Name: Lady Love - 2 y/o
Family Members: Monnica, Brent, Gracie (2 legged sister) –age 12, Bugsby (doggie brother – Age 8) Charlie (cat brother- 2 Year), Ranger (cat brother- 1 year) and Gidget(cat sister- 1 ½ year)
How long has Lady Love been in the family? 5 months
Professions: Monnica- Aviation Safety Inspector with the FAA; Brent – Home Inspector
Location: Peachtree City, GA.
Nicknames: Lady, Boo, Baby, LayLay
5 words/phrases that best describe Lady Love?
- Love
- Snuggle-Bug
- Deaf
- Determined
- Survivor
What makes Lady Love unique? : Despite being treated horribly by people the first half of her life, she is such a loving little girl. Lady Love snuggles on the couch and just eats up love and attention. She likes to lay with her head on your chest and she snores…really loud.
Lady Love & her big brother Bugsby!
Rescue Story: I saw a post on GA Bully Breed Rescue Networking Facebook page (which I was not a member of at the time so I don’t know how it showed up on my Facebook feed) begging for a home for Lady Love. The post was from a volunteer at Refuge Rescue of Woodstock. She told a brief story about Lady’s heartbreaking beginning to life and called her the “perfect family dog”. The only reason that she wasn’t already adopted was because she was deaf. I knew that Lady deserved a chance to be happy so I snuck (literally) out of the house early one Saturday morning and drove from Peachtree City to Woodstock to meet Lady Love. Keep in mind that we already had 4 animals (3 cats and 1 dog) and just helped rehab a pit bull dog that had recently been selected as a service dog with Healing4Heroes. Needless to say, I was caught red handed. My husband called me when he woke up and asked where I was; I replied “I’m on a little road trip…to meet a dog”. Long story short, Lady came home with me that day (yes, I have the best husband in the world). And now, Lady is such a daddy’s girl. All of the Refuge Rescue volunteers where so happy that Lady Love finally had a home. Several of them cried and I received calls and Facebook messages from several others. I knew there had to be more to Lady’s story. Come to find out, in December 2016 Lady and her sister Dreamer were left for dead in Clayton County when workers found them tied up outside of a house where the tenant was evicted. Neither had access to food or water. Unfortunately, Dreamer was so malnourished that she didn’t survive the trip to the vet. She starved to death! How Lady survived, I’ll never know. Several animal advocates have fought hard to bring justice (Justice for Dreamer) to the man responsible for this crime and is awaiting trial.
It’s been quite an adjustment period learning to live with a deaf dog and dealing with so much of what comes with teaching a very abused and neglected dog to trust again. Lady Love was the name given to her by Refuge Rescue and we just couldn’t think of changing it because she is such a sweet lady and is so full of love. Now Lady Love has her own Facebook and Instagram account (@ladyloveisjoy) so all of the people involved in her rescue can see how Lady Love is living happily ever after!
Adoption Day!
What is your pastime as a family? Watching Lady Love do her “zoomies” in the back yard and of course, snuggling on the couch with her!
What is life like since you rescued Lady Love? Hectic. I’m no dog trainer and trying to get a deaf dog to live peacefully with 3 cats and an older, set in his way dog brother has been quite the challenge. Thankfully, I have the best force free dog trainer that is helping all of us live peacefully.
As for Lady, she’s the princess of the house with unlimited access to toys (she loves soft plush toys), chew toys, snuggles and lots of pink accessories!
Photographers Note: It is always a unique challenge working with a deaf dog. The usual tricks to get their attention don't work, weird animal sounds, crinkle of a treat bag or the squeaker from a toy. Thankfully once we got Lady's attention with a treat or just eye contact, she did really well posing for her shots. To see this sweet beautiful girl today, you would never guess the horrific past she came from. Yet another example of the resilience of these dogs and the their ability to live in the now. Lady was more then happy to show off her zoomie skills during our photo shoot, while keeping the big pittie smile in place the whole time!
News Article about Lady Love & Dreamer: https://www.11alive.com/article/life/pets/person-of-interest-named-in-animal-abuse-case/85-363215645