Thelma

It’s hard to tell Thelma’s story without talking about our family. I grew up allergic to animals and it was hard. I loved them. I lived with animals but I was constantly ill. As an adult I had to avoid them. My husband coincidently is also allergic. We had a family and our children loved animals. We learned about hairless dog breeds. There were very few in rescue and exactly “zero” that could be adopted by a family with young kids. I tried to adopt for 3 years. When our children were 5 and 7, we bought Jayne. As soon as I held her, I fell in love. I believe I dreaded her departure from the moment we met. She gave our family 8 years of fun and love. She fought liver disease for 2 years. She was amazing, my constant companion. She was quirky and complicated, intelligent and strong. I will be forever grateful to Jayne. After Jayne passed, we grieved and waited. I wasn’t sure I wanted another dog. Could we handle another loss like this? I started looking in rescue again. We decided that life with a dog was infinitely better and we wanted to rescue because we could! I found 2 AHT dogs in Maine named Thelma and Louise but when I spoke to their foster mom, we realized they were probably not a good match. I kept my eye on the hairless rescues. And one day, There were 2 PIO puppies for adoption, oddly named...Thelma and Louise. The whole family was on board and our foster mom was really supportive. We flew the puppies to Maine from Michigan and when they arrived we were amazed. They were beautiful and wild! Both of them were amazing, high energy puppies. Louise had beautiful spots and she was smaller. Thelma was bigger and goofy. She was bold with her sister and lacking some confidence alone. As we were all getting to know one another, I started having allergy symptoms. I contacted our foster Mom for support. We decided to place Louise back with the rescue, hopefully reducing the allergens would help. I was heartbroken and full of guilt. I dropped her off with a Foster mom named Anne. When she opened the van door, Louise jumped in her son’s lap. And guess what? She never left, they adopted each other. She blended perfectly with this family and so she found her forever home too! So we kept our big goofy girl. My allergies retreated. Thelma who had some minor health issues pop up, grew is size and confidence. She became fully potty trained, she learned to walk on a leash. She learned to sit, stay and come when called (when she’s ready). She learned that bikes and cars don’t require a lateral jump into my arms. And road trips are fun. No need to vomit! Even doorways are not that scary. I never, ever thought that I’d say “go see!” about everything and everyone that we encountered. Thelma came to us at a perfect time, a complicated and difficult time. We dealt with the sudden illness and death of a close family member. And Thelma was a lot of work through all of it. All I can say is, that she’s worth every effort. She’s still goofy, mischievous and very big at 71 pounds. She’s still working on manners like leaving people alone who are indifferent to her charms. She’s patient when walking in downtown Portland. It can be tedious, she has to stop every ten feet to be admired, touched and discussed. The bonus is, that she gets to meet lots of dogs! She loves all dogs and tolerates all people. We’re grateful to have her and hopefully we can rescue another dog to be Thelma’s buddy and a new part of our family. We’re all grateful to Naked K-9 and all of the great people that volunteer to save lives.