humble beginnings
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| Sullivan: Day One After Adoption |
before delving into sullivan’s recent medical problem, let’s take a minute to get to know the little guy:
while scrolling through thousands of adoptable canine cuties on petfinder.com, a thumbnail image of one caught my eye: jake. there was something about jake’s kind eyes and characterizing white racing stripe running down the middle of his face that stole my heart. jake was found by a kind soul roaming a tennessee interstate with his siblings and mom. placed in foster care after spending time in a kill shelter, jake was deemed adoptable and his picture/story went viral. it was a waiting game for him as the good folks at great dog rescue followed up on applications, interviewed families and tried to figure out who would offer jake the best possible life given his needs. after much convincing and being approved by the rescue organization, jake was to become family member #4 in a family of aislynn (me), linda (mother) and jake’s soon to be big canine (but don’t tell him he’s a canine – he has lived 12+ years thinking he is 100% human) brother (murphy). we are now a “party of 5” as young brown joined the family in 2010. we were promised that jake was crate trained, house broken, capable of basic obedience and medically well – sentiments that helped my persuasive case of “please, please, please we have to get him”, but ultimately proved fallacious.
jake became part of our family on april 30, 2005. he travelled in an 18-wheel truck from viola, tennessee to a ‘park-n-ride’ in plainfield, connecticut. freed from his rickety crate, the imposing truck driver said “jake’s people?” and we stepped forward with much anticipation, meeting our young pup for the first time. despite being yellow, i was convinced jake wasn’t the dog we fell in love with online. he was covered with mange, had tar caked in his ears, bucked frantically on leash and decided to scavenger a leaf pile for the remains of a dead mouse. the driver said, ‘ma’am – this dog never been on no leash before’. my mom and i looked at each other thinking: what have we gotten ourselves into?
change in diet from kibble sold in a hardware store to hearty organic food, attentive veterinary care, some basic obedience lessons and loads of tlc was the perfect recipe for reviving this unconfident, lost soul and transforming him into a strong, healthy boy.
the next task in this period of transition was getting rid of the name jake. “jake” seemed like too much of a reminder of his roots, and we wanted to celebrate new beginnings and a fresh start. after coming up with a list of five or so names, we went to the fenced schoolyard and called all of the names, hoping our yellow friend would essentially pick his own name. “chance…come!!”, “brewster…here, boy!!” and it went on until my mother yelled: “sully…come!”. in that very moment, our protagonist, formerly known as jake, became sullivan – sully for short. always aware of his humble roots, sully wears his very first jake tag on his collar each day.
