A Second Chance

September 2019 our beloved Golden Retriever, Sophie, passed away at 14 years old. We were immeasurably saddened, moving us to tears for quite some time afterwards just thinking about her. In her memory we enshrined her signature red collar with a tag inscribed with the words, "Sophie, She Loved", because that is exactly what she did to everyone; family, friend, or stranger.

I rescued Sophie in 2006 when she was just a one-year old puppy. She was full of life and always excited to greet anyone that she met. I also had a male St. Bernard, Loki, at the time and they became inseparable companions. In 2012 Loki passed away and I divorced my first wife, which left Sophie and I together but alone. In 2013 I met Lilly, my wife now, and I believe for Lilly, it was love at first sight; with Sophie, not me. Lilly had a little Pekingese named, Gizmo, and we enjoyed dates walking our dogs together. Sophie and Gizmo hit it off instantly, which was a good thing, because in 2015 Lilly and I married and brought our little fur-family together. Sophie fell in love with Lilly and was happy to be part of a family again. Like I said, "Sophie, She Loved".

In 2017 a grandson was added into our family and Sophie with her big heart loved Milo and doted over him like a little mother. Milo loved to pet and cuddle with Sophie, her temperament made her perfect with little children; leading us never to worry about Milo if Sophie was with him. Milo in his short four years of life loved Sophie and it seemed like she was his favorite part about being at Grandma and Grandpa's house. In 2019 when Sophie could no longer walk or eat we all were heart broken and devastated knowing Sophie wouldn't be with us much longer; Milo lied on the ground trying to hold onto her as long as he could.

Losing Sophie left a huge hole in our family and our hearts. Our days of missing her and the sadness we felt turned into weeks. My wife and I trying to alleviate the sadness and get our minds off of Sophie took a little trip to Cancun, Mexico. In the immediate that seemed to have helped but I couldn't help but feel like something was missing from our lives. Growing up in Wisconsin on a farm as a kid we had lots of animals, but one thing that stands out in my mind is that we always had more than one dog and they always seemed to be happiest because of the companionship that was shared being with another dog. Gizmo, our little Pekingese, grew attached to Sophie and being a nervous and anxious dog by nature, he used Sophie as security and comfort; he always cuddled up next to her. I could tell that her absence leaving him as the lone dog in the house wasn't doing him well for his mental health. To be honest it wasn't doing well for mine either. Lilly didn't really want the extra chore of adding another dog into our house but I just felt in my heart it was time to rescue another dog and make our little pack whole again.

I warmed my wife up to the idea of rescuing a dog by sharing pictures and profiles of the dogs at our local animal shelter. We even went on a couple of scouting trips with our grandson, Milo, to see the dogs that were available. The animal shelter has a policy that places a ten day waiting period before any animal taken in can be adopted and if numerous people want to adopt an animal after the ten day period then there will be a first come lottery instituted for the adoption of the animal. We lost out on all the dogs we were initially interested in to either owners claiming their lost dog before the ten day waiting period was over or to another family winning the lottery of the dog on adoption day. Mildly frustrated I kept up the search for our next dog. About a week before Christmas in 2019, checking the local shelter web site I noticed that a dog we had previously been interested in was back at the shelter. Excited I showed my wife and said, "I'll be going to the shelter tomorrow". The following morning of December 17th I woke up early to be the first person in line for the dog that had returned to the shelter believing he would be adoptable. To my dismay when I arrived the dog had another ten day hold upon him; however, just a few cages down from the original dog we liked was a quiet big white dog that caught my interest. With the treats I had in hand I went to his cage and he eagerly greeted me, waging his tail and took the treats from my hand as he let me pet him through the fence. I texted pictures of the new dog to my wife and let her know that the other dog had an injured paw and another ten day hold placed on him. I really wanted to rescue a dog for Christmas and she approved of the new dog's looks but was more interested in how he'd do with our little Pekingese, Gizmo, and grandson, Milo. I told her I'd find out his temperament and let her know.

I took down the kennel number and found a shelter employee and asked if I could interact with the big white dog. I was escorted to a recreation pen and waited for them to bring the dog. The employee returned and said, "here's our big boy, Chance" and entered the pen with me. He wasn't aggressive or overly excited; however, he was friendly but more curious to sniff around the play area. As I played with chance and spoke to the employee about how Chance ended up at the shelter, a family with a small boy about Milo's age walked by the cage and Chance became excited as if he wanted to greet the little boy. I witnessed this and thought that was perfect and would put my wife's mind at ease over the issue of how he would get along with children. The shelter employee told me that Chance was listed as a Lab-mix but didn't know with what other breed or breeds he was mixed with. She also told me that he was a family surrendered pet due to a divorce, with the husband leaving the country and the wife left without room to take care of Chance as they also had another dog and small children. Chance just happened to be on the losing end of a bad family experience. In my mind he was perfect for our home but the last crucial test was how he'd do with Gizmo. I rushed home to report to my wife what I thought was great news; however, Lilly noticing me covered in dog hair wasn't as thrilled about Chance as I had been since she does most of the vacuuming. Lilly has a soft spot in her heart for animals and after hearing about how Chance ended up at the shelter and how well behaved he was with children, she agreed to visit him with Gizmo.

We arrived at the shelter with Gizmo in hand and waited while the employee retrieved Chance to bring him out to meet Lilly and Gizmo. With both dogs on leashes, my wife held onto Gizmo and the shelter employee held Chance, they seemed to instantly be curious about each other with Chance nor Gizmo getting anxious or aggressive. The head to head meeting went well and we were allowed to walk them both in an adjacent field. I took Chance and Lilly had Gizmo. They walked with each other without incidence to my excitement I believed this was the final check in the box that would satisfy Lilly's worries and we'd be taking Chance home immediately. I believe Chance acted like a prison inmate on his best behavior in front of a parole board; knowing we were his ticket out of jail. However, Lilly still wasn't absolutely thrilled about another dog coming into the house like I was, even if he liked kids and Gizmo. We had to have a serious talk on the way home. Disappointed, we left Chance behind, for a tense ride home where I basically told Lilly, " I'm going back to get him and I don't care if you say no; I believe we should rescue him for Christmas!" After losing a wonderful dog like Sophie, I could understand how Lilly believed that no dog could ever replace her, or ever be as great and loving as Sophie was, and that there was no use trying to find one that could. I wasn't trying to replace Sophie so much as trying to make a whole little pack again. I knew Gizmo would benefit from having another dog in the house to feel secure and comforted by. So with that I dropped off Lilly and Gizmo and headed back to the shelter to get Chance before they closed.

With just 30 min to spare I was able to complete the necessary paperwork for our adoption of Chance and then excitedly waited for them to bring him out to me. It's a very heartbreaking experience to see all the animals that have been lost or turned into a shelter with no families to call home; however, on the flip side of that the amount of happiness and joy that can be felt by rescuing an animal from that situation is immense. I felt like a child waiting for Christmas Day to arrive, as I waited for them to bring me Chance. Feeling happy and satisfied that we were doing something special in the spirit of Christmas, Chance Finally was led from the back room, and I was handed his leash as the entire animal shelter office cheered for his adoption and getting a new home. The excitement in the air was easily felt, and Chance must have been excited too, because on the way home he threw up on the floor in the back seat of my car. This would be something we'd come to find out later and confirm about Chance and his excitement for traveling in vehicles; like Lilly he's prone to motion sickness. I tried to bring Chance into the house with the least amount of commotion from Gizmo. Chance being a little shy and Gizmo curious about our new family member I laid with chance most of the night to try and comfort him and keep pesky little Gizmo from him while he tried to adjust to his new surroundings.

It did not take long for everyone to feel at home and for things to take on a new normal with Chance now part of the family. Chance didn't seem to mind Gizmo sniffing on him and loved meeting our grandson. Milo loved our dogs but Chance fast became his favorite due to the fact Chance allowed Milo to use him as a snuggle-buddy. I was told that Chance spent a lot of time in a crate with the people that previously had him, so we wanted him to know that nothing or no place in our house was off limits to him and Chance took full advantage of his new freedoms. He loved that he was able to jump into bed or lie on the couch beside us. He also didn't mind Gizmo using him as a security blanket either.

The addition of Chance helped make Christmas that year feel like our family was whole again. Instead of exchanging gifts we decided that adopting Chance was gift enough for both of us and enjoyed that Gizmo was happy to have a new friend and that Chance instantly fell in love with Milo.

Shortly after Christmas The CoVid pandemic hit the United States. As a member of the United States Navy I felt fortunate to still receive a paycheck as I was ordered to work from home. This greatly reduced the amount of work I had to do while being able to spend more time home with the family to include our little grandson, Milo, who visited us daily as his mother was considered an essential worker. Gizmo being the anxious and anxiety prone dog that he is didn't love Milo's daily presence; however, this suited the rest of us just fine; especially Chance. Where ever Chance was lying down, Milo could be found cuddled up next to him while holding his Hulk action-figure in one arm and holding an iPad with his other hand, as he watched some Avenger's episode or cartoon. Milo loves the Avengers and is really into super-heroes so we decided to give Gizmo and Chance super-hero names of their own so he could have a team of crime fighters when he was at our house. Taking Gizmo's anxious personality into account we decided on Itchy Richie, and due to Chance's big clumsy 105 pound frame he became Thunder Belly and all together with Milo, I called them the Three Amigos. Besides the Incredible Hulk, Itchy Richie and Thunder Belly were Milo's two most favorite super-heroes, I even designed a T-Shirt with his two favorite buddies on it, so he could have them with him where ever he went.

Our love for traveling the world was greatly impacted by the CoViD pandemic leaving us unable to take our annual two or three trips to foreign locations. We used 2020 instead to explore the great outdoors and nature that surrounded us from the palms of the beaches to the Pines of the mountains in California, we explored it all with our little family. Chance living most of his seven years of life restricted to indoor and kennel living was exposed to a new and exciting world that he was naturally made for. His sense of tracking and leading in combination to his sturdy strong build could have made him a perfect search and rescue dog. Due to the fact that Chance didn't have a lot of leash time we had to train him not to pull so hard, but off the leash he listens and will come when called. He loved being introduced to the outdoors and could walk and sniff around for hours if we let him. Missing having a big dog after Sophie passed, Lilly was happy to have another big dog she could take to the beach and enjoy her love of the ocean with. Lilly rescued Gizmo as a puppy from a neighbor who removed him from an abusive family. Due to his small size and nervousness he's never been the adventurous type of dog; however, with a bigger dog by his side he becomes less nervous and braver, with ambition to tackle the beach or mountain terrain, even if the mountains are covered in deep snow. Chance not only is a great companion for us being a big dog, but that also helps Gizmo with the courage to be a rare active and daring Pekingese.

At the end of 2019 we suffered the terrible loss of our treasured Golden Retriever, Sophie, to old age. Our hearts were broken and we didn't know if we'd ever love another dog the way we loved Sophie or if another dog could bring love back into our home the way Sophie loved. We also experienced trying social times all of 2020 because of CoViD-19. However by adding Chance to our little family we were able to feel less stressed and the impact of our losses and turned upside down lives. We really didn't give Chance a second chance; he gave our family one. He made our family whole again, Sophie was a truly unique dog but Chance loves us unconditionally just like Sophie did and he improves the lives of each of us in our family. He not only makes the humans feel better but he makes Gizmo a better little dog as well. Chance may shed something fierce, leave a trail of drool when he runs off with a treat, and vomit in the car if he gets too excited or we drive for too long, but we couldn't have asked for a better more loving dog to rescue. Chance is living proof that rescuing an animal is a noble and rewarding experience that pays for itself with endless adventures and heartwarming experiences. Our Chance may not be Sophie but he's our second Chance to love like Sophie did and make our little family complete again.