Weekly Photo Challenge: LOVE

THIS WEEKS CHALLENGE: In a new post specifically created for this challenge, share a picture which means LOVE to you!

PUPPY LOVE

There’s a story behind this photo. Four years ago on St. Valentine’s Day, I went to the Humane Society of Missouri’s Animal Shelter to see if I could find a replacement for my long time four-pawed companion who had died the late summer. And I fell in love with a nine-month old pup that they called Sally. Actually, she entrapped me with her sad eyes and her happy face when she ran to the front of her pen to check me out.

Her background story was a tale of woe. She had been a stolen/abandoned puppy who had wandered the streets of Saint Louis for several months. She was a rack of bones, and her rope puppy collar had become embedded around her neck. For over four months they nursed her back to health. This included surgically removing the embedded collar and putting a little meat on bony frame. They also gave her a toy … The Hershey Boy. Four people had asked to adopt her that day, and I was the one selected to take her home. When we left, they gave her the Hershey Boy to take home. This photo was taken that evening when we got home. She loved that little stuffed toy … and I really think she loved me, too.

BTW, since I have a very good friend named Sally we decided to change her name. Over a two-week period we tried a long list of names and she picked out the name Renee. Because she had been a street-walker in a French founded city on the Mississippi and to class up her new name I added Mademoiselle to Renee.   And after four years, we think each other is a keeper.

SIDE NOTE: She really loved that stuffed Hershey Boy for a long time, and then she decided to unstuff him. What’s left of him is still in the bottom of her toy box.