06/05/2021
FRANCINE's STORY
Diane Meier of the "Those Left Behind" Foundation and the Pups, Prisoners & Patriots program,
thank you.
Hi! My name is Francine and I love to play.
I'm kinda like a tom-boy. I like to hang with the big dogs and show them how to really play.
My best friend Paul calls me a sweetheart when he talks about me but I've got tons of energy and I love to play. Do you wanna play?
Anyway, I was born in November in 2016 and lived with my first friend in 2017 and then an other new friend in 2018 before I met Paul in 2019. When we met at Pet Smart I was so tired and grateful that I slept the whole way home in his truck. It was big and black like me and he gave me the whole back including two windows that I immediately figured out how to use. Paul says that I'm too smart and that I am always figuring stuff out like that. Oh, and that I also love to play. Do you want to play?
I was really nervous about an other year being in an other new place with a new friend and didn't want to mess anything up. He helped me relax by always playing with me, by keeping big bowls of food and water full all the time, and by sleeping next to me because apparently I like to cuddle. I accidentally kick him throughout the night but he doesn't say anything.
We would go for adventurous walks in our gated community. We would meet other doggies and their friends and try to figure out what's up with cats. Paul would show me how to do things while sharing things about himself.
He told me he rescued an other dog before me who he loved very much. Rodger passed after only eight years together. His poor lttle buddy was always sick and needed medicines and transfusions. Rodger made Paul so happy but he still cries everytime talks about him. I don't understand.
Paul can get really depressed sometimes and once after Rodger passed and before he met me he tried to really hurt himself.
Thankfully for me he survived and without even realizing it, exactly one year later he met me at Pet Smart.
His fancy doctors call me "an emotional support animal" and was soon to be his psychiatric service dog "whose primary function is to prevent patient self harm". All I know is I love to Play with Paul.
We've taught each other so many new things and really made quite a rambunctious pair. I really thought everything was going great, that I finally found my forever home, then something happened and I don't understand.
On Sunday, September 6th, 2020 Paul's landlord showed up to our home when I was there by my self. When they opened the door I thought it was time to go outside and I did because I love to play.
The next thing I new I was in a van going to Lovelock Prison. I spent two months there meeting new people and learning new things but I thought I was going to see Paul afterwards, but I didn't.
Winter came and I left the prison and I left all of my sweaters and toys at mine and Paul's house. New Year's and Valentine's days came but still no Paul.
Now it's May and I haven't seen my best friend in over six months. I don't understand what I did wrong? Is he looking for me? Is he thinking of me? Does he even miss me?
I hope where ever Paul is that he is safe and happy. I hope he is being loved the way I love him.
I wish his landlord would never have opened the door or I never would have ended up in that prison away from Paul.
I don't understand why we can't be together again.
If you see Paul please tell him that I love him and that I look for him and miss him everyday. I would do anything to see my best friend again.
Please,
Miss Francine Ruckus
