Chief

Entrant's Name
Val and Phil Corriher

Pet's Name
Chief

Breed (or best guess!)
Pitt face, Dane body, energy of a Lab! My best guess :)

Your Pet's Story or Bio / What Makes Them Unique
The first moment I will never forget was shortly after the “okay, we won’t foster anymore until we move into a house” conversation that Phil and I had, I received a text asking us to help him. I figured I’d ask just to be annoying (ha), but I was in total disbelief when Phil took one look at the picture and said “Ok.” Chief and his brother had been living in the woods and were finally found seeking shelter under a trailer. They were very malnourished and had severe mange. They eventually recovered, and Champ was adopted right away. We continued to foster Chief until a family adopted him a few months later as a small puppy. And we cried. We talked ourselves into believing that we had done the best for him, even though this was harder to feel good about it for some reason. You see, people always ask me “is it hard to give them up?” and the truth is it’s really not. Because once you see who you “give them up to” and how much they are loved in their new home, the sadness turns to happiness, and then you can’t wait to do it again. But this time it was different and I should’ve known at the time.

The second moment I will never forget is the moment that we received the following text: “Chief is being returned. Any interest in fostering him?” …. I immediately turned to Phil who was sitting right beside me, and with chills, said “ we are adopting him. He is our baby and this was meant to be”… He had been rejected by his adoptive family 5 months (and 50lbs) later, and was accused of having destructive behavior; apparently he "peed on the wife everyday”.. We realized later that they had not treated him well, and he was under a lot of stress and depressed. It only took 2 days back with us to see the same happiness, eagerness to please, and JOY in his eyes that we had known before he left. It was evident that he had done an immediate 180 and tried so very hard to make us proud. There was no doubt about it at that point, he had chosen us. We officially adopted him on the 20th of September and have been completely in love since. I have no doubt that he remembers his poor treatment and everything that he has been through but his loving heart FORGIVES, and he loves all people!! He has taught me that I have a lot more growing to do. The amount of love and admiration that is in his eyes when he looks at us is incomparable. It is a daily gift, that I do not deserve, and although I know he probably thinks Momma is the greatest thing in the world, the reality is that he is MY hero.

Please vote for my baby! He is my world <3