Sara Cohen and her husband Alex had two sons, two dogs, and two hamsters – a household filled with love, and a house that felt plenty full. But as anyone who loves dogs understands, sometimes, even when you’re not planning for it, a dog can work their magic to find their way into your love and into your life.
This story began when Sara, a former long-distance runner, was helping out as a trail sweep – a volunteer who goes behind the last racers and cleans up all of the markings and any trash – for a race in Lancaster County, PA. Sara described the area as most people would describe it – it was as if she was “in the middle of nowhere.” Lancaster is also infamous for being “the puppy mill capital of the U.S.”
As Sara was driving home, a small dog ran out in front of her car. She stopped but couldn’t tell if the dog was still in front of her, so to be safe she got out of the car to check, leaving the door open behind her. She looked around but didn’t see the dog anywhere. She started to think that maybe she had imagined seeing the dog. But when she got back in her car, the dog was sitting in the front seat! The dog was filthy and smelly and looked very sick. Sara wasn’t even sure if he’d live – yet she knew she couldn’t leave him there. He had a collar with a rabies tag dated from two years earlier, but there was no address or contact information. It was a Sunday morning and she was in a remote area, so she called her husband, and she said that she was bringing a dog home.
Knowing the reality of what happens with many dogs in Lancaster, Sara wondered if this poor dog had been a stud for breeding, and once he was no longer needed, was released to fend for himself.
Over the first week after she found him, Sara did all of the responsible things:
- She placed a post on social media and asked people in the Lancaster area to share it.
- Since the rabies tag on the dog’s collar listed the name of the vet who provided the vaccine, Sara called the vet’s office, but they would only give her the owner’s name. They did tell her that the dog was registered as “Rembrandt” (Sara had been calling him Simon), and that he was now an eight-year-old male who wasn’t neutered and who had only been seen at their office once, two years earlier, for a rabies vaccine. The vet recommended calling the police for more information.
- Sara called the police and asked for contact information for the name given to her by the vet. The police gave her the phone number and address, but recommended that Sara keep the dog and not bother with the individual listed as the owner. The officer confirmed that the dog was likely a stud who had been released when he was no longer fit for breeding.
- Sara wanted to give the owner a chance and she called the phone number. The number went to a land line that was not in service. She then sent a certified letter to the address listed, letting them know that she had a dog of theirs. She never heard from anyone, and still – almost five years later – hasn’t heard from anyone.
The dog was clearly mistreated and in very bad shape and had likely been let go quite a while before Sara found him. She was not looking for hers to become a three-dog household, but she didn’t want to surrender a very sick dog to a shelter. Sara decided that she would nurse him back to health (she is a nurse after all) and then find a loving adoptive home for him. She took the dog to her vet and found that he had significant malnutrition, a skin infection, infected wounds, a double ear infection, an eye infection, and an intestinal infection. Getting him healthy would involve significant expenses. Some of her dog-loving friends suggested a Go Fund Me campaign to help with the costs of treating the very sick dog. But Sara felt good about paying all of the bills herself, and when the dog was finally healthy enough, she had him neutered. (The vet had guessed that Remmie was a Jack Russell Terrier-Cavalier King Charles Spaniel mix, though a recent DNA test revealed that he was 100% long haired Chihuahua, making the breeding stud theory all the more likely.)
In the meantime, the dog was getting along great with the family’s other two dogs, as well as the humans in the family. Whenever she was home, the dog would follow Sara around, and she was finding herself becoming as bonded to him as he was to her. As he grew healthier, his personality started to emerge, and he started playing with dog toys as if he were a puppy and had never encountered toys before. The other two dogs accepted him without hesitation, and after several weeks, it was like he had always been part of their pack. Nursing him back to health was cathartic for Sara, and watching how seamlessly he fit into her already busy household was somewhat miraculous.
Eventually, the dog – who Sara’s family now called Remmie – was healthy enough to be adopted out. Sara had several friends who wanted to adopt him. But by then, Remmie had made his way into Sara’s heart and she couldn’t imagine letting him go. Sara’s family decided to make official what was already the reality: Remmie was part of their family.
Remmie, who had such a lousy and unfair beginning to his life, is one of the few dogs who started off like he did who has been able to spend the second part of his life in a loving home. Thanks to his jumping into Sara’s car when she was in Lancaster, Remmie’s story has the “happy ending” that every dog deserves.
