, and books, visit CaraWrites.com.

If you’d like regular updates of all our foster dogs past and present, plus occasional dog care/training tips, and occasional foster cat updates (!) be sure to join the Facebook group, Another Good Dog.

And if you’d like to know where all these dogs come from and how you can help solve the crisis of too many unwanted dogs in our shelters, visit WhoWillLetTheDogsOut.org and subscribe to our blog where we share stories of our travels to shelters, rescues, and dog pounds.

If you can’t get enough foster dog stories, check out my book: Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs . Or its follow up that takes you to the shelters in the south One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues.

I love to hear from readers and dog-hearted people! Email me at carasueachterberg@gmail.com.

If you’d like to support the work we do (and save the rescue and me some money), shop our Amazon wishlist. Right now I could really, really use some dog beds. We’ve had a series of chewers who have destroyed multiple beds so we’re down to using blankets and old saddle pads!

Many of the pictures on my blog are taken by photographer Nancy Slattery. If you’d like to connect with Nancy to take gorgeous pictures of your pup (or your family), contact: nancyslat@gmail.com.