It started with a letter

It started with a letter...

"On July 5th, I spotted two dogs running through a busy street and up onto the front lawn of a house at 1875 Poplar, in midtown.  It turned out that these dogs live at that address, but their owner is ill and no longer staying there.  The dogs are living on the front lawn, unsupervised around the clock and roaming freely without fencing or restraints.  Both dogs appear to be somewhat elderly and show clear signs of neglect.  This summer heat wave only compounds their suffering and makes their situation even more urgent."

The writer tried desperately to get help for the animals, contacting the police and the Humane Society, but couldn't find anyone willing to step up. So he reached out to Real Good Dog Rescue. 

RGDR managed to locate and take in the dogs, with the mom going to a longtime foster volunteer, Mary Cour Burrows. 

"Edith was sweet from the start," said Mary. "But it was obvious that she'd had a rough go of it." She had to go through treatment for heartworms and get comfortable with the idea of living inside again.

"She was constantly rooting through the trash and the lower shelves of our pantry," she recalled. "YOu could tell she had spent quite some time as a scavenger."

Over the holidays, Burrows' sister Alice and her husband Robb were visiting from their home in Spokane, Washington. The scraggly mutt took an immediate liking to the couple, and the feeling was mutual. They expressed an interest in adopting Edith; however, no one could figure out the logistics. 

Enter Wings of Hope, an organization that flies rescue dogs from areas looking for pets to adopt. It just so happened that they had a flight scheduled e next month from Memphis to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, just an hour or so from Alice and Robb. 

With much trepidation, Mary packed Edith into a too-small crate (there were over 100 dogs scheduled for the trip) with a couple of her favorite toys (along with a Xanex) and watched her get loaded onto the plane. 

The family tracked the flight online and were distressed to see that the plane was flying into some treacherous weather. After a few anxious hours, they wound up diverting the plane to Spokane, where Alice and Robb live. A short drive later, Edith was finally at her forever home. 

Today, Edith tromps around in the snow like it's the most natural thing ever. She's made friends with the couple's two other dogs and is fitting in quite nicely (though she did chew up a copy of Scientific American, so things haven't been perfect, mind you). 

From roaming along traffic-laden Poplar Avenue in Memphis to gallivanting around a snow-packed meadow in Spokane, Edith has come a long, long way. 

But now she's home.