Bella + Annie's Story
Bella’s arrival to SGAS
Bella and Annie are two very special girls that came into our care at different times and with different circumstances. Bella came to us as a surrender in April of 2021. She was surrendered to us due to needing a double TPLO surgery- Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy. This surgery was going to require some extensive healing! There was a long road ahead but we are so thankful for the medical foster that took her on and cared for her until she was ready to find her forever home.
Annie- then “ Petunia” would come to us as a stray in the very beginning of 2024 during one of our Alberta cold snaps. She was a little puppy all alone in the world. Annie would go to foster and return to us a few weeks later in shelter. Due to no fault of her own, Annie sat with us in shelter for longer than puppies usually stay with us. She was just waiting for the right family to find her!
Both girls were very lucky to find a forever family with wonderful people!
Bella would pass away 3 years after adoption, Read below to hear directly from her family on the amazing life they were able to provide her. We are so thankful that her last few years were spent with plenty of care, and plenty of love
Bella spent one single day at the shelter, or so I was told. She was surrender for a double TPLO and went to medical foster for several months after. Recovered really well and was brought back the night before an adoption event Jun 19, 2021, which is the day we picked her up. She won us over with her soulful eyes and her head presses and that all she wanted while she healed was a couch to hang out on. She was a rottie hound, heavy on the hound. And when she healed she loved nothing more than a walk at break neck speed to sniff everything her nose could reach! She even got the go-ahead from the vet to run again and we would go to the dog park (I know, we know better now) and she did really well with every other dog though. She was an energy matcher and she made lots of friends. My parents own an orchard and she just loved it there- I think in her previous life she was an acreage dog but we love in town so she really loved the orchard trips. She was six when we got her so a senior girly but once fully healed we learned she hadn’t actually slowed down at all! She eventually started to get some arthritis, likely a side effect of the surgeries, but some pain meds and eventually trying out lybrella and she was right as rain again! With her excellent sniffer (we did a wisdom panel on her, 52% blood hound) she loved to play hide and seek, we’d hide, she’d sniff us out. She eventually had a spot she wouldn’t stop licking on one leg, eventually figured out one of her TPLO plates was infected. Did several rounds of antibiotics and tried to stop her licking it (this was her pajama phase, so cute) but it wasn’t clearing up. So a plate removal surgery with Dr Keys was set. The plate came out and she wanted to play again the next day- she was always the most resilient girly, stopping her for a week post op from doing much was tough for her, even though she was 8. She made a full recovery from plate removal and we went back to our usual two walks a day, even on the coldest days, she had a full snowsuit and booties to keep warm. But one day she didn’t eat her dinner, or a slice of cheese. We knew something was wrong right away. Bundled her up to the vet. She had a bleeding mass on her spleen. We had it removed, she got to come home for one really special night. We slept on a mattress on the floor with her. But the next day she crashed. Something was wrong, I was home alone with her and I couldn’t lift her into the car, that beautiful girl knew I was scared and hoped into the car for me one last time, but had to be steetchered out of the car at the vet. She wasn’t recovering from her cancer surgery and had a heart arrhythmia and I had to let her go. It was very very cold that day on February, she was nine. You’ve lost pets before. They’re your whole life and routine and then there’s nothing and it’s devastating. We missed her so much.
Petunia-now Annie’s arrival at SGAS
A couple months later we saw this cute little face on your website- Petunia. She’d been in the shelter a few months already. Brought in during a cold snap in February- the same time Bella passed. So we went to see her, she was a little angel. So we brought home Petunia who we named Annie, a little orphan dog who had been at the shelter too long. She has been a challenge but having something to learn and focus on helped with my broken heart. And now she’s a wonderful, confident girly we are grateful for every day! And who we know Saving Grace and Bella picked out just for us!
