Mia

Mia entered our lives very unexpectedly on bonfire weekend in 2015. As a young child, I had asked my dad for a dog for years but with no luck. Since Mia entered my life these have been the best years and she brings a smile to my face every day.

On bonfire night we heard a dog outside our house crying all night long, but assumed it was just a neighbour’s, crying because of the fireworks. The following morning when we got up we saw a dog hiding under my car, sheltering from the rain, and terrified. It was clear the dog had been abused and neglected. She was skinny and filthy. We took her inside to shelter from the rain, gave her some food and decided to keep her over the weekend in safety until we could get her to the vets and to see if she had a microchip. Mia was petrified of everything but she trusted us from the very beginning.

We took her to the vet where they checked her over and checked for a microchip. Other than being underweight and having an old injury in her back legs causing a bit of a limp (most likely from being abused) Mia was in good health. To our relief, a microchip was found, although it was for an address about 60 miles from where we are, so we believed maybe she had either been stolen and then abandoned, or had somehow escaped and been out for a while. Feeling hopeful, the vet contacted her previous owners but came back with no good news. Her previous owners simply wanted nothing more to do with her, so they had driven her miles away to abandon her so that she couldn’t find her way home. This left us feeling more sorry for the poor girl who just needed some loving and someone who would teach her to trust that not everything and everyone is scary. Mia’s only hope was if we could find her a home, as no rescue centre was willing to help her and her only option would have been to be put to sleep if we couldn’t find her a home.

We cared for this sweet girl for the next few days whilst we told as many people as possible about her to try and find her the perfect home. We all fell completely in love and knew that beyond all of her fears, she could make the perfect family dog so in the end, we decided to make our home her forever home.

Mia has overcome many fears although she will never completely get over some of them. But she has taken everything in her stride, with us cheering her on. Although still the sweetest dog that we saw on day one, she has turned into a completely different dog.

Once Mia had my trust, I began taking her to dog training classes and fun dog shows to build her confidence and to socialise with others and she has gone from strength to strength. Every dog show she attends, Mia shines and wins the hearts of the judges, bringing home the rosettes and has completely shocked everyone with her training. Mia started as the dog who was too scared to join in with any activities or to even allow me to take a single step away from her, and now we have just recently achieved our Gold Good Citizen award.

A couple of years ago Mia had to fight back from an operation to remove a lump from her side but as always she took it in her stride and was soon back to her normal self. Mia has never left my side through everything we have faced, including the heartbreaking loss of my nan last year due to dementia. She has also been my fundraising buddy helping to continuously raise funds for the Alzheimer’s society and Dementia UK. Mia brings happiness to our family that we never knew was missing before she entered our lives and I hope our story reaches the hearts of everyone.