Back in the fall of 2008, a Rawhide Rescue volunteer was picking up a dog in the Plainfield, NJ shelter, saw Foxy and couldn’t leave her behind. She was known as Dolly by the shelter and was quickly renamed Foxy by Ingela, appropriately so. Ellen was her special foster mom who introduced her to her labs. No wonder why Foxy always gravitated towards bigger dogs. I discovered Foxy on Petfinder.com while living in Manhattan. I submitted my application, pictures of my neighborhood and two references. I went to meet Foxy at PetSmart in Bridgewater, NJ on October 25th, 2008. We all thought she was 1 1/2 years old but later found out from the vet she was more likely 3 years old. I was lucky enough to take this sweet baby girl home with me that day! We had two wonderful years living in the city before we moved to the suburbs of Chatham, NJ. Foxy adapted to city life so well, that the sound of buses and trucks never phased her. I took her everywhere with me, to our shore house where she loved to lick the sand, only once in the ocean as she wasn’t a water dog, on our annual Christmas 10 hour car trip to Charlotte, NC to visit family, on long walks, on nightly pack walks with the neighbors and their dogs……everywhere. We were inseparable. Over the 8 years we were together, Foxy had many health problems that we overcame with the help of pet insurance. Her neurologist said after looking at her MRI taken because of her seizures, “Foxy has the most beautiful brain”. He never could figure out why the random seizures occurred, only offered that she could be 5 years older and have vestibular events known in older dogs. I kept her age the same as when I rescued her. 🙂
In 2013 she was having her teeth cleaned and after a routine cardiac test, they found out Foxy had a leaky heart valve and so began our fight against chronic heart disease (Mitral Valve Disease). Foxy was put on several medicines and had routine echo tests to make sure we were keeping up with her heart that kept getting larger. The past few months were a rollercoaster for us and I swear she had nine lives. What a fighter she was with her heart disease. After adjusting her medicines, she was doing well and then wasn’t. Everyone kept telling me you’ll know when it’s time. Well, Foxy looked at me and I knew. I took her to the vet to say goodbye and told her what a great dog she was and how she was going to feel better and how much I loved her. I told her to look for her cousin Pepper-oni when she got to heaven. Thank you Rawhide Rescue for connecting me with my first dog. She had a positive impact on everyone she met. Foxy was one in a million and I was lucky enough to be a part of her life.
