Good evening, my friends! :)
I was inspired the other day by my new friend, @isachick (shout out!!!), when I was reading their posts and came across some adorable dog photos. Sooooo.....I've decided to take the evening off from writing about music in order to introduce you to my fur babies, Roxxie, Penny, and Mina, and what wonderful animals they are from rescue environments.

ROXXIE'S STORY

Tonight, we will focus on Roxxie, adopted in 2012 from a Honesdale, PA shelter. She is a Plotthound/Pitbull mix. My husband ( @michaeljohnson ) and I were dating at the time and decided that we wanted to create an official long-term commitment to each other by finding our first pet.

We both worked quite a bit, so we only had weekends to visit the local shelters. For a month straight, we visited the same location, and each time, this sweet little girl was sitting very quietly in a cage in the back all by herself. See the huge, "please love me..." eyes she's giving in her pictures? These are the same eyes she gave me each week.

By the 4th week, I was beyond curious about her and why she was still there, so I approached one of the volunteers and inquired. The volunteer shook her head sadly and stated that she was being isolated for allegedly biting a child, but they were still investigating the situation and evaluating her. I was in shock...How could such a laid-back animal be aggressive? I decided it was time to ask to bring her out of the crate at my own risk to try to connect with her myself.

You should have seen her eyes, friends...She instantly lit up when she saw the door opening! Mike and I took her outside for over an hour, letting her explore the world on her leash, sniff out other animals (PS - Not a DRIP of aggression...), and crawl up into my lap to kiss my face. That's when we were completely sold on her. Upon returning her to her cage, we went back to the volunteer to start the adoption process.

The volunteer was beyond delighted that someone was interested in this sweet baby, but again warned us about the alleged "biting incident." Since she was up for potential euthanization due to supposedly biting a child, they wanted to run a slew of psychological and behavioral tests on her. I told her I didn't care what another family said or what the shelter needed to do...We just wanted her home with us to give her the proper, loving, and long life that she so desperately deserved. The paperwork was filled out, Mike and I said good-bye to her, and we left for the evening, SUPER EXCITED.

A few days later, we got the most AMAZING phone call from the shelter. We were told that not only did Roxxie's pass her psychological and behavioral tests with FLYING COLORS, but the last people to adopt her called the shelter with a confession...THEY LIED ABOUT THE BITING INCIDENT...They were too embarrassed to admit that they couldn't handle her puppy energy, so they made up a story to make themselves look better. THANKFULLY, they had a change of heart, knowing that she could have been put to sleep for absolutely no reason; however, I hope that they never tried to rescue again to endanger another animal's life.

The rest is history!!! Since bringing her home on that hot July day, she drooled all over me in the backseat, hogged my side of the bed, and still (to this day) lays her 80 pound butt in my lap to show me her love. We've never looked back and will love and spoil her until the day she crosses Rainbow Bridge, which we hope is MANY, MANY years down the road. She's our "Doodlebug!"

Thanks for reading Roxxie's story! Please share pictures of your fur babies, and check back again soon for Penny and Mina's stories!

Much Love,
Kim