The story begins in early 2010. My mother passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. She had been fighting the cancer for more than twenty-five years. She just couldn’t fight it anymore. My son was very close to her. He was having a hard time dealing with losing her. He was only 11 years old at the time. He really didn’t understand why she died. He knew, she had cancer and had been fighting it for a long time. But, at the age of eleven, who really does totally understand death. He missed her greatly. They were very close. We went shopping every week. She was always there, to see my son, in the great events of his life; boy scouts award, karate belts, and art contests. They loved playing games and watching movies together. She was more than a grandma to him. She was his best friend and his biggest fan. The pain of losing her, at such a young age, was heartbreaking. He was very strong, for everyone, else. Telling everyone she was in a better place and wasn’t in pain anymore. But, we all knew, he was breaking up inside because of losing her. We had to find something, which would help fill the void.

We decided, the best thing to help my son, would be to get him a dog. I had had a dachshund, all my life, growing up. Dachshunds are small, energetic, friendly dogs. We lived in a trailer. So, we had to get a small dog. So, we decided, a dachshund would be the best breed to get.

Now, you might think  this would be easy. But it wasn’t easy at all. We wanted to get a dog from a shelter. We figured saving an unwanted dog would be the best thing for us to do. But that turned out to be harder than we thought. We filled out paperwork at every shelter, we could find. Most of the shelter wanted large amounts of money, just to adopt a dog. We looked for over a year. I look everywhere. I even had ads online. I thought, we were never going to find a dog.

I finally found a woman who lived close to us. This lady was an angel. She went around to the local shelters and adopted the animals before; they were killed. She owned a farm, which meant she had lots of space for all of these animals. She sold some of them and others, she just gave away, to a good home. Her farm was very close to my in-law’s house.

A week before my birthday, we took my son over to his grandparent’s house for a visit. We wanted the dog to be a surprise. Besides, he had been disappointed many times, before. We wanted to save him that pain. Just in case, we didn’t come home with a dog this time, either.

My husband and I went to the farm. There were animals all over the place. Some of them were running free and some in cages. The woman had hundreds of dogs, ranging in size: from teacup to large. I told her, we were looking for a dachshund. They were my favorite breed. Do to the fact, I always had one, when I was younger. My husband had never owned a dog. But he had always wanted, one.

She said, “I have several dachshunds. I have a long-haired one that would be perfect.”

She lead us down a row of cages, with barking dogs in them. She stopped in front of a cage with two dachshunds in it. There was a marble colored, longhair male named Bosco. He was the dog, she thought, would be right for us. In the cage with Bosco was a pretty marble colored short haired female named Leda. She came right over to me and started kissing me through her cage. I asked the woman about, Leda.

The lady told us Leda was near death, when she got her. She had been bred several times and was in bad shape. She was pregnant when the lady saved her. It’s not normal practice for a shelter to kill pregnant dogs. As a favor to the shelter, the woman took the dog. She didn’t think Leda was going to live through the birth because she was so bad off. But amazingly, she did make it. The lady still had two of the puppies from that litter.

The lady said, “You don’t want, her. She had been returned to me several times. You will be better off taking the male.”

I couldn’t help but feel bad for this dog. I wanted, her. When I saw her, it was love at first sight. Somehow, I felt this little female dog belonged with us. I knew she was coming home with us. It was time she had a real home, where she would be loved. The lady took Leda out of the cage and put her in my arms. Leda was finally going to have a real home.

On the way back to pick up our son. My husband looks over at me and the dog.

He said, “It’s like you have become her mother. Look at the way she is with you. You can tell, she knows, she finally has a real home and is going to be loved.”

Needless to say, my son fell in love with the dog. She made him giggle, again. He is very happy. He gave her the name Tinky because, when she walks, her tags make a tinking sound. The dog never did come to the name Leda. My son changed it to Leele and she would come to that. We had Leelee over six years. She was a very happy and healthy, loving little friend for my son.

Photos and content by Brenda Marie Fluharty  ©2020 all rights reserved