Texas Sled Dog Rescue

On the morning of December 30th, days after our first Christmas together, and days before her second birthday, Mocha woke up happy as usual and went out to the garden.

Around 840AM, I heard a heart wrenching howl and ran outside.

She was lying on her side motionless, crying out and she died in my arms within seconds.

I lost her when I least expected it, just the way she first walked into my life.



Mocha came into our life after a big loss.

I didn’t feel ready to welcome a new family member, but I thought it selfish to not open our home to one of the many dogs in need of one, and so Fuad and I signed up to become foster parents.

TSDR quickly approved us, and I started looking through the albums of the dogs that needed a foster. I started a list with personal favorites.

Yes to this one.

This puppy is so cute, for sure.

That dog sounds really easygoing. And so on…

I was basically interested in all of them, except one.

Next to that one name, I wrote: Too broken. 

That was a note to myself. So I would remember to say no if they asked me to foster her.

That dog was Mocha. The shelter notes about her read:

“This dog looks old, but she’s not. She’s only a YEAR OLD!  Life has not been kind at all to Chinook (their name for her) and now look at her. She has dermatitis which has resulted in scabs and icky skin. On a scale of 1-9, her body condition score is a 2.5 because she’s so underweight.

Her physical issues can be treated with meds and good food, but her spirit is a different matter entirely. We’re not sure if her spirit is broken, but this girl is definitely giving up and she barely acknowledges our videographer. Can anyone FOSTER Chinook?”



So I thought, I am broken myself right now. I wouldn’t know how to help her.

Life has its own sense of humor and when the rescue organization came back to me, they offered none other than Mocha. At first I thought of course, with my luck! And then I looked at it from a different angle. If I am truly doing this to help, I should accept whoever and not try to pick and choose. After all, this was not going to be my dog, just a temporary guest crashing in our house until a permanent place could be found. So we agreed to meet Mocha in person.

The moment we walked in through the door, we knew we were not leaving without her. After a brief introduction, Mocha jumped in the car with us headed once again to a new unknown place for her.

She rode quietly in the backseat, holding on for dear life. She clearly did not enjoy the car ride, but endured it with her head down.



Once we walked in the house, we showed her to her new bed and she sat there quietly for a long time. Just observing. Unsure how to feel about us or about this new space.
 
After a little quiet time, we took Mocha on a walk around her new neighborhood. Then we returned home, I left her for a shower and that was the first 10 minutes we were separated after our introduction. The way she ran to me when I emerged from the bathroom, tail wagging, ears laying flat and bursting with excitement gave me pause.

On that first day, I told her, “Mocha, I will take great care of you, but I am not going to love you. You are only here until you find a forever family."

I meant every word of it. I really didn’t have room in my heart, or so I thought, but then I didn't know that the heart can grow.

Mocha made my heart bigger, and opened a space for herself in our life that I didn’t know could exist.

One by one, she grew out of every fear and anxiety that she knew. The car rides she dreaded at first became so desirable to her it was now a challenge for me to take my car out the driveway without her sneaking in. She just wanted to go everywhere with me.


Car rides no longer meant changing shelter or  foster homes…
They now meant going on family outings, and parks, and picking up puppuccinos.

On the occasions she was left behind, Mocha ran from window to window in the house, tracing my movement around the garden and out the driveway, each time breaking my heart that we had to be separated for maybe half a day.

Mocha attended and hosted numerous play dates with her doggie friends Odin, Rei, Cheyanne, Noelle, Daisy, Roquefort, Rocket.

She loved taking walks and going on home visits with us, and attended brunches and dinners and birthday parties.

When she decided it was bedtime, she dragged her leash and threw it at our feet and my heart melted because I knew, wherever we went, however much she enjoyed it, Mocha always wanted to go home with us. She told us she had found her home and her forever people. And we adopted her because we were meant to live it up together.

I had found a heart dog when I least expected it.

The one dog that I thought I didn't want, was the one that made me whole again.

And then I lost her.

We hope to find answers when the necropsy report comes back. But in the meantime, to push forward through the pain, and celebrate her very short life, I have created a fundraiser benefiting the Texas Sled Dog Rescue, the organization that saved Mocha’s life and gave her a family of her own.

You can see a part of Mocha's journey in her album  here.
She is one story out of many but she is the one that is very personal to me.

Today would have been Mocha’s 2nd Birthday. On this day, your tax-deductible donation in any amount will go a very long way in celebrating her and helping rewrite someone else's story.