Feel Good Friday: Chester
For this #FeelGoodFriday we want to introduce you to Chester’s (fka Smokey) adoption story. Stories like this is why we do what we do, so we couldn’t be more excited to share it with you.
Six years ago this coming November, before Wags and Walks had their own adoption center, they had a pop-up at a pet store on Venice Blvd for the holidays at which many of us volunteered. I came to volunteer one Sunday and there was 5 month old Chester (then Smokey), a lazy, silly, gorgeous, goofy puppy. I fell in love on the spot but honestly that happened a lot. The next Sunday I came again and was told that Smokey was at NKLA, waiting to be adopted. The following Thursday was Thanksgiving, and my daughter Sydney was home from college in NY, and I took her with me to NKLA (I volunteered there as well at the time) to meet Smokey and take him for a walk, just because I thought he was adorable. Sydney took this picture of us.
I volunteered at the pop up again the following Sunday and was told that Smokey was at the vet with pneumonia! It just so happened that he was at my vet of many years, so I went to visit him. The poor guy was in isolation which just broke my heart, and the next thing I knew I was visiting him at the vet every day, thinking I had lost my mind.
At the time, I had two dogs, an elderly Doberman/lab mix (Ella) and a pitbull lab mix who was about 2 years old at the time (Frankie). My husband did NOT want another dog but I somehow convinced him that we should “foster” Smokey when he was well enough to leave the vet.
Well, the day before Smokey was going to be allowed to leave, Ella suddenly died. She was a large dog, close to 100 pounds, and was almost 16, so we knew it was coming but of course we were bereft. In the midst of the grief however I had a flash that Ella knew that I had found “the dog” and that it was okay for her to go.
So Smokey, now Chester, came home with us. Chester is our seventh family dog (all rescues), and like all of our dogs we couldn’t adore him more. I even did a sculpture of him!