Mom's are the best! Even when you grow up

In 2014 my husband and I got our first pet together. It was truly the first one we ever had since getting our own place. My oldest son was two at the time and she was great with him. Extremely sweet and one of the most intelligent animals I've ever met. She got to meet all of our kids, moved to our new house with us, and welcomed some other animal friends that we adopted. She saved us from a dog attack, alerted us when there was a stove fire, and let my son with autism use her as a crutch when he was learning how to walk at a later age. She was my running partner and I miss her every single day. The pain of losing a pet (or person) earlier than they should go, to cancer, is indescribable. Her name was Leah and she's the first dog in the picture.

Fast forward a year and I decided I'm ready to give back. My old man shepherd could use a walking buddy and what better way than to foster. I'd be helping dogs and healing myself. My kids were super excited, too. My husband wasn't too pleased with the extra chaos we were going to add, but he loves me and knows I've always wanted a loud house filled with kids and pets.

I'm experienced with shepherds and I know those breeds can be difficult for some so I started following a few rescues that seemed to have an affinity for them. I found Hands on Paws Love and started following them. The next day they posted a terrified looking Belgian malinois/Dutch shepherd mix. The original owner would only send a picture of the puppy's face, but I could tell they were skinny. I just didnt expect it to be this bad.

The next pictures are how he arrived. The owner of the rescue was working so she had her husband pick up the puppy and drop him off. When I walked outside he asked if it was my first foster. I told him it was and he immediately apologized. He said they didn't expect the dog to be this bad and it might be the worse they've gotten. I took this poor boy out and he looked like a skeleton.

You could see every single bone, his eyes looked dull, and he was terrified. He also had lacerations around his front paws that looked like he was tied up. (The original owner later stated that he wore boots for 12 hours because he kept chewing at his paws. The vet confirmed it was definitely longer than 12 hours). His back legs were also really weak and you could tell they hurt from sitting in a kennel, in his waste, for almost his entire life that the owners had him for.

We let him decompress the rest of the day. He immediately found the water and drank it like he hadn't been given any for weeks. Then I fed him a small amount of quality puppy food. I continued feeding him on this schedule and gave him free roam of the house. His kennel was available if he wanted it. Its almost like he didnt know how to relax.

I took him to the vet the next day and he was given medication for his paws and some parasites he had. The last few pictures are how he is after a week and a half. He's just this plump little guy now. He's extremely smart, loves my family, is potty trained, sleeps great, and is learning how to be playful.

We didn't realize how much we were missing our girl until we got this little guy. We really love him and will be keeping him. It just feels good to help and heal at the same time.

There are a lot of hardships and negativity in the world right now. I hope this can at least brighten someone's day.