"Stumpy" was a seven-year-old purebred American Foxhound with a six-generation pedigree. When he had no interest in hunting, at least where his owner wanted him to hunt, he was dumped in the animal shelter, destined for euthanasia and just one of hundreds of hounds discarded as property without value.
Stumpy was one of many in the shelter that day when Sarge volunteers went through to do the heart-breaking, bi-weekly task of picking the few they could save. He did not, on first glance, possess any outstanding characteristics to separate him from the dozens of others. That is, until he gave us the biggest, silliest, most radiant smile we had ever seen! Every time we looked away and then looked back, here came that huge grin! We laughed so hard, there was no way we could leave this boy to the fate of the rest.
Stumpy spent longer in foster care than most; strangely, he refused to show his smile to potential adopters at any of our adoption events. But finally, he caught the eye of a lady who had a void that only this silly grinning boy could fill. Her Lab "Sam" had recently passed with cancer and, although not sure she was ready yet, she took a chance on Smiling Stumpy. After a month in his new home, we received an update from the adopter, who has now named him "Buddy"
"Just a little update to let you know how much I have fallen in love with Buddy. He is the sweetest dog and has been a gift to me that you would never believe. I was so depressed between losing my husband of 55 years from a heart attack and then losing my Sam from cancer. I should have been over being so depressed but it hit a couple weeks before I found Buddy. I had stayed in bed, not getting dressed and just crying for three days solid. I have a lady that helps me and she had picked up Sam's toy box and put it in the garage and that did it. Needless to say it is back in the living room but Buddy didn't seem to know what to do with all the toys. I think he was depressed the first week I had him cause he just laid around and I thought it was just that he was a older dog but this week he has perked up and runs around and is inspecting the toy box.
Anyway I just wanted you to know how much I love him and the lady that works for me was so sad two weeks ago because her two sons were leaving for Iraq and Afghanistan but Buddy had her laughing all week by giving her that silly grin. He is a very special dog. He's sound asleep in his bed, by my bed. Thank you again for my wonderful Buddy."
Nearly a year has passed and Buddy is still the reason for his Mom's happiness every day. Her daughter entered the smiling hound's photo in Sarge's Annual Photo Contest this year. Buddy, formerly Stumpy, won second place!
