We were living in a small townhouse in Memphis, Tn. Jonathan had finished studying for the Bar Exam and became a lawyer and I was a junior in college. Within the time we moved in together, Jonathan and I got a little Tortie kitten named KitKat to keep me company while he was at work and I took care of the apartment when I wasn't working during the summer. We talked about a dog, but decided to wait until we had more space for a puppy.
Around January 2010, Jonathan and I moved into a house and were puppy shopping online at Petfinder.com (a really good place to find furry friends that needs homes, by the way!). After our 1 year anniversary on January 27th, 2010, Jonathan and I found ourselves driving to another state to pick up the beautiful little golden retriever pup we found on Petfinder.com.
She was the perfect puppy. A 3 month old golden retriever puppy with a cute little pot belly, big brown eyes and the sweetest face ever. She was in the Oxford, Mississippi animal shelter waiting for her forever home. It was a 3 hour drive. Jonathan and I talked about what we would do with the puppy, what we would name her, wondered if she would get along with the cat, etc. We were so pumped to meet our new puppy that the long drive just flew by.
According to the puppy page on Petfinder, Oxford Animal Shelter was a nice, clean looking facility. There was an illustration of a building that looked like a good place to adopt a puppy. However, when we arrived at the address, we found a dumpy looking trailer with poorly structured chain link fences and shivering dogs outside in the dead of winter. Jonathan looked positively shocked and I thought I was going to be sick.
It looked TERRIBLE.
Things weren't much better when we got inside.
When we entered the tiny trailer, Jonathan inquired the receptionist if we had the right place and asked about the picture of the facility on Petfinder.com. as it turns out, that was just an illustration of what the reconstruction of the animal would look like once they had enough funding. I'm pretty sure Jonathan and mine's mouths were hanging open.
But we had driven that far, we wanted to see the puppy. The volunteer at the front desk went out to go retrieve our puppy. When she returned, she brought in a skinny, scruffy little thing of a puppy that looked scared and hungry. I felt my heart sink into my stomach like a stone at the sight of her. I immediately went to the volunteer and asked if I could hold the puppy. She handed the puppy to me and I felt instant love. Even though the puppy looked too tired and weak to try and lick me, I could tell she wanted to more than anything.
Jonathan filled out the adoption papers and we walked out to the car to go home. As we drove back to Memphis, we talked to our new puppy and told her we loved her and that her name was Angela. Her only reply was curling into a ball and throwing up on my lap.
After cleaning up my lap in a gas station bathroom, Jonathan chalked up Angela's upset tummy to car sickness. We thought getting that out of her system, she would perk up a little. Angela still wouldn't show any signs of happy puppy-ness. Unfortunately, we found out 3 days later it was much more than car sickness. Much, much worse.
The first two days we had Angela, she showed no interest or ability to hold down food and water and she appeared too sick to walk. She wouldn't even chase after the many toys we got her. On the second day, I discovered her in our bedroom pooping blood. Jonathan and I immediately took Angela to the emergency vet clinic on Summer Ave.
Angela had Parvo.
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