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| Full name: Maximillion Giffin . . . still working on a middle name! |
I know, kind of out of the blue, right?
This whole thing started about a week and a half ago at work. It was a Tuesday, and one of my co-workers was talking about how she'd rescued a dog over the weekend. Basically, she had taken her kids down to Phoenix to visit their dad, and they'd gone to visit some friend/distant relative at their house. In the backyard was Max and these two big pitbulls who'd obviously been trained to be mean pits, and they were picking on Max. At one point my co-worker was in the house and heard a dog yelping in pain; she went outside and one of the pits had Max in his mouth, holding him by the hips. He dropped Max when he saw her but then picked him up again, this time by the neck/head. My co-worker and her friend wrestled him away from the pit, and she could tell when she touched him that he'd been neglected (ribs poking out, etc), so she basically dognapped him. She said she couldn't leave him because she knew if she did he'd end up dead.
Well, the thing is, she's only allowed to have cats ate her place; she lives in rent controlled housing and has 4 kids so getting evicted//moving isn't really an option. None of the no-kill shelters in town would take him (they only rescue from shelters now) and she didn't want to give him to a kill shelter because he's so skittish/scared, he'd never get adopted and would end up put down.
I asked Jerbs and initially I said we'd foster him, just keep him until he was ready for a new home. Because I can't say no to rescues after Benji, and their stories were so similar . . . yeah. The next day we took our lunches at the same time and I went home with her to meet Max. Well, I fell in love. He is so cute, and the way he acted reminded me SO much of Benji when I first had him. At that point I pretty much knew I wasn't going to be his foster mom, I was going to be his forever mom.
He went to the vet and got neutered and his first round of shots this past Monday, and then spent the rest of the week recovering at my co-workers house. A couple hours ago her and all the kids came by to drop him and his stuff off, and he's officially mine! It was hard for them to let him go, though, which sucks but also shows how good of people they are . . . all of them have big hearts and I know that they'd have given Max a fantastic home if they could have. (And can I just tell you that these 4 kids are amazing? I was so happy to meet them, and I'm looking forward to spending time with them so they can see Max). And I told the kids how I ended up with Benji and explained that he came from the same background as Max, and that seemed to put them at ease.
I'm definitely going to keep in touch; I promised them I'd text them pictures and stuff and I know that this summer we'll probably all take Max to the park together and stuff like that. Like I said, this family is awesome, and I have no problem sharing Max with them.
It's definitely odd to have him home. I didn't even know I wanted another dog--like it wasn't something I was even remotely thinking about--but I'm so excited to have Max! I remember how cool it was to kind of watch Benji come out of his shell and lose that fear and abused attitude, and I'm happy I get to watch that again. I really do believe that rescuing an animal is the only way to get a pet, because the work you put in is rewarded with a really unbelievable loyalty. I am really looking forward to watching Max adjust to his new house and become a part of my little family.
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