Shadow's Story

Hey, what do you think about getting a dog?... No, you're right, we agreed, we were far to busy and didn't lead a lifestyle that would include time for a dog, plus we didn't have a yard, dog fur is messy and we didn't like the thought of cleaning up dog, how should we put this... poop!
Guess life sometimes goes in a different direction than how we think it's supposed to go.
...This is the story of how Shadow came to be a member of our family.





It was towards the latter part of January 2010 that we were driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to the North Carolina Arboretum for a morning run when we discovered a dog wandering in the middle of the roadway near mile marker 391.  He was cold, weak, hungry and frightened after obviously spending the previous night in the forest during one of the coldest winters we had in the area in years.  We jettisoned our running plans for the day to stop and help this lost canine, determined we were not going to leave him without doing everything in our power to get him to safety where he could be cared for and hopefully reunited with his owner.  The tricky part was getting him into our van since he did not want to leave the location where we found him. After waiting a very long time to see if his owners would show up, we decided to bribe him with food to lure him into our van. The only thing we had with us in the way of food was our energy gels, one of which especially appealed to him (Hammer Chocolate) indicated by his ears popping straight up and his eyes now wide open.  We know we're not supposed to give a dog chocolate, but since we were desperate and cocoa is far down on the ingredient list, we gave it at try.  He licked it up as fast as it could be squeezed out.  The offer of a second gel had him in the van easily and off to the animal shelter we went.  On the way we stopped at a local store to pick up a collar and some regular doggie food which was practically inhaled.  We don’t believe we have ever seen a more thankful and appreciative animal of any sort than this dog was that day.  When we arrived at the shelter, we did not want to leave him, but felt it was only fair to give the owners time to find him.  The shelter attendant who registered him told us because of the economy, dogs were constantly being abandoned on the Parkway.  That's when our decision was made,  we told the attendant that if the owners did not claim him, we would adopt him.

The former owner never claimed our friend and after eight long days in the shelter, we were finally able to  adopt Shadow (a name we eventually gave him because he never leaves our side).  Many friends, neighbors and family members have told us that Shadow is a very lucky dog to have been rescued by us.  We feel we are even luckier to have found Shadow. 

Many happy dog-gone days of running! 

Bart & Eve

Adoption day

Very first toy

What a good Doggie!