SUZY

When my husband and I received a call from Sue Webb asking if we would foster care for a mother dog and her five one-day old puppies we were thrilled. We had taken care of puppies before and knew what we were in for: a lot of love and fun.

Suzy was a wonderful mother. She was very protective of her pups and also very attentive to their every whimper. Suzy was rather shy with us during her times away from the pups. We learned later that she had more experience caring for babies than being a family pet. However we couldn’t help falling in love her.

It was a nice summer, weather-wise, so whenever we played with the pups outside we attracted a lot of attention. So we had a lot of willing helpers to help socialize the pups

Here are some pictures of Suzy and her puppies.

Our foster care terms specified that we would return Suzy and her pups when they were about nine weeks old. It was very difficult to part with them, especially Suzy. We resigned ourselves to never seeing any of them again. We let Sue Webb know that if Suzy were ever made available for adoption we were ready to give her a forever home.

A few weeks later, actually on the day a dear friend passed away, we heard a knock and a little bark on our porch. There was Suzy and a SPIN adoption counselor! She had come to make her home with us.

I remember the exact moment when she knew she was just going to a pampered pet. We were playing and petting her on our bed trying to get her to relax and start to play with us. All of a sudden she rolled over on her back and wiggled around begging to have her tummy rubbed. She never showed any shyness after that but romped and responded to as much attention she could get.

We often would just look at her with wonder and thankfulness. At times I really don’t think she knew she was a dog…. she was so much a part of our family. She loved to make doggie angels in the snow. She would snoot around in the snow and roll over on her back a wiggling and wiggling.

Here are some of our favorite pictures of her.

Suzy was a blessing and special doggie part of our lives for many years. She moved to two new homes with us. We chose a retirement community mostly because we could bring her with us. As we aged so did Suzy. We had our doctor’s visits and she had her vet visits.

Our little girl lived to be 18 years old before parting from us. Now we think of her as our angel dog who will be there waiting at heaven’s door to greet us with barks and kisses. She won’t be alone. We have been dog people all our lives and recently adopted another senior dog.

Judy and Bernie Goodwin