Please join us in welcoming our new lover, recent recruit, our four-legged intern - Atlas! I am overjoyed to share with you my recent adoption of Atlas "McJacksonpants", as I like to call him. After 3 months of fostering and not having taken him to any adoption events, I knew something was different about this situation. His sweet soul captured my heart in a big way...
Like many rescue dogs, Atlas had a real rough start to life. At about one year old, he was found collapsed on someone's doorstep in deplorable condition. This person brought him into 100+ Abandoned Dogs of the Everglades where he was treated for severe mange. While undergoing treatment, Atlas found a foster who later abandoned him again. He was scheduled to be boarded for a few days while his foster was out of town and they never returned, despite the many phone calls. Months later, the staff at the kennel grew concerned about his stress and depression. I got the call for Atlas not 24 hours after adopting out my last dog. I thought I could make it a whole day without a dog but it turns out.. I can't (and who would want to?). I headed down to Ft Lauderdale to pick up the newest pup and the rest is history. We instantly bonded and there was no way I was letting go this time, I finally found "the one whom my soul loves". I adopted Atlas after 3 months together.
It has now been about 5 months since Atlas entered my life and he continues to fight chronic demodectic mange. It's been concerning, stressful and a little expensive, but things are looking up for him and I see small improvements everyday now. When considering adopting Atlas I ran through the list of questions every responsible dog owner should ask themselves, and then did that again... at least a couple hundred times. I'm happy to say there hasn't been a day that has gone by where I wasn't utterly grateful for him.
Not everyone out there is a natural born animal lover but in my dreams, everyone would experience loving something unconditionally and every animal would know just how sweet it is to sleep in a warm bed at night and get smothered daily with kisses.
