UPDATE – 12/31/2015
Layla went to Rainbow Bridge on Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 8:30 am. It takes every ounce of strength I have left to move forward. I can’t talk about her, think about her, write about her or look at pictures of her without completely breaking down. I lost my best friend, companion, confidant that day. My heart is completely shattered. They say time heals all wounds, but this wound cut so deep – I am not sure it will ever heal.
September 19, 2015
My furkid Layla and her story …
Hello, my name is Layla puppy. I am a 12 year old stubborn, food motivated German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix who loves naps, car rides, walks, rolling around in the grass, smelling flowers, DIGGING, playing “I’m going to get you” (that one is for you Momma) and making snow puppies. I was diagnosed with tcc (transitional cell carcinoma) in January 2015 but am well on my way to kicking cancer’s butt! By the way, we write tcc in lower case because we don’t exaggerate cancer – we down play it because GOD is bigger!
#LaylaRules #CancerDrools #Woof!
The picture of me was taken on Valentine’s Day 2015 – I’m pretty adorable … at least that is what my Momma says.
Adoption Story
We adopted Layla on July 25, 2003, but our amazing journey of adopting this sweet girl began a few days prior.
It was Sunday, July 20, 2003 that we first met Layla. My husband saw her first and called me over to take a look at this beautiful (actually she was pretty goofy looking) 12 week old German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix. The very moment I saw her, I was in love. She melted my heart instantly. She was a tad shy, but ran up to the front of the kennel to sniff my husband’s shoe and her front paws landed in her water bowl! So cute – I had to take her home!
We went over to the adoption center to see if we could meet Layla outside of her kennel, but they told us that there were already two ‘holds’ on her (which they never do) and that we would have to wait for both families to meet her and if they passed her by, we would be next in line. At that moment, my heart sank. Layla was so cute and well-mannered that she was going to be adopted by that first family – there was no way she would be passed over. Now the longest week of my life began …
On Monday, July 21, 2003, we called the humane society after the meeting with the first family was to be over and to our surprise, that family never showed up to meet her. They offered us the second hold spot, but mentioned that this next family is really excited to meet Layla and that they have every intention of adopting her. Great – back to waiting.
It is now Tuesday, July 22, 2003 and I am home alone sitting on my front porch worrying about what is happening at the humane society when my neighbor stops over to chat. I tell her about what has transpired since Sunday and her first comment was, ‘let’s pray about it”. Okay … if she thinks it is okay to ask God for a dog, then I am cool with that too. She grabbed my hands, we bowed our heads and she said the most beautiful prayer I had ever heard. It was a HOT July evening and I had the front porch door open which I never did because it just let the hot air in the house, but there was a reason for that. It wasn’t more than 5 seconds after she said ‘Amen’ that our home phone rang. I looked at her surprised and she shook her head like she already knew it was the humane society calling. I ran in the house, answered the phone and it WAS the humane society telling me that the family adopted a different dog and that we were the first hold on Layla and if we still wanted her, we could come on Thursday to meet her. I screamed, “Yes! We will be there on Thursday!” A half hour later my husband comes home with a bag of dog food and I say, “why do you have that? You don’t even know if Layla is ours yet”. He replies, “well she didn’t like that other family.” I look at him stunned like how in the world would he know that and then he tells me that he was at the humane society watching her meet the family and all she did was cower in the corner where he was standing.
Thursday, July 24, 2003, I was able to pet Layla, play with her outside at the humane society and tell her she was coming home to her fur-ever home the next day!
Friday, July 25, 2003 – The best day of my life. I adopted Layla Elizabeth. The smartest, cutest, silliest, most wonderful dog in the world!
Life with her has been a whirlwind. She has made everything about my life better. She has made me laugh, cry, take my faith in God to fourth dimensional level. God has taught me so many thing through caring for her. He has showed me His incredible love for us through the trials we have walked through with her. I know that God has given me this little treasure to draw me closer to Him and I am grateful. I see His love through her everyday and for that I am blessed.