PART 4 - bella saves the day
after the front-porch moment, i told the family that even though keisha and baker weren't turning out the way we hoped they might, they did think of our home as their home and we shouldn't give up on them just yet. i sensed the others in the family weren't as moved by keisha's voluntary return as i was, even after my dramatic re-telling of the morning break-away. realizing they had already checked out and moved on, i took ownership of getting the dogs adoption-ready and said they were all excused from the work.

i did everything i could think of to get them to warm to people. and they did improve but our progress did slow once again. after an additional four months of work, we had now had keisha for over a year and baker for more than six months, our co-existance looked more like an understanding than it did a proper relationship and neither party showed signs of give. i told the family i thought we had brought them as far as we could and it was time to for them to move to a permanent home. i asked bella to contact the rescue folks and tell them we would be bringing both dogs to the next adoption event.

as the weekend approached, i contacted the main woman directly and asked what could be done to see that keisha and baker were adopted together. she casually explained that there wasn't much they could do to mandate that and added that in the end it didn't really matter that much to the dogs. being the newb in the room i had scant weaponry to refute her position. but as the week progressed and i watched keisha and baker continue their tethered lives never, ever being out of eyeshot from the other and very often being in direct physical contact, i couldn't ignore my intuition that separating these dogs was a mistake. the closer the day came, the more emotionally-ill i became.

the night before the event i expressed my concern to bella. she came and put an arm around me and said i shouldn't worry and that i did good and that because of the work we did they were going to go to a loving home tomorrow. i'm well aware i should be consoling my daughter but this is not the first time we've traded roles and given her trajectory, we all know it is not the last.

the next morning came. i went down to greet the dogs and let them out. watching them approach me in tandem i wondered if this would be their last morning together. more illness. i let them out and prepared an extra-big and double-special breakfast. keisha danced her usual circles as i opened the back door to bring their food (the morning feeding was easily keisha's favorite moment of every day and she looked more like a six-month old, well-adjusted pup than a seven year-old former puppy-mill mama having birthed an uncountable number of offspring). i watched them tear through the treat-laden bowls side by side and wondered if this would be their last meal together. yep, more illness.

meanwhile what i did not know was that bella had begun advertising their adoption in her various media channels. by noon there were three people interested in them. the first woman asked bella if she could send/post more pictures of the smaller girl dog. bella said of course and uploaded a series of photos showing keisha AND baker. in the photos they were sleeping and they were cuddling and they were walking. never once did bella share a picture of just keisha (though i don't know if it would be possible to have a picture of JUST keisha given their constant proximity to one another). in time the woman asked about the other dog.

BELLA
oh him. that's baker. he is like her brother. they came in on the same rescue and are always together.

WOMAN
oh my. it seems like it would be terrible to separate them.

BELLA
yes. that would be kinda sad. but i'm sure they will be ok.

WOMAN
are they both up for adoption?

BELLA
yes. as a matter of fact, they are. they both go up today.

WOMAN
would is be possible for me to adopt both of them or is someone interested in the boy?

BELLA
there are other interested people, but if you would take both of them, we could make that happen.

and that is how keisha and baker got a new home together. every now and then we see pictures of them with their new parents the woman has done an astonishing job with them. truly. they run to her. they come to couch-time on their own. the woman even has them walking with her off-leash (a pretty huge deal). recently we got to watch them over the weekend while their new owners went on a trip. seeing how far keisha has come since she punched holes in my leather work gloves back on day one makes up, all on its own, for all the no-pet years our household went through.

NEXT Part 5 - the one that almost didn't get away

PHOTO me saying goodbye to keisha and baker moments before they went to live with their new family.