Maple Reach

There’s something about living on a small farm that just feels like a dog should be there. After all, dogs have been integral to farm life since humans first settled down and began growing their own food 10,000 years ago. But when our second dog passed away in the short course of six months we weren’t ready for another dog right away. We needed more time. Or, at least, that’s what we told ourselves after Kirby, then Remy passed.

One sadly quiet weekend morning, we decided to go to the bakery. Not just any bakery, this bakery…

It’s run by an adorable young couple, Dave and Meredith, and we go there for their delicious, organic sourdough bread, lovingly made from locally sourced and milled grains. It’s comfort food at its finest.

Meredith was working at the cash register that morning. She was wearing a hat that said “Dog Mom.”

That started a sweet, sad, empathetic conversation about life with — and without — dogs. We missed our dogs, I said, and we also missed just having a dog around. We hadn’t been dog-less in 23 years. My eyes were welling up with tears. She smiled sweetly, pulled out a strip of cash register paper and wrote down: OTATpdx.org.

“We’re foster parents for One Tail at a Time,” she said. “They’re a wonderful dog rescue…when you’re ready.”

I folded the paper and put it in my purse.

For the next week, every time I opened my purse, I saw it. One day, sitting in my home office, I was feeling restless. I went and got the piece of paper, typed in the URL, and clicked on adopt.

As I scrolled through the faces of so many dogs, hopefully awaiting their forever homes, I saw this guy:

I think my heart skipped a beat.

Blue Valentine. I was drawn in by his soft, pleading eyes (that seemed to be looking straight at me), the handsome nose, the little tuft of ear draping over the side of the pillow. I clicked through the pictures, I read his story, and it made my heart sink and sing at the same time. This dog had a mysterious past, serious injuries, brushes with death and a whole team of people pulling for him to be rescued, get well and find his forever family.

I called in my husband Jamie.

“Uh oh, this is how we got Kirby,” he said, teasing. Kirby happened when I was “just looking” at shelter dogs on Petfinder…

When Jamie saw Blue Valentine’s pictures and story, he was immediately drawn to this dog as well. Could this be our dog, waiting for us to adopt him? He would have some special needs. That was OK. We had become accustomed to taking care of dogs with special needs.

That afternoon, as we sat outside under the maple trees, gazing out over our yard and our little orchard the whole farm seemed wanting for a canine presence. I picked up my laptop and filled out an adoption application. It took a while; it was a rigorous application. (The OTAT folks are serious about finding the best homes for their rescue dogs…) I hit “submit” and realized, at that moment, if we didn’t end up adopting this dog, I’d be the one who was blue. Of course, I told myself, there are always dogs needing homes, and some day we’ll find ours. But Blue Valentine…

A day or two later we heard back from the rescue — they had more questions, wanted more information about us, which we gladly provided. April, our adoption counselor from OTAT, said we could potentially meet Blue at his foster home, but another family interested in adopting him had applied just ahead of us, and they were going to meet Blue Valentine that coming week. My heart sank. I told myself, a meeting doesn’t ensure an adoption. It’s not over yet…

I tried to put Blue out of my mind as we went about our daily farm chores and online work lives, but I have to confess, I went back to his pictures every now and then, as if I could somehow send positive vibes through the internet via the power of my gaze…

As it happened, the other family didn’t work out, and we were up! We arranged to meet him at his foster home and got a bit more of his backstory.

When I first saw Blue’s posting on the website I knew he’d been injured and that he’d had veterinary care to mend his legs. But I had no idea what an ordeal this sweet dog had been through, and how many people were responsible for him having a new lease on life.

This is Henry Blue’s story, at least as much as we know it, because the first three years of his life are a complete mystery…

One day in early February 2021 a stray dog was found wandering the roads of Cowlitz County, Washington. He was bedraggled, thin and could barely walk because his front legs were so broken and bent he was walking on his wrists. He came into the Humane Society of Cowlitz County animal shelter in Longview and was examined by a local veterinary clinic.

The veterinarian wrote that the injuries to his front legs were so extensive, with bones and fragments that were long ago broken and had healed improperly, it would require “extreme surgery” for him to regain function and “probably the outcome would be bad no matter what you did.” Recommendation: “euthanize.”

They were being practical. After all, this was a stray dog with no ID, no prospects, and the shelter didn’t have the resources to handle all of that care. I have the scanned document. It’s all in handwriting, in at least two or three different hands. Reading it made me gasp at just how close he had come.

The examination results.

The recommendation to euthanize.

The instructions for someone to come and pick up the body.

Then, at the bottom, in bold writing:

“…looking into a rescue organization that may take him in and provide a front wheel chair — hold on euthanasia.”

And in the margin, highlighted, a note saying that someone “would like to take him in and take care of him, please don’t euthanize.”

Desperate to save this dog, someone there contacted One Tail at a Time dog rescue in Portland and explained the situation. The rescue agreed to take him and made arrangements for someone to drive up and get the dog.

Between the staff at the veterinary clinic and the shelter, a bunch of people had fallen in love with him and they couldn’t bear to see such a sweet, young, otherwise healthy dog be euthanized. They went to great lengths to save him. And thanks to those kind-hearted people, Blue Valentine was brought into rescue foster care and began his healing journey.

How he got his injuries, nobody knows. At first they thought maybe he had jumped out of a moving vehicle, but, the OTAT veterinarian later told us, the injuries were more consistent with having been crushed. It’s hard to tell.

Whatever happened, it was bad. Bone was sticking out through the skin, and he was hobbling around, likely in constant pain, for long enough for the bones to have healed in the broken position.

This was more than a dog, he was a PROJECT.

The OTAT Portland team immediately went to work. They named him Blue Valentine, for his situation and his timing, found him a temporary foster home and immediately began engaging with their members in social media with a “Mended by Members” fundraiser to help raise money for his much-needed medical care.

They assembled his medical team: Dr. Alayson Phelps, DVM, founder of Brooklyn Yard Veterinary Hospital, a veterinary partner with OTAT, took on his care. She enlisted the help of Dr. Richard Howard, D.V.M., one of Portland’s top veterinary surgeons at Cascade Vet Referral Center — he was on the verge of retirement but agreed to take on Blue’s challenging leg reconstruction surgeries.

A kind young couple, Mimi and Peter, took on Blue’s long-haul foster care, catering to his many medical needs over the course of nearly six months. They helped him adjust to being in a home again and used a harness to carry him around until he could put weight on his splinted legs. They dealt with more veterinary visits than I can imagine — 136 pages of medical records were included in Blue’s adoption papers.

As OTAT said on their Portland Facebook page:

“Throughout two major surgeries to repair his legs, enough splints and bandage wraps to span the city, and one final surgery to remove the hardware, Blue remained the best boy you could imagine.”

will you be our blue valentine?

Now it was our turn to meet Blue.

Mimi and Peter, his long-term fosters, needed to go out of town and OTAT had made arrangements for a temporary foster couple, Gabie and Justin, to take care of him until his adoption. He was still wearing his harness, but he was out of his casts and was re-learning how to walk on his repaired front legs. They had been carrying him up and down stairs until he got the OK for more exercise.

We met April at Gabie and Justin’s house and they invited us into their back yard. Despite our being strangers, Blue came right up to us, tail wagging gently, and he let us pet him. How wonderful it was to meet this dog I felt I already knew!

But I needed to remind myself I didn’t really know this dog at all, and he didn’t know me. It was important that we not overwhelm him, as he had been dealing with anxiety anyway…medical care, changing homes, people visiting, the foster home’s resident giant Pyrenees-mix puppy, Spock, who insisted that we pet him too.

Blue was sweet, but wary. He was taking painkillers and anti-anxiety medications that made him a bit dopey. And it was clear that in just the couple of weeks he had been at the temporary foster, he was already quite bonded with Gabie and Justin.

It was a good, gentle meeting. Blue clearly felt comfortable with us, despite his attention being largely focused on Justin and Gabie. April said he was a dog who bonded strongly with his people.

She explained that Blue had experienced some separation anxiety from the start — not unexpected for a naturally affectionate dog who had been abandoned — but they were working with a behaviorist and he was showing great progress.

April laid out all of the medical concerns as well and said we were cleared to adopt him, if we wanted to (no pressure). She encouraged us to give it some thought and get back to her when we were ready. We agreed, said goodbye to Blue, thanked everyone for their time, went out to the car. Less than a minute after the gate closed behind us, we looked at each other and said “we are adopting this dog.” On the way home we discussed names and, typical of us, we both said Henry came to mind. Henry Blue.

We called April, said “yes” and kicked off a stream of paperwork. The veterinarian wanted Blue to stay in foster for a couple more weeks to make sure his leg was fully recovered from an infection, and she wanted to see him again before he was adopted. So we made arrangements to attend his veterinary appointment in two weeks and, in the meantime, we arranged two more visits with Blue to get him a bit more used to us before we brought him home.

Just the anticipation of a new dog changed the emotional environment in our house. We still had the reminders of Kirby and Remy everywhere. We hung their collars on the wall and retired their leashes and well-worn bed. We washed the newer bed and rugs and shampooed the carpet. We went through the motions of our dogless days thinking, now, they were numbered.

Adoption day!

April and the two sets of foster parents met us at the veterinary clinic. Dr. Phelps, the veterinarian came outside, as did her assistant Maya, who had been caring for Blue — including a bit of weekend dog-sitting — from the beginning. We watched him run from person to person, all the people he loved, excited, wagging up a storm. We stood back and let him revel in this circle of love. We met with the vet. We took pictures. It was lovely meeting “Team Blue,” and we promised that once he settles in, we’ll have a reunion at our place.

Henry said his goodbyes. Tears were shed. Gabie and Justin gave us a bed that Peter and Mimi had purchased for him and wanted us to have. We got bags of treats and loads of congratulations.

We loaded him into the Subaru and he had a surprisingly calm trip to his new home. This dog loves to ride in the car!

We got home as the late day sun cast a golden hue over Maple Reach Farm.

From the moment he walked in the door, Henry Blue seemed to know this is his forever home. With each passing day, he becomes even more our dog and we become even more his people.

Henry loves taking walks through the orchard, sitting under the maples, ignoring the chickens (mostly) and getting the sheep to line up in formation with merely a gaze through the fence (quite remarkable). If we didn’t already figure he’s a shepherd/collie mix, the sheep confirmed it instantly. His legs are getting stronger and we no longer need to use the harness to help him up the few stairs in our house.

Indoors or out, Henry is our velcro dog, our shadow, following us everywhere we go, constantly leaning into us or rolling over for pets. After a couple of weeks, he’s finally getting used to us not always being in the same room at the same time. One of us can go outside and he’ll just hang out with the other. We haven’t worked much on both of us leaving at the same time, but that’s our next project… He is learning to trust us. He is feeling secure.

And as we work from home, Henry has perfected a number of comfy positions to lounge in throughout the day…

We love Henry Blue!

A HUGE shout out to the wonderful team at One Tail at a Time; to every human who donated to OTAT’s Mended by Members to help pay for Henry Blue’s extensive medical care; to April Saban for being such a lovely and patient person in shepherding us through our adoption process; to Dr. Howard for his amazing surgical skills in helping this sweet dog walk again; to Dr. Phelps and Maya and the team at Brooklyn Yard Vet who provided such great care and are always there for any questions that come up; to Mimi and Peter for giving Henry Blue a loving foster home and making sure he knew that people are kind and capable of great goodness, patience and love; to Gabie and Justin for patiently and lovingly providing Henry Blue with a comfy landing pad for a few weeks and to the rest of “Team Blue” for giving this dog new legs and a new life.

We are eternally grateful!