About 6 1/2 years ago, I adopted a puppy from Animal Control in Downtown Detroit. He was almost the same color as my childhood teddy so I named him Bear. While I was filling out his paperwork, I heard someone say that Bear's sister would be available for adoption the following day. I wanted so badly to adopt her too. It broke my heart but I didn't have the money. As time went on, and Bear grew, I often wondered what had happened to his sister. Sometimes I would even go on PetFinder and search. But I never found her.
One evening last August, I was reading posts on Facebook when a dog's picture caught my eye. She was badly emaciated but, even so, her resemblance to Bear was striking, and she was the same age. Could she be Bear's sister? I had never thought of fostering a dog, but the rescue organization desperately needed someone to take this poor dog while she regained her health. When I met her, I was completely horrified by her condition. She weighed 42 pounds, and should have weighed at least 60 pounds. Due to malnutrition, she had lost most of the hair on her back, her tail and her legs. She was absolutely manic, licking the hands of everyone in the room. I think she was actually begging us to help her. How could I possibly say no? I took her home and named her Gypsy.
On October 10th, we officially became foster failures. Gypsy now weighs a much healthier 56 pounds and has grown all her hair back. She has all the food she can eat and her own fleece covered chair in the bedroom to sleep on. Sometimes she destroys toys and chases Bear around the house and we call her Goofy. Other times, she is sweetness and elegance and we call her Gypsy Belle. We will never have the test done to determine whether or not she is Bear's biological sister because it doesn't matter. Whether or not she was born that way, she's Bear's sister now.
White Lake, MI
