Top 10 Happy Tails of 2022: Meet Toni & Emmy!

As 2022 comes to a close, we're taking a look back at all of the lives that we’ve saved thanks to your support. Today begins our Top 10 Happy Tails of 2022 — each story is remarkable in their own way and are examples of the heart of our Muddy Paws Pack community. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we’ve loved all of these special pups.

We’re celebrating the spirit of Christmas today with not one, but two happy tails. This is the very special story of Toni and Emmy - who were lucky enough to be adopted by our very own Founding Executive Director, Rachael and her partner, Jared.

It all began in August, when Toni arrived from our Fulton County, GA partner. Toni went to a long-time foster at first, but she then started to display some reactive leash behaviors. As she’s done hundreds of times before, Rachael offered to foster and do a behavioral assessment in her own home, where she and Jared were already the proud dog parents of three resident pups.

“When she first came to us, she was fairly nervous and timid. The first thing she did when she saw us was put her paws up and give us these adorable little hugs. She would just stay there, and our hearts melted,” said Rachael. Jared had a similar memory of the moment he met Toni, saying “From the second Toni came out of the car, her hug was the shot of joy I needed in that moment. I told Rachael I needed a dog like her, that was in your face, and loving.”

Toni likely has a tumultuous history - her face is covered in what we suspect to be birdshot scars. The plan was to hang on to her for a week before making her available for adoption, but when the time came for the adoptions team to post her…Rachael couldn’t bring herself to let her go quite yet. But they already had three dogs at home, could they handle four? And would Toni be ok when inevitably Rachael had to bring home another foster? Rachael and Jared knew they had to test Toni with a new dog prior to making it official.

Enter…Emmy. In September, staff took a trip down to visit our shelter partner in Bowling Green Warren County Kentucky, where we planned to pick out the pups for our next transport, and support the shelter staff with some volunteer work. On our first day, Rachael noticed a very shy and withdrawn dog. What struck her though was how this dog, then known as Little Ann, looked exactly like her dog Shyla (an MPR alum).

Rachael carried Little Ann (now known as Emmy) to the yard (because she wouldn’t walk) and spent time just sitting with her to help her decompress from an overwhelming shelter environment. “At first, she just sat there nervously, but eventually she rolled over for belly rubs, and would walk over to me. I Facetimed Jared from the yard and told him I needed to bring her home with me.”

That weekend, Rachael and Jared welcomed Emmy into their home - bringing the number of total pups in the house to FIVE! Emmy took a few days to settle in, but when she did, she fit right in with the rest of the pack. “Again, this was only supposed to be a foster situation…but I think I always knew that we would end up keeping her.”

“So at this point, at the end of September, we had two foster dogs. We were just trying to see how it went having five dogs in the house - and it was surprisingly easy! I wanted to make sure that we could give them all the attention and training they needed. We went back and forth for awhile - Jared had this special bond with Toni and I had a bond with Emmy. One Sunday, I just decided to make it official, and sign the paperwork. We knew neither dog was going anywhere.”

Unfortunately, the happiness of five pups lasted only a short while, as Rachael’s first dog, 16 year-old Bailey passed away almost exactly a month after Emmy and Toni officially joined the crew.

These days, Toni, Emmy, Shyla and Charley are the best of friends. They spend their days cuddling all together on the couch (don’t worry, they leave a little space for Rachael and Jared).

Rachael’s story just goes to show that sometimes the adoption that you least expected can be the one (or ones) you needed the most.