Ollie's Odyssey

Our puppy is named Oliver. Loved by our children from the second they used their puppy faces to beg that we adopt him last summer.

High energy, loving, and playful would be good ways to describe Ollie. Our son took the job of training him as his mission and has gotten Ollie to eat slightly less ravenously and to occasionally follow a command (as long as food is involved).

Suddenly,10 days ago, Oliver became quite sick. He couldn’t stand and seemed confused. The high energy was gone. Then, a seizure. More followed.

All of us struggled seeing him suffer. Those same eyes of our children that had begged for us to adopt him were now filled with tears.

After a few ER trips, it seemed that Oliver’s kidneys were failing and we decided to “surrender” him to the ABQ Animal Welfare Department (AWD). We said our good-byes, doing our best to comfort each other.

Cut to yesterday.

My wife Shannon, looking to for closure, contacted the shelter to verify that Oliver had been euthanized.

Suddenly, I get a frantic call. “It looks like Ollie is alive! He just went up for adoption an hour ago.”

Now, on a technicality, Shannon was not allowed to adopt the animal as she was the one who surrendered him. But I was free to do so.

That is how we met Arline Gregoire. She is one of the many amazing volunteers at AWD. A retired teacher, she now volunteers in an almost full-time capacity to support the animals that come through their shelter.

She came to the lobby, and hearing that I was looking for Oliver, she described him. “Knows his commands, sweet dog. His bad habit is that he likes to jump on you as a greeting.”

Yep. Sounded like the right dog.

Aline had spent a lot of time in the preceding days caring for Ollie as his kidneys improved and he returned to normal dog things (eating, pooping, sniffing, scratching). She brought Oliver to us and got to see the elation on our faces. 

Ollie, who we assumed was in doggie heaven, was alive! 

A shout out to all of the Aline’s in this world, people who go out of their way to bring goodness and healing to others.

A shout out to all of the people who work and volunteer at AWD.

Thanks to them, Ollie gets to eat, poop, sniff, and scratch some more.

A picture of Aline with Oliver before we brought him back home with us.