By Anna V. Garrison

I was absolutely not ready for another foster.

I had good reason: I was allergic to my last foster and had just finished spending nearly three weeks suffering from sneezes, a runny nose, and watery, itchy eyes.

But this particular kind of stubbornness means nothing in the world of animal rescue. All it took was one picture to force me to open my home to a third dog.

In all honesty, my choice of foster wasn’t that surprising. Freya was part border terrier – a double threat since I love terriers and have my very own border terrier mix. She was on red alert at the Downey shelter and animal advocate, Ruth Silny, had been tirelessly networking her through Facebook and emails.

The day I pulled Freya from Downey, she immediately displayed the typical rescue pup gratitude. She trotted along beside me with her slip leash and when I sat, she placed her front paws in my lap and nuzzled and licked me for attention.

Fast forward three months later. I was exhausted. Freya and one of my pups were having jealousy issues. Freya’s chewing stage had damaged more than one household item. And so far, I had only had one interested party without an adoption application that had lost interest at some point. I prepared myself to revamp Freya’s profile, take more pictures, and make some videos.

But miraculously, some holiday karma hit me just in time. I was suddenly hit with three separate emails from interested parties. The first one gave me a great feeling (something else rescue advocates understand very well) although I was worried when I realized they lived almost 400 miles away. I’d done out of state adoptions before with great success, but that success always depended on the adopter and my intuition.

As it turned out, my gut was right. I had nothing to worry about. Freya’s new parents were in love with her from the first sight of her picture. A meeting at the park only sealed the deal!

Now, the former red alert shelter dog is living it up in her new home for the holidays with her new name: Darla! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Darla! We hope you enjoy your gift: a forever home!