My Rescue.

The year is 2009, furthermore, I have finally gotten my life together. As much as a nineteen-year-old can think she has her life together. I started a new job that was paying me well enough to finally move out of my ex-boyfriend’s parent’s house. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. Now I lived with two girls, in a house, in a good part of town, and I thought my life was as good as it was going to get. Just another time in my life I turned out to be wrong. The girl that owned the house, Karla, was gifted two little black puppies and of course, I melted. Who doesn’t melt for puppies? Well, Karla told me she was keeping one for sure.

“Can I have the other one, please?” I asked immediately. Karla informed me her brother was already planning on taking the other puppy. The catch was, if he was unable, the puppy could be mine.

So began the long week of waiting in agony to hear back from Karla’s brother. The struggle to not get too attached to the little bundle of cuteness. That week seemed to take forever. Settling in a definite, "yes the puppy would be leaving." The little pup was instantly swept away leaving a hole in my life I had not even realized I had. Now, of course, I was obsessed with the idea of getting a dog.

The short search for my forever companion began. A few minutes on the Las Vegas Humane Society’s website had me eyeing the same poorly taken photograph. The description stated, 'beagle mix around three years old.' I only remember his eyes. Golden brown dripping with sadness. They seemed to say, "hug me." So, after a little convincing Karla and I were off to the humane society. It took a bit of searching to find him. The people at the human society told me they did not have any beagles. Even when I showed them a picture of my dog soulmate they still were not sure if they had a dog like that. I did not stop looking. Kennel after kennel-building after building. Until, at last, there he was peering up at me from his tattered bed with the same sad eyes I had seen in the picture. The dog that would change my heart forever, Iggy.

Coming home was a mix of emotions for both of us, Iggy and Me. It was instantly apparent he had not come from a great place. I could see every single bone in his body. My first order of business was to fatten him up, or so I thought. Until the shocking discovery that Iggy was terrified of people. Here I am, so ready to cuddle my new pup. Calling his name with joy, "Iggy, Iggy, Iggy" like a song, and he just pees all over the floor in absolute terror. My heart melted for him even more. My first order of business immediately became to show him my love and that he was okay now. So started our journey together in love and security. I was determined to make Iggy my best friend forever. Spoil alert, it worked.

After many slightly frustrating weeks of cleaning up a lot of pee, Iggy came around. Patience persevered once again in my life. Now that I had his trust, and he was no longer peeing every time his name was called, I could venture off to new adventures. Adventures like going to the park. Which seems simple enough. The first time I loaded Iggy up into the car, passenger seat because he was my co-captain, he stuck his head out of the window like a true dog. Tongue out lapping the wind up vigorously. We pull into the parking lot. Everything still seems fine at this point. I am completely ready for this and Iggy seems like he is in a pretty good mood. I hook him up to his leash and off we go. At first, everything is mellow as we enjoy the nice Las Vegas morning. Sauntering along down the cement path that winds its way lazily through the grassy park. Then, out of nowhere, my arm jerks with a force that sends all 100 pounds of me crashing to my knees. Iggy's leash slips from my grasp flying away into the distance. I shout his name, "IGGY!" as I watch him zip across the park toward another dog who is enjoying their walk none the wiser that another dog is heading its way full speed. Of course, I start running and shouting. Turning heads as I try to catch up with my jailbreak dog. The other dog has now caught on as well as their owner who's face is a mix between terror and confusion. My heart beats faster as I try to quicken my pace, screaming louder, "IGGY, STOP!" Iggy does thankfully stop to sniff excitedly at the other terrified dog's behind. I catch up and start apologizing as I gather up Iggy's leash to start pulling him away. That is the day I learned to always spot other dogs in the park before Iggy did, or else.

There was nothing I loved more than taking long drives in my car. Except maybe taking drives with my best bud. Iggy loved being in the car as much as I did. What started as nighttime drives around town to settle my brain turned into cross-country road trips together. The time in my life came when I thought I needed to get as far away from Las Vegas as I could. So I packed up my car, my dog, quit my job, and moved to Weirton, West Virginia. At twenty years old I could have made better decisions. Regardless, Iggy and I enjoyed the beautiful 2,000 mile-three day drive together. In a place full of strangers, he was my only friend and the only one I told all my secrets to. Iggy’s cuddles were to die for especially in the -4 degree winters Weirton had in store for me. I’ll cut to the part where a year later I decide to make the journey back to Las Vegas. Long story short it did not work out.

So, the years went on. Moving back to Las Vegas did not bring much change in my life. I went back to the same job, the same friends, and the same late-night drives with Iggy. The big difference was I was now living alone. A young girl in a city best known for its ‘Sin’. Iggy became my protector during this time in my life.

Iggy always slept close to me to keep me safe from harm, or maybe he was trying to keep himself safe we will never really know. He kept me company during breakfast and he sang with me while I got ready for work.

I felt secure in my relationship with Iggy which meant I did not need anyone else in my life. He was really all I could ever ask for. Iggy loved me the way I needed to be loved, he kept me warm at night, he was not picky about the fact I couldn’t cook, he did not talk much, and he enjoyed the same things I did. Really what more could a girl want? Well, life has a funny way of throwing those words right back into your face when you least expect it. I met someone and I fell in love.

We dated for a while before I brought this guy home to meet Iggy. Iggy still wasn’t too sure about people and got scared easily. He especially did not like men, the deep voice would set him off, and he could become a little aggressive. I explained all of this to my new love interest before bringing him home. I told him not to get scared if Iggy started to growl because he would not hurt him. I can admit I was a little nervous. It all worked out in the end though, Iggy actually loved Quentin right away, and they became fast friends. We all took a road trip up to Washington to visit my family where Quentin ended up proposing. I said yes and so did Iggy.

We were a happy little family of three until we weren’t. Meaning, I got pregnant. Getting pregnant then initiated a whole series of events. We needed to leave Las Vegas because I really did not want to raise a family there. We needed to figure out where to live and how to take care of a child and what would Iggy think of a baby? I was worried he would think I was replacing him seeing as I heard babies took a lot of time and attention. The baby grew regardless of my worries as they tend to do. We got our ducks in order and decided to move up to Washington to at least be close to some family during this uncertain time in our lives.

I had countless talks with Iggy about if I was doing the right thing. Moving again to somewhere new. While having a baby which was also so new. After just getting married which was really-really new. Every time Iggy would listen patiently to me as I spoke. Look up at me with those golden-brown eyes and seem to say, “It’s going to be okay you’ll always have me, and we can get through anything together.” On so many different occasions during that pregnancy did Iggy seem to come to my rescue. On the hard days when I just could not stop crying, he would sit with me and lick my tears away. When I needed to go for a drive to clear my head he would offer to come along so I would not be lonely. He got me through the toughest times in my life with our a doubt.

So after a little over a year of being married, my husband and I packed up and moved out of state with our one-month-old baby boy. What an adventure motherhood is. Let me just say it really hits you in the face, or it hit me in the face and all of a sudden I had zero time for anything. Iggy did not seem to mind how many walks got skipped or the large amounts of time we spent laying around. He did really enjoy the spilled baby food on the floor which I still believe was better than my cooking in the earlier years. Then there was that time I thought I had almost lost Iggy forever.

We had just moved and everything was so different it was making Iggy really nervous. I tried to comfort him as much as I could considering I also had a newborn. Unfortunately, Iggy developed an intense case of separation anxiety. If we left him alone in his kennel he would try to dig or chew his way out until his paws were bleeding. It broke my heart the first time I came home to Iggy with bloody paws wagging his tail because I was home. So, we tried to put him outside while we went grocery shopping to hopefully stop him from harming himself. We came home to a hole under the fence and no dog. I immediately dropped everything to search for him. We lived in a pretty forestry area so the options for where he was seemed infinite for me. My heart shattered each time I screamed his name into the silence of the world. I did not give up looking. Three days I searched from dawn until it was too dark for me to see anything. I called shelters, reached out to community message boards, talked to neighbors, and made flyers. I just could not find him.

On the third day, around 3 pm, I went home to take a break from looking. Pulling out my phone as I walked through the door to check if there were any updates on the message boards. To my surprise, someone had commented on one of his pictures saying he was at the humane society they worked at. I immediately burst into tears causing my husband to shout panicked, “what, what is it” my way. I left after telling him where he was. I got to the humane society in record time, running through the doors, and asking anyone who would listen where I could find my dog. I was led back into a room full of kennels. There I started walking slowly to check each one for my Iggy. I kept asking myself over and over, “where are you?” Until he was right in front of me. Peering up at me from his tattered bed with his sad golden eyes. Again I burst into tears as I fell to my knees and let him lick my face through the bars of his kennel. I told him I was sorry probably a million times before they even got him out of the kennel for me.

It was starting to occur to me that Iggy was getting up there in years. He was not as playful as he used to be. Instead enjoyed his naps more and more. Iggy’s face was getting greyer by the minute and it started to freak me out more than I cared to admit to anyone. I heard getting a puppy sometimes gave older dogs a new kick. We started looking around for a young puppy to adopt. I admit not very diligently. Until a family member announced the news that her dog was going to have puppies! Well, we could not ignore a sign from the universe that was shouting out so boldly. So for our son’s first birthday, we got him an 8-week old puppy. What were we even thinking?

As it turned out getting a puppy does help to jumpstart an old dog’s attitude toward life. Iggy was actively playing with the toddler and the toddler’s puppy. We had unknowingly signed up for an all-expense-paid circus extravaganza. All worth it at the end of course.

My son’s first words soon started to blurt out of his mouth. To my surprise, they were, “Iggy, Iggy, Iggy.” Of course, I cried again. My old dog had become a family man. No longer scared of people and the world just happy to be with his family and feel the constant love that surrounded him.

My son’s second birthday came and went and I thought everything was great. My life was great, nothing could go wrong. Then, I woke up in the middle of the night to Iggy throwing up. I thought it was nothing at first because sometimes dogs just do that. Iggy stopped eating and started throwing up more. I took him to the vet to try and figure out what was happening. Maybe he got into something that was making him sick or maybe he swallowed a string from one of his toys or anything besides maybe he was dying.

Iggy had developed a cancerous tumor.

Iggy was too old to survive any kind of treatment. That’s what they told me. That anything I tried would be in vain and just really expensive. The vet gave me a list of options I could try. Hospitalization, Surgery, Medication. But all with the same, “but the chances are slim” stapled on the end. It is indescribably hard to think about saying goodbye to your best friend, harder to actually go through with it, and still hard to think back to it.

It took Iggy a week to go from being healthy enough to being euthanized. It took a week for my world to be completely shattered. I loved and will continue to love, my rescue dog every day until the day I die. It is an understatement to say we saved each other. The countless amounts of memories we shared. Every good memory I have since I was 19 years old has Iggy in it. I’m 30 now, and the mother of two wonderful dogs and, of course, my son. It is the honest truth that I will never love another dog the way I loved Iggy. His personality was so unbelievably true. The pain he went through was equivalent to my own pain throughout my childhood. Together we built trust and moved on with our lives to find happiness. I could not have done any of it without him.

Until we meet again. I love you forever.