Cat Lady Goes To The Dogs...Part 2

Yesterday we met Cat Lady Monetta and learned how Boomer came into her life. In Part 2, we meet another canine who stole her heart (hankie alert--be prepared):

"Then there was my Piggy.

"I found him sitting on the side of the road in a bad part of town where it's rumored that people fight dogs, if you can even imagine such a thing. I don't think I'll ever forget how stoic he was, looking down the road, as if he knew someone was coming for him. It was one of the coldest February days and Piggy had only a few tufts of hair along his spine. He was bright red, like he was sunburned, but that turned out to be a bacterial skin infection. On top of the mange. On top of heart worms. On top of he was starving to death. His little belly was bloated, yet you could see his ribs. I've rarely seen fewer things in person that are more pitiful than my Piggy was that day. He looked like a little pig. I was actually afraid that he would not survive the car trip to the vet.

"Once at the vet, it was recommended that he be put down. But he had survived so much I wasn't about to do that! It took a long, long, long time, but Piggy finally overcame all of those initial maladies and was the absolute sweetest, most loving dog I have ever known.

"He loved to do anything that Boomer did. The first time she ran full throttle into a lake to chase some ducks, he was two paces behind her. Only he'd never been swimming before and he sank like a rock! I was running and screaming and he finally popped up, and that's how he 'learned' to swim. After that, he loved to go swimming, he especially loved our trips to the beach and would swim longshore like an old pro.

"Piggy was the greatest dog I'll ever have. And when he died in my arms last November--he was only 9--- it completely broke my heart. I buried him in my backyard in his 'power spot' with all of his favorite toys and I said a prayer for him and I asked him to come back and be with me when it's my time. He was such a good boy...I thought for the longest time that I was the one that was doing such a good thing by saving him, but in actual fact, Piggy was teaching me all sorts of wonderful lessons about life and living. He was so sweet, he was unbelievably sweet...He was a real special boy and everyone who
met him fell in love with him."

Monetta has since fostered two more dogs for ARF in Mobile, but says she was a failure at fostering--instead of providing temporary shelter then sending them off to their forever homes, you guessed it-- she adopted them: Rocket, a little pit mix and Turner (aka Buddy Boy) a "big ol' magnificent pit bull".

"And of course I still have Boomer. But Officially, I remain....a cat person!"