{"id":2709,"date":"2012-10-27T17:29:37","date_gmt":"2012-10-27T23:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/?p=2709"},"modified":"2012-10-27T17:29:37","modified_gmt":"2012-10-27T23:29:37","slug":"jeanne-and-sam-meant-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/?p=2709","title":{"rendered":"Jeanne and Sam: Meant to Be"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been bombarded with stories of dogs in need lately, dogs who need to be rescued before they run out of time. Here\u2019s one story with a happy ending, a story of how a woman and a dog who are meant to be together were united by a series of circumstances. Sometimes these things work out for the best.<\/p>\n

Maximus was tall, dark and handsome, charming with a calm demeanor. But his life hadn\u2019t been easy. He\u2019d had at least three different homes across half of the country and at least two names. He\u2019d roamed the streets and had been picked up.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t young any more, was settled down, but not quite a senior yet either. He needed a safe place to land, a forever home. He was a gentle spirit, a kind soul, who deserved better than life had offered so far.<\/p>\n

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Jeanne was lonely, missing her 100 pound shepherd mix who had died after developing debilitating joint problems. After her husband had passed on a few years ago, the dog had been her true companion. He\u2019d been big, solid, and true, a dog she could lean on and count on.<\/p>\n

Something happened to bring Maximus to Jeanne, and I\u2019m still not quite sure what made the pieces come together. Perhaps divine intervention and a guardian angel were at work.<\/p>\n

Over Memorial weekend, I was in Wisconsin visiting family. My friend Vickie from high school was in town visiting her mom, and they invited me over. I took my dog Chase along. He had recently completed his training to become a Delta Pet Partner, and he loves people. Vickie\u2019s mom Jeanne fell in love with Chase and told me how much she missed her old dog. Chase loved her too and sat by her for much of the evening, eying her ready stash of dog treats. Jeanne told me how much she wanted to find another large dog who would be a good companion. She\u2019s in her 70\u2019s and needed a dog who wasn\u2019t high energy. She used to walk her old dog around the block, take him to the dog park, and hire the neighbor boys to take him for longer walks. In spite of our concern about Jeanne handling a large dog, she was confident that she could still do it. She wanted to keep Chase, but of course, I couldn\u2019t let him go! Instead, I promised I would look for a dog for Jeanne.<\/p>\n

Back in Minnesota, a local rescue that I had helped support was closing and they needed to find safe places for the dogs in their care. I had met some of the dogs and had seen others posted on the website. With Jeanne in mind, I looked at the dogs on the website again, but didn\u2019t find a dog that seemed to be a good match. Most were young, high energy dogs who would need more activity than Jeanne could provide and might just pull her off her feet. I commented to my friends who had volunteered at the rescue and they both said, \u201cWhat about Maximus, the shepherd mix?\u201d Then I learned his story.<\/p>\n

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They told me how big and gentle Maximus is, and how concerned they were that he might not find a good home before the rescue had to close. There didn\u2019t seem to be a common reason why Maximus had not found a good forever home. It always seemed to be a problem with his person not being able to keep him. Probably being large doesn\u2019t help a dog sometimes.<\/p>\n

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I inquired to the rescue, met Maximus, asked a lot of questions, and sent his information and pictures to Jeanne. She was very interested and wanted to know when she could meet him. So in mid-June we arranged to meet halfway, in a small town in west-central Wisconsin, under a statue of an orange moose. A friend who had helped care for Maximus at the rescue volunteered to ride along with me. She wanted to see Max land his new home that day! Max fit in the back seat of my truck, but I didn\u2019t have a crate large enough to hold him. I didn\u2019t know how he would ride in the car, so it was nice to have someone else ride along.<\/p>\n

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After driving through western Wisconsin, we arrived under the orange moose. Just after we pulled in, Jeanne drove up in her bright yellow car, like clockwork. We let Maximus take a potty break and stretch his legs. He walked over to Jeanne\u2019s car and hopped right into the back seat like he\u2019d been with Jeanne for his entire life. It was love at first sight for both. Jeanne had already decided to adopt Max and was anxious to get going on the road back home, to get him settled into his new life. She had already told the whole neighborhood about Max, and people were awaiting their arrival!<\/p>\n

That morning when I had picked Maximus up from the rescue, I had told him where we were going and what we would be doing that day. I had told him all about Jeanne and how excited she was to meet him. So I shouldn\u2019t have been surprised when he jumped into her car like he\u2019d been doing it for his entire life. He\u2019d apparently understood what I\u2019d told him and was just as excited to get on with the next chapter of their lives as Jeanne was. The rescue had already approved of Jeanne and she had obviously already fallen in love with Max\u2026 so off they went!<\/p>\n

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Jeanne reported in July that Maximus is now called \u201cSam\u201d. He didn\u2019t respond to \u201cMaximus\u201d, but responded enthusiastically when she called him \u201cSam\u201d, so Sam it is! The new veterinarian decided that Sam is part German shepherd and part Great Dane. Now that I think about it, I do see Marmaduke in him! The road for Jeanne and Sam hasn\u2019t been without its bumps. Sam wants to chase bunnies, and there are many bunnies in their neighborhood this summer. True to our concerns, Jeanne has fallen a couple of times. But she\u2019s a committed dog mom, and is working to make their life together go smoothly. She consulted with a trainer to learn how to handle Sam better on walks, and hired the neighbor boys to take him for long walks every day. Jeanne assured me that Sam has found his forever home. I visited them in August to see that they are doing well together.<\/p>\n

Now Jeanne and Sam seem to be \u201cmeant to be\u201d, but how did this come about? I happened to see Jeanne in May when I got together with her daughter. I didn\u2019t find Sam on the rescue website and hadn\u2019t known about him until two different people had both said, \u201cWhat about Maximus\u201d? Something led me to mention Jeanne to these people, and something led them to mention Sam to me.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the rest of the story\u2026 When I was in high school, my family moved out to the country. I loved living in the country and being with my animals. But sometimes living far away meant that I missed extracurricular activities at school. My friend Vickie lived close to our high school. She was an only child and her family was very social. They hosted me overnight many times, allowing me to attend high school activities that I would have missed. Her family was much more social and politically active than mine. They had interesting parties, exposing me to new and different people and viewpoints, even introducing me to activists, which I have now also become! They opened up a whole new world for me.<\/p>\n

When I think about that time in my life, I realize now how generous Jeanne was to invite me into their home. As a teenager, I probably took too much for granted. I never really thanked her properly for her generosity and for all the doors she opened for me. I can\u2019t think of a better way to thank her than by bringing Sam into her life. What better gift is there than a noble dog? Although I feel as though Sam was sent, and I was just one of the vehicles that brought him to Jeanne, I like to think that, after all these years, her kindness has been repaid. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been bombarded with stories of dogs in need lately, dogs who need to be rescued before they run out of time. Here\u2019s one story with a happy ending, a story of how a woman and a dog who are meant to be together were united by a series of circumstances. Sometimes these things work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[275,354,355,148,353],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2709"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2727,"href":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709\/revisions\/2727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.8statekate.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}