The story below is from our March/April 2020 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Adopted dogs get a new leash on life.
Kemper Mills Fant Photography
Rescue dog Jack
Few things in life are more rewarding than adopting a dog in need of a furever home. Our rescue dog, Hank, is a 12-year-old coonhound with cloudy eyes, missing front teeth, notched ears and a sea lion bark. He was found hungry and injured in the Kentucky woods and nursed slowly back to health by an incredible foster mom in Michigan. Now he lives happily in our Virginia mountains, baying for walks and anything on the cutting board.
Local organizations like the RVSPCA, Angels of Assisi, League for Animal Protection, Smiles Forever and regional Humane Societies work tirelessly to save and place dogs and cats. A devoted community of foster animal parents takes in animals in danger of euthanasia or needing special care. And then there are the adoptive parents, who find that saving a dog’s life enriches their own.
Jack
Jack, a debonair German Wirehaired Pointer-Weimaraner mix, and Kemper Fant, a photographer, met 12 years ago. Jack was a puppy being fostered through the RVSPCA by a neighbor’s assistant, and Fant and his then-partner, James, brought the little guy to their Wasena home.
Kemper Mills Fant Photography
Jack
“You don’t even know how awesome your life is going to be,” Fant told the whimpering pup.
Fant is an avid runner, and soon he and Jack were hitting the local trails. Jack grew into a 100-pound, long-legged dog who could run for miles in his prime.
“He would glide through the forest, smell something, come back, hop over logs,” Fant says. “I’d run 12 miles and he’d probably run twice that, running back and forth to me.”
Fant notes that while Jack never let him out of his sight, he always had to be in the lead, sometimes requiring Fant to run flat out if he was with a group who got ahead of him.
“He had no loyalty at all,” Fant jokes.
These days, Jack is mostly blind, so bounding through the woods has been replaced with long daily walks. He gets a lot of attention because of his unusual looks, and Fant says he’s been a great companion.
“He gives people so much pleasure, and you can’t help but want to make him happy.”
Tudee and Mooney
Melissa, Barry and Sophia Webster live in Cave Spring with their two white Staffordshire Terriers, Tudee and Mooney. Tudee, who’s eight to 10 years old, became part of the family four years ago, after the Websters met her through a friend who was fostering with Smiles Forever. Tudee had been in the Roanoke City pound for a long time and was scheduled to be euthanized the day she was rescued. She was a tough sell because her “communication style” was a growly bark and stiff tail which conveyed aggression. But Webster says the moment she and her 16-year-old daughter met Tudee, “she sat down between us with her toy and we were hooked.”
Courtesy of the Webster Family
Tudee and Mooney
As Tudee decompressed from her time at the pound and settled into a safe and secure place, her loving nature became apparent. “We hug and kiss when we get home,” Webster says, “and if you don’t bend down so she can kiss you on the cheek, she’ll follow you around and bounce on two legs until you do.”
Mooney, age three, joined the family a year and a half ago through Friends of Bedford County Animal Shelter and Delores Joiner, who has fostered and placed “non-adoptable” bully mix breeds for over 20 years. As Joiner explains, “I take the ones who have potential, but maybe have been kept on chains and not taught the things they should’ve learned as puppies, and teach them how to live in a home with humans and other animals.”
The Websters spent about three months driving to Delores’ house twice a week, introducing Tudee and Mooney by taking them on walks together. Their patient approach paid off when Mooney came to live with the Websters and the two dogs got along just fine.
Webster says having rescue dogs has turned them into advocates, fundraising and spreading the word. “Sophia talks about our rescue family at school. Barry and I talk about them at work. These dogs brought a very cool purpose to the Websters.”
Henri + Lily
Henri is a 10-year-old Doberman-Coonhound mix, and Lily is a three-year-old Australian Kelpie, but these rescues have one distinctive trait in common: they’re “tri-pawds,” dogs with three legs.
Courtesy of Sunny and Tom Wasiela
Henri and Lily
Their owners, Sunny and Tom Wasiela, live in Roanoke’s Roundhill neighborhood, and their previous dog had a leg amputated due to cancer. So when Sunny was looking for a rescue on adopt-a-pet.com four years ago, Henri’s lack of a limb was no problem. He was an owner surrender in North Carolina who had a damaged leg that needed to be removed, bladder stones and heartworm. After being rehabilitated, he spent three years with a rescue, waiting for a home who would take him as-is, before coming to live with the Wasielas.
Lily was found in Tazewell county, at about five or six months old, with her leg tangled in a chain. Despite a local vet’s efforts, the leg had to be amputated, and Smiles Forever brought her to Roanoke. Lily’s foster mom worked at Henri’s doggy daycare, and “there seemed to be a team effort to introduce us,” she laughs.
Since bringing Lily home, Wasiela says she gets lots of comments about what good people they are for taking them both in, but she says, “I want people to know that there is nothing hard about having a tri-pawd that doesn’t also apply to a dog with four legs. They have just as much love to give.”
Lily is especially active and agile, able to jump stumps and go hiking. Wasiela said that after taking her up to McAfee Knob last fall, someone commented about Lily having a harder time doing it. Wasiela replied, “She had a leg up on me!”
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