news-record.com

My mom says my husband, Jeremy, and I are "bleeding hearts."

That may be true, but what else were we supposed to do?

The Monday before Thanksgiving, our neighbors told us they were going to take their 1-year-old dog to the shelter the next morning. They said they didn't want to take care of her anymore. She was too much trouble.

So we took her in. Her name is Roxie. To us, she wasn't trouble at all; she was worth saving.

During the past year, we had watched Roxie from our living room window. We worried about her all the time. She would run free, darting back and forth across the street.

As she got older, the owner tied her to a chain at the base of a basketball goal in the driveway. She was there all day.

When I would walk by her house with my two dogs, Greta and Cassie, she would bark incessantly at us.

The night we brought her home, Roxie was a scared, untrained, unsocialized dog. But she was as sweet as could be and had big brown eyes and an underbite.

It amazed me after just a few days how quickly Roxie opened up to us. That first night she wouldn't come out of her crate, but after two days she was sitting on our laps and licking our faces.

During the course of two weeks and five days, we had a hard time finding a routine with Roxie, Greta and Cassie. Our dogs are mostly outside dogs.

Roxie took a liking to leaping on our white couch from across the living room and eating magnets off the fridge.

These are things Greta and Cassie, even in the time they do spend inside, never think about doing.

We had decided early on that if we could find a good home for Roxie, we would let someone else take her because she wasn't the best fit at our house. Not to mention, walking three dogs has the potential to go very badly, and it did on several occasions.

We took pictures of her and sent e-mails to friends and co-workers and posted messages on our Facebook pages, and I blogged about Roxie on my Dog Tales blog (dogsand randomness.blogspot.com).

Interest started immediately with Jeremy's co-workers. One couple visited our house to "interview" Roxie, as my Dad said. But her interview didn't go very well. Roxie shed a lot, and the prospective owners had an issue with that because of allergies.

Roxie's second interview came about a week later while I was at work. This woman, on paper, seemed like a perfect match for Roxie. Her husband was away in the military, and she wanted a dog to keep her company. She promised to love and take care of Roxie. And Jeremy informed me in a phone call that Roxie just loved her. So feeling very hopeful, Jeremy let Roxie go home with this woman.

When he told me this, my heart broke a little. I didn't get to say goodbye or meet this woman.

I held back the tears at my desk at work while I updated my blog that Roxie had found a new home.

And when I arrived home, I gave Greta and Cassie extra big hugs with tears in my eyes.

The next morning at 8, the phone rang. It was Roxie's caretaker. She wanted to return the pup.

I was shocked.

She told me her grandmother, with whom she lives, just finished chemotherapy and couldn't have a dog running around the house. We arranged for her to bring Roxie back to us later that day.

Jeremy and I have never been more excited to see anyone in our lives. And I think Roxie felt the same way.

When I walked in the door that night from work, she ran all the way across the house to greet me and jumped off the floor to give me a big kiss.

I was amazed at how much I had grown attached to Roxie. I mentioned to Jeremy that maybe we should just keep her, that maybe she came back to us for a reason.

But the next day, the family Roxie had been waiting for found her. Another co-worker of Jeremy's, Steve Smith of Burlington, came by the house with his family, wife Theresa and daughter Gabby. Roxie was a little hesitant and shy in this interview, but it didn't matter.

They loved her.

They didn't care that she shed a lot, and they didn't care that she loved to jump on couches. Their other dog, Ed, had his own couch.

The next day, we visited their house with Roxie. She checked out all the land she would be able to run on, and she and Ed had a great first meeting.

The Smiths are dog people and always have been. We felt great leaving Roxie with them, without one bit of doubt or sadness.

Since the Smiths adopted Roxie, Jeremy and I have gotten updates on how Roxie has adjusted to life at her new home.

In an e-mail to me, Steve said: "Roxie is doing great. The dogs crack me up in the morning. When we put the food down they start out eating in their own bowl and then switch bowls halfway through. ... I think Roxie is getting more food out of this."

Steve recently updated me on how her Christmas was: "Roxie had a great Christmas. She got a new collar for our wireless fence system and several snacks and toys. (Her) gifts included a dog shirt that says "I love my Mom!"

When Roxie came to us, she was scared, untrained and unsocialized. But she left us happy, trained, socialized and ready to be loved.

My mom told me that we can't save the world.

I told her no, but we can save Roxie. And we did.

Andrea Martin is a page designer with the News & Record. Contact her at 373-7018 or andrea.martin@news-record.com.