Baby Girl/Maddie’s Adoption Photo
MADDIE
by Lindsay Worden
My husband and I were originally looking to adopt an English bulldog into our home, which also included a basset hound and a shih tzu. We don’t have kids–our dogs are our children. All of our dogs are rescues, because every homeless dog deserves a good home, and it’s our way of helping, one dog at a time.I came across a pit bull/English bulldog mix online and e-mailed Lori about her, and although she had been adopted, we were sent a picture of Maddie (or “Baby Girl,” as she was known then at DDR), a 9-month-old three-fourths pit bull/one-fourth English bulldog mix, and we immediately fell in love with her sweet face. She and her brother, Nike, had been rescued by DDR from a home where they were about to be inbred for profit. In fact, their sister was pregnant at about eight months with their father. As soon as we moved into our first home a few weeks later, she fit right into our family.
However, about a month and a half later, my beloved basset hound of almost nine years passed away. It was heart-breaking for me because of everything I had been through with my basset in his too-short life and everything he had helped me through. But I couldn’t sit around and mope, because I had an active 10-month-old puppy to take care of. Plus, Maddie has always been so grateful just to have a good home.
Maddie goes everywhere we can take her, especially to the beach and hiking. Because I have been so used to basset hounds (not the smartest of breeds, but lovable nonetheless), I have been amazed at how quickly she picks up on everything and what a perfect dog she is. She went to a doggie training class because she was fearful of people, and she came out a completely different dog. The instructor even said, “Why is it the pit bulls are always the smartest dogs in the class?”
She is still a little bit afraid of people, and because our shih tzu is a senior dog, we decided to adopt another basset after enough time had passed. And we couldn’t have picked a better match for Maddie. Our newest dog, Pickles, is about six months younger than Maddie, and they are the best of friends. Because Pickles is a social butterfly, she is helping Maddie when meeting people, and they hate being separated. They even share the same bed, even though they’ve got plenty to choose from.
Every day, we are so grateful for having Maddie in our lives. Every time we look at her, we can’t help but to smile and feel so lucky she is with us. She is the sweetest dog I’ve ever had, and she lets us know how thankful she is every day for having a good home. We couldn’t be happier!