11/02/2026
🌸CALLIE🌸
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A day late but Callie’s adoption story as promised.
I saved Callie and her four newborns in March 2014. The little guys were adopted as soon as they were old enough to be vetted and leave. They were all silver and absolutely gorgeous.
Callie stayed with me a bit longer. I loved her very much but we weren’t super tight. She didn’t follow me around, she didn’t want a whole lot to do with me. I had zero concerns with her getting adopted. I assumed that she would thrive in a home with less animals and getting all of the pets to herself.
She did not.
She was adopted in October 2014 by a family in New Hampshire. Not one tail wag. Not once did she greet them at the door. Not one indication of happiness. For three weeks, she stayed to herself and had nothing to do with them. They thought she was just taking a little longer and would adjust to life with them.
She did not.
The lengths she went to in order to escape seem made up. She pulled apart a black wire crate with her teeth, chewed through the bathroom door AND the front door, and shattered the glass in the screen door. She. Was. Gone.
Her family searched and searched for her. They put up missing posters. They checked the local shelter and vet clinics. Nothing. They hired a dog rescue team! Nothing.
Days went by. Then weeks. And then months. I thought of her often and was absolutely devastated. I cried and I cried and I regretted letting her leave.
The rescue team never gave up. She was randomly sighted every few weeks. No one could catch her. Traps were set but she never fell for them. Feral.
Six months, three weeks, and four days later I received a call from a New Jersey number. “Hi, um, I realize you’re in Mississippi? But do you happen to be missing a brindle female dog? Someone just brought her to our shelter and the rabies tag on her collar led us to you.”
😭😭😭😭😭
142 miles south. That’s how far she traveled. She was coming home 😭😭😭!
I called her family. They were thrilled and immediately went to pick her up.
But she still wasn’t happy. She tried to get away from them every chance she got. They gave her another three weeks to adjust and called and told me it wasn’t going to work out.
Her sister and I left on a 1,300 mile road trip. We pulled up to the rest stop and her mom was walking her on a potty break. I got out of the truck and started walking over. Callie saw me, ran so hard that she yanked the leash out of her mom’s hand, and practically bounced into my arms.
Her mom’s face dropped and tears started pouring down. “I have never seen her happy. I didn’t think she COULD be happy. She loves you so much 😭😭😭!”
I scooped her up and drove the 1,300 miles back home with the most excited two girls in the world. I took this picture as we were leaving the rest stop.
And we have lived happily ever after.
