Welcoming Pony Express!

Introductions

Personal

January 04, 2016

This blog has been such a long time coming. I have been wanting to formally introduce our dog, Pony, for a while now. I'm kind of glad I waited, though, because over the past 7 months we have gotten to know all of his goofy quirks and build up a semi-obsessive photo collection of him. We adopted Pony (formally known as Indie) from a wonderful organization called PapAdopters. Our journey to puppy-hood was not easy, because we fell in love with a dog on the opposite side of the country.

Shawn and I had always said "we'll get a dog when we have a house", but that never stopped us from Internet window shopping different local rescue sites, or making lists of what the perfect dog would be. While Internet looking, I came across Indie's photo. Something inside me just knew, and as soon as I showed Shawn, he knew as well: this was our dog. Reading what he had been through was heart-breaking. Indie was a 2 year old Papillon mix from California. The organizers at PapAdopters told us that they believe he was in a hoarding situation with almost 200 other dogs. He was malnourished, dirty, and his tail was stained yellow from having to sit in his own mess. Our hearts broke for him and I cried after hearing all that had happened to him since no animal should suffer through that. We carefully filled out the application, and heard back the next day telling us that Indie was being fostered in Portland, Oregon, but there were tons of other dogs in our area that we could adopt. Almost immediately we wrote back that our hearts already belonged to little Indie and we were willing to travel across the country just to get our new family member. Our plan to get this dog was in full swing and we weren't giving up. Indie soon moved to Salt Lake City to another wonderful foster mom, Pam. Her dedication to getting Indie to his forever home was amazing. When we started talking about traveling, Pam stepped up and mentioned that her husband is an airline pilot, and since she is able to travel at a discount, she could fly into Maryland to help Indie get to his new home. We were so incredibly grateful that she would offer up her own time to get this little guy to us. Shawn and I honestly cannot thank her enough for all that she did.

Through the entire process, our families were just as amazing, and completely supported us every step of the way. Of course, we had a wedding on the day Indie arrived, but Shawn's parents were able to meet Pam at the airport and greet their new grandpuppy :P. I don't think Indie ever thought he would be loved as much as he is by us and our families.

The decision to name him was easy. Shawn and I take our video games very seriously, and in a game called World of Warcraft, Shawn had a wolf pet named Pony. Since I already had a cat named Mouse, the theme to keep naming animals after different types of animals seemed appropriate to stick with! Also, his name is pretty perfect since he is a smaller sized dog and ponies are smaller sized horses. AMAZING!

We are so happy to have this perfect little man in our lives. He has some quirks due to his rough old life such as growling and ducking from strangers, but we are constantly working with him in order to help him feel comfortable and safe. We are so thankful for everyone that has helped and continues to help us. Pony has been such a blessing to our lives and I hope when he looks at us he knows how much we love him.

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