Kicking Off The New Year 2022
What is a new year, without a few resolutions, so here at Sedona we figured that keeping our blog updated would certainly qualify as a good resolution. Plus it's a lot quicker for you the reader than if we did a 60 minute podcast, and a lot less expensive for us. But who knows there are 11 months left to add that to our resolutions. Or if we got lucky we could end being interviewed on the Lex Fridman podcast, just make sure you have 3 free hours.
Without further preamble, we open 2022 with a trifecta. Not one, two, but three senior shepherds were placed this month and their story was inspiring to all of us at Sedona Shepherd. Late in December, we were contacted to help find a home for Hailey and Fina, two senior German Shepherds ages 11 and 13. Their owner was going to have to move into a senior living facility that could not take in any dogs, let alone two (soon we would find out three shepherds).
The day we arrived to meet Fina and Hailey, we knew immediately that they are truly special shepherds. They are well trained, well bred, and always receiving top notch food and supplements. The grandson joked that all the dogs ate better than they did. We took a few videos of Hailey (13 years old) to show to everyone. Everyone who watched the videos thought she was about 7 or 8 years old. Fina was a little more on the shy side when meeting us. As we were talking in the kitchen a beautiful Belgian Shepherd poked her head out of another room. Sibelle (15 years old at the time) is a gentle girl who liked chilling on her couch or being around Fina.
Given the expected difficulty of finding a home for two senior shepherds, Sibelle's owner assumed we would have our hands full with just Hailey and Fina. But we were up to the challenge of find a home for all three dogs.
We had an adopter immediately in mind for Hailey. Their prior Sedona dog of over 5 years had passed away a few months prior and they were ready to open their home to another senior dog in need. It was love at first sight. When we brought Hailey to her new home, she went right to the back yard and was working the fence line. It didn't take her long to settle into her new home.
Sibelle was next up. Given Sibelle's age, we decided that the easiest way to find her a home was to bring her into our permanent foster program. Sedona would cover all her medical costs until she passed away while the foster home would provide her a loving home. Almost immediately after posting her story, we received a request from a family looking to help out a senior shepherd in need of a home. The family has a two year old German Shepherd. We were a little skeptical of the age difference, but Huckleberry is a sweet and gentle dog. As you can see from the picture, they became friends right away.
On the same day Sibelle met her new family, Fina had the opportunity to meet her new pal Ryder and older very relaxed dog. The two sniffed each other, went for a walk and decided, "yeah this could work out." Between navigating snow storms and some other logistics, Fina made it up to her new home and is settling in nicely.
All three dogs were part of our owner referral program, and their original family was amazing in helping to make the adoptions successful. We are happy to make sure that their original owner and family can take comfort knowing all three girls are safe and sound.
