A great “Sanctuary Story” from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah recently involved one of our favorite clients, Marissa.
It seems that a woman named Macey was hiking around in southern Utah, not far from Best Friends, looking for Native American artifacts. What Macey found instead was a dog badly in need of help. Ava’s leg was caught in a coyote trap. It seemed like Ava had been there at least a day.
In fact, Ava was lucky indeed that Macey showed up at all. This particular spot was at least five miles from the closest home. Macey freed Ava from the trap and then spent a week and a half trying to track down Ava’s family. Ava wasn’t wearing a collar, and no one responded to fliers and newspaper ads. Meanwhile, the vets taking care of Ava thought she would need to lose the injured leg. Macey was not in a position to care for Ava long-term. So after it became obvious that nobody would claim Ava, the pup came to Best Friends to heal. They were of course willing to find or provide her with a forever home and they managed to save her leg! Now she melts hearts on contact!
Then the story gets even better for Ava and for our regular client Marissa, who randomly came across the article about Ava and contacted Best Friends Animal Society/Dogtown. Marissa had spent a week at Best Friends as a volunteer in February so she just contact them to ask how this beautiful golden was doing. Then according to Marissa, “They asked if I was interested in adoption – there were several applicants ahead of me, but I was welcome to fill out an application and be placed on a waiting list. I went ahead an applied; however I didn’t hold my breath.”
Sometime later she was told that the applicants before her had been eliminated as potential new homes for Ava. She was now first on the list and that she and Chloe her lovely Golden that we did a portrait of last year, had passed their home check. “I was shocked! I would need to wait 1-3 months before she could come home due to the uncertainty of her medical condition. At this point amputation was still an option and Ava was fighting a nasty infection.”
Finally Marissa received an email that Ava was released from medical hold and she was free to pick her up and take her home, they asked how soon she could make the 600 mile journey from here in Denver.
Marissa also told us, “To my amazement, I was also notified that since she arrived at Best Friends, Ava’s story was being followed by the film crew for National Geographic Channels’ program “Dogtown†– stay tuned for her episode – scheduled to air this fall.”
So Ava has had quite a reversal of fortune, from being caught in a coyote trap to being the star of a television show and soon to be the subject of a Pop Art Pet portrait of her own!
To date Marissa has comissioned us to do five different custom pet portraits as gifts for friends and family, then finally one for herself of her Chloe, and we are currently working on yet another portrait for yet another gift for another friend for Marissa! Don’t you wish she was your friend too?!
Amazing story… lucky Ava and Marissa!