My sister in law had an extremely abusive marriage, her husband has alzheimers and is fortunately in a home so she is out of harm's way. For years her dog was the only one to show her any love at home and after losing it to cancer 2 years ago it has left her alone and very bitter.
She has only recently entertained the idea of having another dog. For three or four months, my wife has been taking her sister weekly to the new Birmingham Dogs Home in search of a new pet. However - the home has only had big dogs available, such as Bull Terriers, Alsations and other big powerful breeds unsuitable for a pensioner with limited mobility - so she has had many disappointments.
This continued week after week and she was almost giving up hope of getting a new companion. However, 4 weeks ago the Home had a small terrier cross that had just been taken in. It shouted "buy me" to her - but in Romanian.
It turns out that we import small stray dogs from Romania in quite large quantities (it was suggested via the Battersea Dogs Home) to fill the need for small dogs in the UK.
Minnie (the dog) has proved to be almost perfect, the dog and my SIL are in love with each other. The slight imperfection is that the dog is frightened of men and snarls at me - and other men - if you try to approach it. I guess it has suffered abuse from a man at some time. (In fact the dog and SIL are a perfect match in that regard, in that they both hate men and snarl at them)
My SIL is an avid Facebook fiend and posted a picture of Minnie on Facebook. A few days later she was amazed to be contacted by a dog rescue centre in Romania who recognised the dog and advised my SIL that they rescued the 2 year old dog - who had recently had pups - running wild in August. They even posted a video of Minnie when she first was taken into their rescue centre.
The dog has been well house trained but is constantly searching for food - I guess that might be due to having spent a long time as a stray and having to scavenge all the time.
Anyway - all's well that ends well - The dog and SIL have both been saved from misery and both appear to be all the better for it.
To prove it - on Saturday Minnie nervously allowed me to give her a little doggie treat and my SIL actually smiled at me and seemed genuine when she wished me a happy Christmas.
And all because of a dog.
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