The Story of Aria-the Little Girl

On September 30, 2010 we were traveling from my daughter's school home in the middle of a rain storm that had lasted three days. The drenching water was making it difficult to see what was in front of us on the road. As we rounded a familiar corner of the road, a small dog or fox ran in front of us. My daugher gasped "Mom, we have to turn around, I think that was a puppy!" So we quickly turned around and began trying to locate the very small animal. We found the animal desperately attempting to claw a small can on the porch of a well known local doctor. We could see it was a very small dog. My daughter exited the vehicle into the pouring rain to see if the dog would come to her. The frightened dog ran as she approached, but came back to her when my daughter picked up the can. With the can in her hand, my daughter slowly lifted the dog to her side and allowed the animal to lick the inside of the can. Holding the dog and the can, my daughter moved to the door of the residence and knocked. No one was home, so she returned to the truck with the dog.

This small animal appeared to be a sheltie puppy. After a moment of thought, we began the trek to find a vet within our community. I could hear my daughter speaking softly to this little dog. As we traveled, I also heard a small klinking noise. I asked "What is that noise?" "The puppy is so cold her teeth are chattering Mom." My daughter responded as she quickly wrapped the dog in a blanket as we neared the vet's office.

As we entered the office, we asked if anyone had reported a lost dog like this. There were no reports. The vet identified the dog as a "her" and scanned to see if she had a chip or tattoo. Neither. "She is full of fleas as can be seen by all this flea dirt, and I am sure she has ticks too." "What should we do with her?" I asked. The vet said we could put a sign in his office to notify anyone who comes in and should someone call they can then contact us.

This little girl appeared to be the victim of very unfortunate events. She was not a puppy as we thought but an adult dog. She weighed only six pounds. As you ran your hand from her head to her tail, you could feel both the large and small bones within her malnourished body. Her tiny legs were not even strong enough to hold herself up. She was dirty, matted, and had mange. We decided to call a groomer in the area to see what they could recommend before we took her into our home. The groomer looked at her with pity. Feeling sorry for her, she offered to squeeze in a quick bath. She warned that the water would probably run red from the blood that was being drawn from the insects living off of her. She was right, it was crimson. Her nails showed extreme dehydration according to the groomer. The poor little girl could not even stand as she was being dried.

We took little girl home where she could escape the torment she had been living. As she entered our home, she did not lift her head, nor her tail, but kept her nose to the floor looking for any spec of food she could find. We outfitted her with a bed quickly as my younger daughter is quite a little seamstress. The dog was very tired after her perusal of our floors. She fell asleep on the lap of my children.

She was so sad. The grief she felt did not allow for her tail to wag or to do much more than sleep. We purchased a crate, training pads, toys and other dog essentials. We fed her small meals of chicken and rice over the next week. As two weeks passed, her eyes began to brighten and we even got half a wag of her tail. Within three weeks she began to greet us at the door as we arrived home each day and wished to play.

No one ever did claim her, so we decided that she would stay with us, something I had told the girls would never happen. We named her Aria.

Aria has been with us ten weeks. She has gained eleven pounds. She plays with toys, loves walks, wakes every morning happy and smiling and gets into all kinds of mischief every day! We love her greatly and feel her arrival was intended for us. We have discovered she does not like the color red, becomes very nervous when there is smoke in the house (not a normal representation of my cooking!), loves to go for a ride, but shakes in the car at night, and loves to play outside. She is very smart and extremely loveable. While we don't know what her past was like, we know her future is full of love.