Name: Porter - 4 y/o
How long has Porter been in the family? Since he was 14 weeks old, August 2013
Family Members: Lisa & Adam
Professions: Lisa - Instructional Technology Coordinator, The Howard School
Adam - Territory Sales Manager, Bimbo Bakeries USA
Location: East Atlanta, GA.
Nicknames: Piggy, Wiggles, Wiggly, Piggly Wiggly, Prosciutto Butt
5 of the best words/phrases to describe Porter?
- Adorable
- Loving
- Cuddly
- Friendly
- Sweet
What makes Porter unique? Porter is very sensitive in the best way! He is in-tune with people and their feeling, especially children. He is calm and sweet and always knows how to make you feel better.
A waiting pibble is a patient pibble.
Rescue Story: Our story began in June 2013, our sweet pit bull Stout was getting older at 16 years old, and having health complications. We had already lost his pit bull brother, Yoda, at the age of 13 to cancer the previous September. With all this in mind, we decided we needed a puppy to fill the void and loss we knew was our inevitable future.
We visited Fulton County Animal Services and picked out the sweetest little 8 week old pittie. We took him home that very same day and immediately began to make him part of our family. We named him Turbo Dog, and he was the littlest and cutest baby ever. Unfortunately, we lost him 4 days later to parvo. We did not know he was sick when we adopted him, and loved him every second he was in our home. This was one of the hardest, life changing, moments of our lives. In addition to losing him, our home was now contaminated and we were told we could not get another puppy right away. The parvo virus can live in your home and yard for 6 months to a year. I was heartbroken and so sad about losing Turbo, but also about losing the prospect of a new puppy coming into our lives before we lost our sweet boy Stout.
Enter Friends to the Forlorn in August 2013. I had followed Jason and his amazing work for years before this time in our lives. At about the same time we adopted our sweet Turbo, a litter of puppies was being born in Dallas, Ga. These puppies came to be known as “the gas station puppies”, as Jason found them being sold out of a plastic bucket at a gas station. He took the litter in and also covered the cost of vetting and fixing the mother and father dog. That is one of the amazing things about Jason and FTTF, they don’t stop at just taking a dog in, or a litter of puppies, they go the extra mile to educate and help owners to prevent this from happening again someday.
A picture of the Gas Station Puppies was posted to the FTTF Twitter account and I immediately fell in love with “the little brown one”. That excitement and love quickly turned to heartbreak when I quickly remembered I could not take one in. I replied to the Tweet and said I wished I could have one, and briefly explained the tragedy we had experienced with our sweet puppy Turbo. They responded and told me if we wanted a puppy and qualified for one, that they would keep him until he had all his shots and it was safe to be in our home due to the parvo virus. I could not have been happier to hear this! We immediately filled out an adoption application, which by the way is a few pages long and very thorough, and waited to hear back from them.
A couple days later we received word that our application was being processed and they wanted to setup a time for us to meet our perspective baby, Porter (then Buell). The meeting could not have gone any better and of course we fell madly in love. We were ready to move forward with our application. Next, the home check and the vet reference, again the process is very involved and these dogs do not get adopted to just anyone. After passing these next hurdles, we began to further discuss our needs and the fact that he would not be able to come home to us right away. His foster family already knew of our situation with Turbo and agreed to keep him an extra 4-5 weeks for us, until he had all of his shots. They let us see him during that time and sent us pictures often. They even began to call him Porter, knowing this would be his name when he came home.
Because of the amazing efforts of Jason and his rescue, Porter came home to us just in time to spend the last 5 weeks of Stout’s life learning from his big brother. Their time together is time we never thought we would have been able to have after losing Turbo. For this, I am eternally grateful to Jason and all of the members of the FTTF family.
Since Porter has come home he has been the light of our lives. He is now spreading his love and joy to the students at my school, The Howard School, where I am the Instructional Technology Coordinator. He is training to be a Therapy dog and will be READ (Reading Education Assistance Dog) Certified when we complete our training together. The students love him and he loves them. They sit in my office and read to him, which is amazing for our students who all struggle with some type of Language Learning Disability. He provides a safe space for them to read and does not judge them. In-turn, they do not judge him for who he is, they love him unconditionally, as we all wish to be loved.
Puppy Porter
What is your favorite pastime as a family? We joke that we have a social life because of Porter! Visits to the dog park, walks on the Beltline, visiting friends and family, and his favorite day of the week… Thursday Ice Cream Social at Taj MaHound Bakery in Oakhurst. He has been going each week to visit with his furry and human friends since he came home to us. He lights up when you ask him if he is ready to go to ice Cream. It is the only time he doesn’t fight me to get in the car.
When we are home, all he needs is his yard and a tennis ball, and he is the happiest boy in the world.
What is life like since you rescued Porter? I do not know what we would do without Porter in our lives. He is truly one of the best things that has ever happened to us. We joke that we have so many friends and social events because of him! When people come over they are somewhat happy to see us, but they are thrilled to see him.
Photographers Note: I was so happy that Lisa suggested we meet up at Porter's favorite Thursday spot, Taj Ma-Hound for some ice cream (for him not me). After we took care of the bowtie shot, Porter was very eager to head to the shop. He went walking in there like he owned the place. Shortly after we arrived, some of the other regulars came in and before you know it was a pup party. Ice cream, tennis balls and running around.....I took the opportunity to get down on the ground with all the pups to be at their level and boy was I rewarded with a lot of kisses from cold wet tongues! (best reward there is). It was so much fun to share in this great activity that Porter has taken part in since he was just a pup.