I am not sure how it started, but we decided around my milestone, 60th birthday that we would go to our local animal shelter and adopt a puppy. We have been empty pupsters, since our daughter moved out with her dog, Piper. We consider Piper our family dog, as she was after Shadow, our first family dog. When we lost Shadow, our daughter was heartbroken and one day back in 2009, she surprised us with Piper.
Now, Shadow really should have been named Wally as, back when we were living in Michigan about the mid-1990’s, my children and I adopted a free dog that was in a box in front of our local Walmart. We decided on the name of Shadow because of the movie Homeward Bound that was a family favorite at the time.
In a way, this is a little like Homeward Bound as all the animals at the animal shelter are on a journey to find their new forever homes.
This is all not rosy as I want to mention that our local animal shelter is a kill shelter, meaning some don’t find their forever homes, but the shelter tries to save as many as they can.
Little did I know that our family would be on a “tail” adventure, where my dog memory sparks our final course making a new ancestry tale or memory.
"Tail"of Two Mochas
On my birthday, we went out for lunch and, after, out to look for a puppy. Actually, a few days before my birthday, our daughter sent us a photo of a brown lab mix puppy that looked so much like Piper that this Mocha puppy became our mission.
At the shelter, we walked all the sections looking for Mocha puppy, but didn’t find her, so we asked at the desk. They informed us that there was something wrong with her. Mocha puppy had a broken leg, where the shelter didn’t fix it.
We still wanted to see her as, being a puppy, a broken leg might not be so bad. Maybe it was a simple break and all it needed was a splint. She was very cute, and we were still interested in Mocha.
So, before we committed, they gave us copies of all her x-rays to take to our vet. We took her to our daughter’s vet, who was kind enough to work us in. They said they didn’t do that kind of surgery and would need to go to one of their other offices. The vet gave us an estimate of $2,000-4,000 dollars.
We decided to think on it and, the next day, a rescue organization from Missouri adopted her as she was on the critical list or cut-off date, which we learned with Mocha 2.
On St. Patrick’s day, which was almost a month later, we tried again. This time it was lunch with our kids and then we all went to the shelter.
Mocha 2
Baron
Baron was a German Short-Haired Pointer and was liver colored or mocha colored. I remember driving with my family for several hours to a farm somewhere in Illinois, where we picked him out of a big litter.
Baron happened to be the runt of the litter. My dad wanted a German Short-Haired Pointer for hunting pheasants and his short hair made hunting easier because the burrs and other brush didn’t get caught in their hair, unlike our other dog, Frisky. An English setter, the brush and burrs always got tangled and were very hard to pull out of his long fur.
Besides being my dad’s best hunting dog. The reason I say best as my dad and Baron loved to hunt and they could be out all day together. Baron was just very good at hunting pheasants and would not break his point.
He was also our family dog. Baron was so kind and gentle and a good sport as he even let us put babydoll clothes on him. Nowadays, most dogs have dog beds and kennels, but Baron had his own closet.
Sure, he went on the couch or laid at my dad’s feet, but when it was time for him to go to bed, he would nose the closet door open and lay down on his cushion from an old couch.
Mocha resembled Baron, and all these memories flooded in when I saw Mocha’s photo on the website.
Maybe you have had similar things happened to you because of memories. Because of this, I was on another mission to meet Mocha 2.
Meetings
Our first meeting with Mocha 2 didn’t go too well. We wanted to spend some time with her outside in one of the play yards and we waited for her to be brought, only to be told that Mocha was at the in-house vet for her infected paw and were told to come back another time.
You would think this would have deterred us from pursuing Mocha, but we tried again a few days later and this time we succeeded. She was very calm and knew commands like fetch and sit. So all was going well, but because our 9-year-old grandson spends a lot of time at our house, we had one rule: he would also need to meet her to see if they got along.
The meeting with our grandson did not go well as Mocha was distracted with all the other dogs near our play area. This time, she didn’t listen at all. So we told the dog handler we could not commit to adopt, but we were interested in fostering her with the hopes of then adopting her.
When we inquired at the desk about fostering Mocha, we were told that was not an option as she was on a certain medication for her paw that she couldn’t be fostered.
They told us our only option was to adopt, which to us made no sense as then we would need to bring her to our vet to finish healing her paw. So we couldn’t foster because of the medication, but we could adopt and have a big vet bill and get the same medication. How insane!
A few days passed, and I emailed to see if Mocha was off her medication and ready to be fostered, but it was not good news.
From that point, we decided not to pursue Mocha any further as it was just not meant to be, or so we thought.
Cut-Off Date
On April 5, my husband received a text and I received an email from the shelter telling us that Mocha was available for fostering and would need to have a commitment by 4 pm on April 6th. At the time, I wasn’t sure what it meant by cut-off date, but I do now; it means if she was not adopted or fostered, she would be euthanized.
So, on April 6th just after it opened, we again went to meet with Mocha. Since it was raining, we met Mocha in an enclosed private room. As soon as Mocha enter the room, she vomited near our feet, which was very concerning. The dog handler told us that she found vomit in her kennel too! She said she would put it on her chart to get checked by the vet.
We noticed she was skinnier than the previous visit, but this time she was very loving. Little did we know what would happen next.
Getting Ready
I knew that if we didn’t foster her, she would be euthanized, but that meeting ‘clinched the deal’ for us, so we agreed to foster. We filled out all the paperwork, got home, and we received a phone call that a rescue organization trumps foster and that we were not needed.
Naturally we were baffled and disappointed. A short time later, we were surprised to receive a phone call from the rescue organization asking if we would like to foster Mocha. Of course we said yes!
We were like new parents getting ready for our new baby. Up went the baby gates that we kept from when our grandson was little. Before we picked up Mocha, we met with the rescue organization to get dog food, collar and leash. Now we were ready to pick up Mocha.
Fostering
We went to pickup Mocha, only to be told that the onsite vet still needed to see her for vomiting. We waited over two hours and if they only told us that the vet went on her lunch, we would have too!
Finally, they brought Mocha out to us and she was still vomiting, but they said she had kennel cough and gave us two medications and she would be fine.
Looking back, Mocha wasn’t scared to get in our truck, but was too weak. My husband gently lifted her in the truck and I sat with her to comfort her and be ready if she vomited again. She did very well in the truck and I took a photo of her first ride.
When we got home, she would not budge from the truck. We tried treats, but nothing work. We let her stay in the truck, thinking she needed time to adjust. So we closed our garage door and opened the doors on the truck to give her time to come out on her own.
When that didn’t happen, our daughter was here and she lifted her out and walked her in the front yard. Mocha settled into her comfy bed in our livingroom.
Vomiting
We thought from here on out, Mocha was going to get better and everything would turn out fine. In this case, it didn’t work out as planned. Mocha couldn’t stop vomiting. Everything I gave her came back up.
I have never had a sick dog and really didn’t know what to do. I googled what I should do and I boiled hamburger and used my de-fatter and drained off the fat so I could also use the beef juice with the beef and rice, but she would not eat it.
I tried giving her a small amount of water and set the clock to keep track so, if she kept that down, I could give her more when the time was up. It stayed down for an hour.
Since my husband took our grandson to his soccer practice, it was my turn to take him to his swim lesson. I really wanted to stay with Mocha, but a deal was a deal and I instructed my husband to give her about a quarter cup of water while I was gone and set the timer.
It was not good news. When we got home, we found out she again vomited. So, all she kept down was the ice chips from the night before, so he called the rescue coordinator for some help.
The coordinator came over with rotisserie chicken and pedialyte. Like with the beef, she did not eat the offered chicken. Next, we forced some pedialyte in with a children’s medicine syringe. Nothing worked.
The coordinator made arrangements for her to get an IV started at the shelter and, from there, we transported her to the emergency animal clinic.
This was the last time we saw her. From there she went to the vet that the rescue organization uses and then finally transferred to the rescue organization that is a couple states from us.
A New Ancestry Tale
I shared my dog “tail” to make you aware that memories play a vital role in your ancestry. It triggered my happy memories of my dog Baron growing up when I saw Mocha’s photo on the shelter website.
By recording your memories and other memories from family members, this helps future generations discover what was happening during important times in our lives. It makes family history come alive.
Ancestry® makes it very easy to add your memories. In my other posts, I go into detail on how to add your memories in visual form. If interested, click here for here for how to add pdf’s and here for photos.
My memories of Baron spurred me to go see Mocha. This new memory didn’t end well for our family, but somewhere someone will make memories with Mocha and that is all that matters. Hopefully, they too will record them for their family history in, dare I say it, a happy tail.
It's Not a Mystery
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