HATTIE'S RESCUE STORY
The Rescue
When you hear the word fate, what comes to mind? For me, I can't say for certain, but I'd like to think that fate is real. I have always been the person to tell my friends and family "whatever is meant to be, will be" and time after time again, that phrase has always held true. Hattie's rescue story makes me think about the concept of fate quite often, but whether or not it is actually fate, I can say with confidence that Hattie's story is extremely special and one-of-a-kind, just like her.
My boyfriend's sister, Haley, was actually the one to rescue Hattie. On the night of March 31, 2018, a tiny malnourished puppy peeked her head up to Haley's back-porch door (in Nashville, TN), and took a look inside at the people who were home that night.
Haley was living with two roommates at the time, but was the one who took initiative, and primarily cared for Hattie during her time in Nashville. For Hattie's first night, she slept in a cardboard box with a few towels to keep her warm. The next morning, Haley texted us a photo of Hattie and oh my goodness, I fell in love immediately! Oddly enough, I had been pestering Mason for us to potentially get a dog but in reality, it really wasn't the right time for us. We were living in a basement apartment and the landlord had made it clear, no dogs.
The Big Decision
For the first week or so, Haley was posting to local Facebook groups and calling shelters to try and find Hattie's owners with absolutely zero luck. And, if I'm candidly speaking - I believe that Hattie somehow escaped from a backyard breeder and as fate would have it, ran into Haley's backyard to be saved. Once we realized that no one was claiming Hattie, I told Mason that there was no way that we could let this puppy go into the shelter system, and convinced him that we were going to adopt her, and I would figure out all the logistics.
This was a HUGE decision for us to make at the time, in terms of finances, time commitment, responsibility, and mostly importantly, we had to convince our landlord to give us the okay. In the end, everything worked out (thank you to our kind landlord who immediately fell in love with Hattie's photo and couldn't say no!), and we started to figure out a game plan on driving Hattie back up to New York to be with us.
Developing Rickets
While Hattie was still in Nashville, she started to develop rickets and her two front legs were rapidly bowing out. According to Merck Veterinary Manual, rickets is a rare disease of young, growing animals that causes soft and deformed bones. It is commonly caused by insufficient phosphorus or vitamin D in the diet. Signs may include bone pain and swelling, a stiff gait or limp, difficulty in rising, bowed limbs, and fractures. Touching the bones will cause pain, and folding fractures of long bones and vertebrae are common. The outlook for treating rickets is good if there are no broken bones or irreversible damage to the bone. The primary treatment is to correct the diet. Exposure to sunlight (ultraviolet radiation) will also increase the production of vitamin D.
We started giving Hattie calcium + phosphorous supplements, and put her on a good diet so her body could get the nutrients it needed to catch up to speed with how quickly she was growing. With lots of love and care, we were able to treat her rickets ourselves and successfully reversed Hattie's bowing arms. In total, Hattie's rickets/bowing of the arms lasted for 4 to 5 weeks. It's worth noting that every dog is different, and every case involving rickets will be different. I am not a vet or medical professional, and if you have questions or concerns, please consult your primary vet.
New York is Home
The plan was always for me and Mason to get Hattie ourselves. Coincidentally, Mason's parents already had plans to go to Nashville and visit Haley (around the same time we were planning to go), so we canceled our hotel reservations and Mason's parents (Rodney and Madeleine) helped us transport Hattie from Nashville to New York.
We finally met Hattie in-person on April 17, 2018 and she was just perfect! She was rambunctious, strong-willed, curious, loving, and the cutest jumping jelly bean. Our lives changed the day we brought Hattie into our lives. In an instant, our days were filled with more color, more laughter, more joy, and more love.
Going back to the concept of fate again, what were the odds that she walked into Haley's backyard vs. any other backyard on the block? The odds that no one claimed this lost puppy? The odds that Haley and her friends didn't call dibs on adopting Hattie? It took 17 days from when she was found, to the day we were able to bring her home. So many things could have happened during that time, but somehow the stars were aligned and Hattie chose us.