Emma’s Origin Story- 2014

A lot of people don’t realize how many pets end up getting dumped near zoos or on zoo grounds and parking lots. While working in Florida, staff members have come across different types of pets like snakes, cats, dogs, even monkeys! Unfortunately by the time they are found, they are usually sick, starving, injured, or have already passed away from neglect. If you can no longer take care of your pets, PLEASE surrender them and do not dump them anywhere, even at a zoo. Domestic pets such as cats can carry diseases that are fatal to some of the species that live at zoos; (ex: toxoplasmosis which is found in cat feces has killed off many Kangaroos, I’ve worked at several zoos that no longer house kangaroos because there were so many outdoor or stray cats around that would get into the zoo and use the bathroom around or in enclosures which meant the kangaroos kept falling ill and often dying from this disease).

When staff find animals on zoo grounds they are brought to the vet clinic to be checked out and held there until Animal Control picks them up or someone decides to take them home. One morning, several keepers were able to catch a small several week old husky puppy that was running on the main road in front of the zoo. Unfortunately her sibling didn’t make it as it was hit by a car. They brought the puppy to the vet to be checked out; she was anemic and covered in fleas and very thin. A radio call went out to let people know that there was a dog up for grabs (this was the quickest way to let everyone know).

As I mentioned in Remington’s Origin story, Husky was one of my most wanted breeds. At this time Danny and I had 3 dogs and we were not looking for a fourth, so I avoided the hospital knowing that if I saw the puppy, I would take it home. I saw Danny at lunch and he asked me if I had visited the dog. I was honest and told him I had not and would not since I couldn’t keep it. He said he had visited it and it was adorable and encouraged me to do the same. I was firm and told him that the only way I could bring myself to see the dog was if I could have it. I have no self-control with certain things and coming face to face with my dream breed that needed a home was too much for me. Several hours later, he was still telling me to go see it. When I found him again, I asked if he really wanted me to see this puppy knowing that it meant we would have a 4^th dog….he said yes! I rushed to the vet clinic and fell in love. When I told the Vet I would take the puppy home, I was crushed to hear someone else had recently claimed her. My spirits lifted slightly when I heard it was some good friends of ours. This way I’d still be able to see the dog and I knew it would have a good home. The puppy made dog number 5 for our friends. When I saw Danny at the end of the day, I told him we were too late but our friends were taking the dog. I was bummed and irritated that we took too long in making the decision resulting in missing out on my dream dog but I consoled myself with the fact that it just wasn’t meant to be.

Less than a week later we got a late night call from our friends who had taken the puppy home. Their neighbor was frustrated with the noise the puppy was making (it was borderline feral) and had called the landlord and reported them for having too many pets. The landlord was coming by the next day and they needed to get the puppy out. Danny and I immediately got in our car and went to pick up the husky. We got back to our townhouse after 11pm. We had our three dogs secured in our bedroom to give the new puppy time to explore her surroundings and get more comfortable with us. After about 30min, we decided to let Remington (who is the most calm and practiced with introductions) out of the bedroom. This led to Emma screaming bloody murder until several minutes after Remington went back in the bedroom. I am sure our neighbors loved this around midnight! We ended up calling it a night to avoid possible complaints from our neighbors and Danny slept in the living room with the new puppy and I slept in the bedroom with our three dogs. We resumed introductions the next day and explained the situation with our neighbors who were wonderfully supportive and understanding. Danny and I discussed and decided that we would work on finding a good home for the little husky but would keep her in the meantime as money was tight and our landlord only knew about 2 of our 3 dogs (most places only accept 2 pets). After some discussion we also decided on the name Emma Rue. Emma as in Emma Frost from the X-men and Rue just sort of naturally happened.

Emma was deathly afraid of trees, motorcycles, people, other animals, and didn’t understand that grass was where a dog went to the bathroom. Our backyard was mostly cement so this didn’t help. We discovered she also was a fear biter. We diligently worked through her fear biting and her many other phobias. She is still uneasy around strangers and will hang back and let the other dogs explore the situation first but she is light years ahead of where she started out when she was scared of her own shadow.

When Emma was a puppy, a few weeks after being in our house, she had developed the habit of eating my plants and seeds. Tiny white things started coming out of her butt and I said thinking out loud that ‘wouldn’t it serve her right if the seeds she ate were sprouting and those were roots because the seed had sprouted while it was passing through her?’ While I proceeded talking about how I think that it is probably a myth Danny grabbed the “roots” bare handed. They were worms. He started gagging, Emma started freaking out (she doesn’t do well even to this day if there is something that did not clear her bum) and as she was running around the house, worms were falling out every where. I started herding our dogs into the bedroom so they didn’t come in contact with the worms and Danny and I proceeded to dry heave while cleaning it all up. Needless to say, Emma got her 4th worm treatment and from then on her Demon name was Cthulhu. Side note: we also couldn’t stomach spaghetti noodles for quite a while!

After a month or so of trying to find a good home (huskies are known to be escape artists, runners, and destructive due to their hyper natures), Danny came home with a puppy book (baby book but for dogs)for her. That was the moment I realized that we were keeping her.

She is the stereotypical bratty baby sister. The other dogs literally don’t correct her for anything. She sits on them, puts their heads in her mouth, etc. She takes things from them like bones and toys and just leaves them in a pile that they aren’t supposed to touch. She will stare and cry if they have something that she can’t steal from them. If she wants our attention she will push against us, paw us, or try to sit on our faces. She doesn’t care if its good attention or bad attention. She throws temper tantrums when she doesn’t get her way. I’ve had people run around corners because it sounds like she is being beaten. When people rush to save her, they find me holding the end of the leash while she is thrashing on the ground, screaming because she is not allowed to chase after the deer or because I told her we had to leave the adopt a cat section of the pet store. This has created many awkward moments. She also is not the brightest bulb in the box and often acts before thinking it through. One example being that instead of running back down a hill to catch up with her dog siblings, she jumped off the over hang which could have resulted in dislocated or broken bones. Luckily, she got up, shook it off and proceeded with chasing after the other dogs; my heart however took longer to recover.

Emma is quite the character and I can’t imagine how our life would have been without her many antics.

Want to meet Emma’s Siblings? Click the name to meet Kiara, and her brothers, Charlie and Remington!

You can also hear how we battled to keep Emma out of the trash.