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It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and the little dog stretched her front legs toward me as if to touch me, then tilted her head down slightly and turned her eyes upward, looking into my face as if she already knew me. I said "hello" to her. She w

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It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and the little dog stretched her front legs toward me as if to touch me, then tilted her head down slightly and turned her eyes upward, looking into my face as if she already knew me. I said “hello” to her. She watched me for another few seconds and then turned and went back into her caged area.

I was in search of a dog, having recently lost a beautiful and very precious canine friend to lymphoma. I was devastated but knew that I needed a dog to fill up that space in my heart that only a dog can fill. On some level I think I was looking for a large, fluffy, bouncy dog like the one I had lost. This little dog didn’t fit the bill. She was small, definitely not fluffy and didn’t seem to have a bounce in her. Yet there was something about her that had me daydreaming about stretching out on the living room floor with her at my side.

I went back to see her when the pound was open for visits and asked about the little dog with the big almond-shaped eyes. It turned out that her reputation was not a good one, having been adopted twice and returned as many times with complaints about her having eaten couches. She had been at the pound for months with no prospective adoption on the horizon. Nevertheless, I asked to take her for a walk and to my surprise, she certainly did have a bounce – she jumped to my shoulder level and delighted me with her affection and obvious love of life. Well, she is cute, I conceded, but there are other pounds and animal shelters to be checked. So the search continued.

I was surprised to find an article in The Newtown Bee about her and her problem of separation anxiety and how it could be overcome with a new drug designed for just such a problem. Well, she hadn’t seemed that bad to me – so I went back to see her again. This time as I approached her area she lifted her head and gave out four howls, as if to say, “Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you.” I walked her again and really liked her spirit. She had a wildness about her that was pure puppy and a sweetness that was irresistible.

And yet I continued the search. It was so important to me to find exactly the right dog – and of course I was still in mourning for the dog I had lost. Part of me knew that bringing home a new dog would give validation to the loss I was still feeling. Finally, I realized that if I didn’t get this little dog, I would always wonder what life would have been like with her in it.

And so, Amber came to live with us – and I am happy to report that she has exceeded all expectations! We could not be more delighted with her. She is that wonderful combination of mellow sweetness and high spirits. She gets close to people, and it’s a melt-your-heart kind of closeness that we feel privileged to experience. And yet her playful moods are of the rip-roaring, tear-around-the-house, snarling, growling and pouncing kind! She is irrepressible.

By the way, all our furniture remains intact. We never gave her drugs, but did crate her when left unsupervised for the first few months. She adjusted extremely well, right from that first night when she curled up and went to sleep in front of the fireplace. That was a few years ago but life with Amber just gets better and better. And so I consider myself very lucky to have found her – or did she find me?  

Story was contributed by Mary Gaudet-Wilson, member of Canine Advocates of Newtown, a group which supports the dogs at the Newtown Pound, paying for their neutering and shots and also providing socialization through daily walks.

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