Name/Age: Rosie - 3 y/o
Family Members: Jeremy, Amanda, human brother Landen (almost 16), Flash(RIP)- Basset Hound (12), Bailey - Dachshund (15)
How long has Rosie been in the family? Rosie has been with us since November 20, 2017
Professions: Jeremy is a elevator mechanic and works for Thyssen Krupp. He has been in the profession for 22 years. Amanda works for Builder first Source as an inside sale rep. I have been with them 12 years.
Location: Locust Grove, GA.
Nicknames: Rose, Rosebud
5 words/phrases that best describe Rosie?
Loyal
Loving
Grateful
Best Friend
Playful
What makes Rosie unique? Rosie has an adventurous personality. She always wants to go. Her favorite things are boat and jet ski rides and pretty much anything that involves water. She is a great swimmer and loves playing ball. She loves dropping her tennis balls in the pool and then jumping in and getting them. She loves hard and is so loyal. She’s wanted nothing more then to be with her humans.
Rosie with her beloved tennis balls.
Rescue Story: My husband and I have been married only 3 year and together 4. When we started dating he had a white pittie named Bones. I fell in love with her and I guess him at the same time. A year before we started dating Bones suffered an FCE (stroke in her spinal cord) at the ripe age of 12. Bones and Jeremy had a special bond, he always said she could see into his soul. He recused her off the side of the road. She was nothing but skin and bones, that’s how she got her name. Jeremy said at points in his life, she was the only thing in this world he knew loved him. He saved her but honestly she saved him. Bones never really recovered fully from the FCE. Everyone thought he should put her down, but he wasn’t giving up on her because she never gave up on him. We lost Bones June 11, 2017 to mass cell. She fought one hell of a fight. She was 14 when Jeremy finally had to say good bye. A part of my husband left with her, he lost his best friend. I follow Fulton and DeKalb County Animal Shelters on Facebook and I kept seeing all these sweet babies needing homes. I talked Jeremy into going one Saturday to DeKalb just to “look”. We walked the whole place and I was a little taken back. I was shocked to be honest. I had never seen so many pitties in one place. It was heart breaking and overwhelming. Jeremy walked passed one kennel and Rosie (Brita was her name at the time) was in with a white pit. I over looked her and kept walking. After looking at all the dogs he went back to her. He asked if he could see her and they let us take her outside. He said she saw in my soul. I knew at that moment she was going home with us. Rosie was only 36 pounds when she was picked up. All we really know was she was picked up a few miles from the amours trip house. She has a few scars on her and was is bad shape. Today she is a solid 70 pounds!!
Rosie formally known as Brita.
What is your favorite pastime as a family? We have so many, but our weekends at the lake are by far our and her favorite. We are an outdoors family for sure and Rosie fits in perfectly.
What is life like since you rescued Rosie? It’s complete! Rosie fits perfect in our crazy life and all our activities. We always talked about wanting a dog that loves all the stuff we like to do. Well, that’s our Rosie. She stayed in DeKalb for 3 months and people passed her by for a reason. She was waiting on us. You know the saying, someone’s trash is another’s treasure… Rosie is priceless to us.
Social Media: Instagram: @rosiewiliford tiktok - @amandahopewillifo
Photographers Note: I don’t think out of all of the dogs I have photographed over the last 5 years have I ever met one that is so obsessed with tennis balls like Rosie. She lives for her tennis balls. She can hold up to three in her mouth at one time, which means that when playing fetch there needs to be more then one tennis ball in the rotation. Jeremy & Amanda shared with me their tennis ball replenishment routine.(because she does like to destroy them as well) They purchase them used from Amazon, and dump them into a box that is in the garage. She checks that box regularly for new inventory and then makes her selections for the current fetch rotation. It was so much fun to see the joy on her face while her Dad threw her the tennis balls. In fact, it wasn’t easy to get a shot of her without at least one in her mouth until she got tired out!
As a side note, Amanda had contacted me after we initially scheduled our session to see if we could move it up. They had gotten heartbreaking news that their beloved Basset Flash had Lung Cancer and didn’t have much longer to live. She said I know this is about Rosie, but she really wanted to have him in their photo’s, which I of course said absolutely. I was truly honored to have gotten the opportunity to meet that sweet boy and take a couple of photos of him for his family, before he made his final trip to the Rainbow Bridge. Rest in Peace Sweet Flash!