Somewhere along the line, Hope has become the iconic TOESR rescue story. Due in part to the fact that Hope has been with TOESR since 2014, those of you who've followed her, are familiar with her name. This is her journey.

Hope came to TOESR in 2014 along with another female sheepdog, both of whom had been impounded after being seized from a hoarding situation in a neighboring state. Both dogs had been kept in small crates in the basement of a home with some thirty other dogs. As they were considered evidence in a legal case against the hoarder, the dogs spent the next few months being housed at a local kennel facility for their impoundment. Afterward, when we were notified of their needs and agreed to take both dogs we immediately had them vetted. Hope exhibited some atrophy to her back legs and hips due to having been crated for so long without any exercise. Otherwise both were healthy. We named one of the dogs Hope with the intent of giving her a better life. Both dogs went into one of our foster homes and things moved along until Hope bit her foster mom.

Our only legal option was to have her quarantined, leaving us with a difficult decision to make: euthanizing Hope or finding someone to take her since she wasn't adoptable at that point. It's never been the purpose of our group to give up on a dog unless the circumstances were such that there was no recourse. In this situation, one of our Board members had a friend who is an animal behavioralist who agreed to take Hope and work with her, the intent to see if she could be considered as adoptable one day. So for the next five years, Hope lived with her trainer, progressing toward that goal of being adoptable. For those five years, TOESR financially supported Hope. We have all of you who've generously given to TOESR throughout the years to thank for our being able to do so! As time passed, situations changed and Hope needed to be returned to TOESR. We can't emphasize enough the very sad, tearful conversations about what to do. We researched and agreed that TOESR would place Hope in an animal sanctuary in the northeast whose owner agreed to take her and give her shelter for the remainder of her life. Note that by now, Hope was nine years old. With all the legalities in place, our volunteers rented a vehicle and drove some 20+ hours to deliver Hope to this facility. Once they arrived, it was quite obvious that it wasn't the sanctuary we'd pictured. Our volunteers spent some time with the owner, who accessed Hope and quite frankly stated that she didn't belong there and in his opinion was more than able to be adopted. Hope returned to NC and was fostered locally and placed up for adoption. There were several discussions regarding potential homes but with Hope's history and lengthy stay with TOESR, the placement needed to be right.

Then something happened. We received an application that almost glowed with that 'this is the one' sparkle. Talk about rescue dust! So a meeting was planned, things fell into place as if this had been pre-ordained, and Hope and her potential adopter fell in love! There's a lot more to this story but the main thing to take away from all this is that our mission was always to have Hope enjoy a home of her own with her own family. Hope is now known as Sunny. It's appropriate. The remainder of her life will be just that and I'm sure this is just the beginning of Sunny's 'happy ever after' life. We have so many people to thank, just a few including Debra, Kerri, Kelly, Gregg, Dena, all the various vet's offices who've helped along the way and of course, Cilla, Sunny's new mom. For those of you who've followed Hope aka Sunny for the last six years, I hope this brings a smile to your face.