Tilda finds a new home ... before she finds her way onto our website!

Tilda is a sweet young dog (about 1.5 years) who was surrendered by her owner at Memphis Animal Shelter. Her foster parents can’t, for the life of them (or Tilda), figure out why ANYONE would surrender such a dear sweet dog as young Tilda. Lucky for her, Founder Lisa spied her and knew she was highly adoptable and decided to rescue her.

Well, Tilda had been out on an adoption event with the Memphis Animal Shelter. She wasn’t adopted. Maybe it was her non-stop head nodding and frequent leg jerking. The shelter vet thought it was related to old distemper. But when she was sprung from the shelter we took her to one of the best vet diagnosticians in town – Dr. Carolyn McCutcheon of Park Avenue Animal Hospital.

She took one look at Tilda and, after 3 seconds, said “distemper myoclonus.” It appears as if Tilda had distemper earlier in her young life and she has a chronic condition that will likely be with her the rest of her life (although some references describe the myoclonus lessening after a few years).

Well, this didn’t stop or slow down Tilda one bit. She ran and played and had great fun with her foster siblings. We just had to make sure she didn’t get overly tired, as that could increase her twitching.

She went to our Dog Days of Summer that we held at Davis Kidd Bookstore on Perkins Extended. She was a great hit with everyone. In particular, 12 year old Charlotte was smitten with her. She promised her mother that if she was allowed to adopt Tilda she would vacuum every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and she would do other routine household chores. So as to not let her “forget” the promise she was making, older sister Alex captured her promises on her cell phone’s video camera.

Tilda was finishing an antibiotic, so she couldn’t go home with anyone (other than her foster mom). But later in the week, Charlotte’s mom emailed asking about adopting Tilda. Charlotte, she said, was working hard to get her father to agree to allowing her to adopt Tilda. They had decided they were going to adopt Tilda and have her delivery to the home be a surprise to Charlotte.

Tilda and her foster mom went to the family’s home and were met at the door by Charlotte – who was speechless with wide eyes! What a fun sight.

Have a look at the picture and judge for yourself … we think Tilda is going to have a WONDERFUL life with Charlotte, her mom Mary, dad Chris, sister Alex, and brother Barrett. Thanks, family, for giving such a cute and deserving young dog the chance at a wonderful life in your home!

Charlotte is so happy to see Tilda

Charlotte’s mom, Mary, sent this update on Tilda’s first evening in the home:

Just wanted to let you know that all is going well.  Louisa (one of their other dogs) barked for the first 1/2 block of our walk, and then it was business as usual.  Tilda seems to like chasing Orson (another dog) as he chases his tennis ball in the kitchen.  They’re bonding over that.  There’s still investigation to be done, but Tilda is already part of the family.  Thanks for bringing her today.  Charlotte was definitely surprised!

We always love to hear updates about our fabulous dogs and their placements. Send those to us and we’ll get them posted.