Holly’s Tragic Story Becomes a Happy Tail

We see it far too often.  People move from a home and leave their pets behind.  The lucky ones have neighbors who step in to feed them or maybe even take them in.  Most aren’t so lucky.

For Holly and her two buddies it was almost too late.  When a neighbor realized the house was empty and the dogs were still on the property, he stopped by to check.  He found a yellow lab dead on the driveway. Two other dogs were loose and hungry. They were shy but friendly, so the man reached out to one of our volunteers for help and Cory brought the two dogs home to his already full house.  Then he called ORHS.  Nine lives were saved that day!

The female (who we would later call Holly) was very pregnant and by the next day it was obvious she was in labor.  She arrived at her new foster home just three hours before delivering her first puppy.  She had seven pups in just over 90 minutes – that was close!  She was exhausted, but very affectionate and very grateful.  She would lay her head in your lap and just relax.  Somehow Holly knew she was safe and she was learning to love and trust.  Her puppies were as sweet as she was, and they never knew anything but gentle care and lots of love.  These wonderful neighbors had saved nine dogs’ lives!

Holly and her pups

Holly was a favorite with our volunteers whenever she visited our adoption center.  She simply loved people and demonstrated it every chance she got.  Several of our volunteers wanted to foster her after she weaned her puppies, but once her story went out on social media, adoption applications started to come in.  Holly deserved the very best family and she found just that.

A family that had previously adopted from ORHS wanted to meet Holly.  They had a 12-year old niece in New Jersey who had been learning how to train animals through 4-H.  She desperately wanted a dog of her own, but none were available near them.  Susan wanted to help her niece find that dog.  She came to our adoption center with her husband and her special needs son.  Holly was out playing in the yard when they arrived. Their family in New Jersey was connected on FaceTime so they could watch the greeting.  Holly came right over to meet them and was getting lots of pets when Isaac sat down on the ground.  Holly walked over to him, laid down and placed her head gently in his lap.  He looked at his dad and said, “I love this dog.”  And that was it. They adopted Holly for their niece and drove her to her new family a few weeks later.  Cate couldn’t be more in love with Holly, as is the whole family.  She is one special dog.

We’re pretty sure Holly was meant to be in New Jersey with Cate and her family, but what a journey she had to get there.  Holly’s story had a happy ending.  Her brother was also adopted to a great family where he was going to be trained as a therapy dog.  ORHS was so glad to have been able to take these dogs into our program.  We can’t save them all, but we’ll never stop trying. Thank you to everyone out there who cares about the cats and dogs in our community.