Henrietta and the Bad Knees: The Story Of How We Found Henrietta

The title of "Rescued Dog" could not be more appropriate when describing how Henrietta came to be our pet. It all started...

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

STAR
WARS

Corey and I were married in

the spring of 2005, and in the autumn

of that year we moved to Bay City so that

Corey could be closer to work. Just like countless

young adults before us, we found it hard adjusting to being

so far away from our families and familiar home town. We didn't

know anyone in our new town, Corey was still a fairly new face at his job,

and we had to learn where everything was. We took up some hobbies to pass the

time. I started to crochet gifts for the family members I missed so much, and Corey got

into a GPS game called Geocaching. It was nice to get out into nature and search for hidden "treasure," so I often went with him on his Geocaching excursions. We had a lot of fun.

On April 1st, 2006, Corey picked a new set of co-ordinates for us to hunt down, and we set off on our new treasure hunting adventure. We had a hard time finding the secluded park. It was unmarked on any maps, and behind a sprawling neighborhood. We drove around for an hour before we finally stumbled on it. By then, we were hungry and wanted to get out of the car. We had packed a picnic lunch, so we set up our sandwiches and thermos of water on one of the picnic tables in the park.

I had just taken the first bite of my sandwich when, out of nowhere, this huge puppy jumped up onto the bench, walked straight across Corey's lap, and plopped herself right down into my lap like she belonged there. I was totally shocked! The puppy looked up at me with the biggest, roundest, most hope-filled eyes I've ever seen, and wagged her tail with joy at having found somebody to cuddle with. My heart melted! She didn't have a collar on, and I could see she was a little dirty and a bit thin, so I offered her half of my sandwich, which she SWALLOWED WHOLE! I was totally shocked for the second time in 2 minutes! I immediately gave her the rest of my sandwich, and made Corey surrender his as well. Corey poured some of our water into the thermos cap, and the puppy drained it within seconds. So he refilled it, and she drained it again. He repeated this until our 1L thermos was empty. This puppy has just eaten our entire picnic!

I tried to convince Corey that we should take the dog home and try to find her owners. He wasn't excited about the idea, firstly because we were living in a rented house, and secondly because we had no room in our car. We decided to call the county animal control office and report her as a stray dog. We then went looking for the Geocache with this big goofy puppy tagging along after us down the trail. After finding and then re-hiding the cache, it was time for us to leave. I tried again to convince Corey to bring her home with us but he refused, saying it wouldn't be safe to have a strange dog in our cramped car driving nearly an hour back home. The puppy watched us with big, sad eyes from underneath the picnic table as we drove away.

We called animal control on the way home, and asked that they call us if they were able to pick her up. They called us back after a few hours, but it was to ask for directions to the park! We weren't the only ones who had a hard time finding it. I received another call 2 days later, saying that they had found her and taken her to the county animal control kennel. I asked if there was a way for them to find her owners, and I was told that they only hold the dog for 7 days. If no one calls in to claim an animal after 7 days, the animal is euthanized. I was floored! Had we just handed this dog a potential death sentence? As soon as I hung up, I called Corey at work and cried into the phone for 5 minutes. I finally managed to blubber out the situation, and he immediately agreed that we couldn't leave her there. I called the animal control office back and set up an appointment to pick her up the first day Corey was off from work. They required documentation of taking her to a veterinarian within 7 days, so I set up a vet appointment for the same afternoon. 3 days passed, and we finally were able to go and pick the dog up. Like some kind of plot twist, we realized that the kennel facility was located right next to the county prison.

The puppy had contracted kennel cough during her time at the county kennels, but we got her fixed right up at the vet. He told us that she looked like a German Shepherd/Lab mix, was about 5 months old, and had possibly been spayed already (which turned out to be true). She didn't have a microchip, though. But somebody had cared for this dog, so they must be out looking for her. We plastered the park and surrounding neighborhood with "Found Dog" flyers, and we even called the SPCA so they would know where she was if anyone called looking for her. We thought for sure that a pretty dog like her would be missed and looked for, but no one ever called. The weeks dragged into months. Finally, Corey and I had to admit that no one was going to come looking for this pup. By that time, however, she had settled in our hearts. We decided that she was our dog, and she deserved the best life that we could give her.

We named her Henrietta, and she's been with us ever since, through thick and thin, ever a loyal friend, and an important member of our family. We love you, Henrietta!