A Love Story
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
By: Aleta Daniels

A story in which a girl finds her best friend and heart's companion

I'd been perusing pet adoption sites for months and had met several dogs that just weren't the right fit. And then I saw the hopeful, smiling, anxious, beautiful photo on the HSHV website of a white dog named Winnie, so I came to see her one grey March day (March 2 to be exact). She had just been spayed and was wearing her post-surgery cone, and when she was brought out to meet me, stumbling through the hall hitting her cone on things that were in the way but with a wagging tail, my heart did one of those little tumbles that hearts tend to do when they fall instantly in love.
She came home for a pajama party and three days later, on my birthday, she decided that she wanted to stay forever and I couldn't argue with her.

Here we are, seven months later, and I swear this dog was waiting just for me. She's everything I could ask for in a dog--she's gentle yet playful, she respects me when I tell her 'no' when she's doing something she shouldn't, she's great with my cats, she's gentle when friends bring their kids over, she's incredibly intelligent (she figured out how to let herself in the house by pushing the sliding screen door open with her nose, but she hasn't yet figured out how to close it haha), she is a fantastic off-leash hiking companion and we hike EVERY day, she prefers the floor over my couch (sorry, I'm not a fan of dogs on furniture!!) and she knows exactly how to comfort me when I'm sad. She isn't scared of loud noises so fireworks, vacuum cleaners, gunshots in the woods around the house are no big deal to her. She's very much "my dog" and won't leave my side, clearly preferring my company to anyone else (although she's very polite and will take belly rubs from anyone offering). All-in-all, she is exactly what I needed and it seems I was exactly what she needed.

She's been the source of constant laughter and only a few instances of exasperation (she occasionally rolls in something disgusting and she WILL get in the trash and recycling if left to her own devices), but most importantly, she melts my heart every time I look at her. I feel so fortunate to have found her!! Winnie was renamed Nadia, and Nadia and I recently moved from Michigan to Knoxville, TN and we're having a great time exploring this very dog-friendly city.