The Day He Was Surrendered And Then Adopted

For almost 3 1/2 years of his life Drake lived in Cape Coral, Florida with a nice senior couple. They had grandchildren that would come over and play with him and he was enjoying life. As far as he knew life was great. Then one day they loaded him, his bed and toys in the car, drove to a parking lot and handed him over to someone with Labrador Retriever Rescue of Florida, Inc. He never saw any of them again. While at first this sounds incredibly cruel, it turned out to an incredible act of kindness.

We have heard different stories as to why his previously owners surrendered him. Their house was too small, they were moving to a senior community that didn’t allow large dogs, they didn’t expect a Labrador to get this big, etc., etc. It doesn’t matter; his life had been turned upside down. I often wonder what he must having been thinking. But more importantly, I wonder how scared he must have been.

After the parking lot transfer, Drake was taken to a foster family in Sarasota, Florida for a six (6) week evaluation. Another home another family to bond with. With his personality, he fit into this family very well. They had a couple of smaller dogs that he got to play with and things weren’t so bad and as long as they stayed away from him when he was eating. Again, he was becoming one happy camper.

Just as he was settling in, a man showed up one day, looks him over, plays with him for a while and says, “Okay I’ll take him.” Once again everything he owns is loaded into a vehicle and he gets go on a long car ride.

When they pull into the driveway that Friday night Drake seemed incredibly happy, but not sure of what was going on. We moved all of his stuff into the house, showed him were his bed and toys were in our living room and he immediately took up residency by our front door.

Drake’s life begins with his new and permanent family.