07/25/2026
This one is worth the (very long) readā¦
Some of you may remember Thorā¦ or āThuddas,ā as we lovingly called him. I posted him a lot over the years, mostly because I desperately wanted someone else to see in him what I saw.
The first time I met Thor was February of 2022. He came into my office, and there was just something about him. I loved him almost immediately. I didnāt know then how much that dog would eventually mean to me, or how many tears I would cry over him.
A few months later, in May 2022, Thor came back to my office, but this time his owner was bringing him in to be euthanized. He had reportedly started showing āaggressionā toward some of the smaller dogs in the home. The problem wasā¦ every dog in that home was intact. There were multiple males and females living together, and sometimes animals simply do not get along, ESPECIALLY when theyāre all intact. Meanwhile, in every interaction I had ever had with Thor, I had never witnessed an ounce of aggression from him.
I couldnāt euthanize him.
I looked at the same dog I had fallen in love with months earlier and knew I couldnāt let his life end that day. So instead, I offered his owner another optionā¦ surrender him to me and let me try.
They agreed, and Thor became mine to save.
I wish that meant his happy ending came quickly. It didnāt. Thor was heartworm positive, so we treated him, got him healthy, and started looking for somewhere for him to go. And then we kept looking. And kept looking. I posted him over and over again. I reached out to rescues. I begged for someone to give him a chance. But Thor was a pit bull, and there always seemed to be a reason someone couldnāt take him.
So he waited.
For 443 days, Thor lived at my office. More than fourteen months of his life spent in a kennel because I had saved him from dying but couldnāt seem to find the rest of his story. That part still hurts when I think about it. There were days I wondered if I had really saved him at all. I knew he was safe. I knew he was loved. But I also knew that a concrete kennel wasnāt a home, and every day that passed made me feel like I had promised this dog something I couldnāt deliver.
Then finally, after all that waiting, somebody said yes.
On August 17, 2023, I loaded Thor onto a transport van headed to Connecticut. It was everything I had spent more than a year hoping for, and somehow it still broke my heart. I hugged him, loaded him up, and truly believed I would never see him again.
I remember praying that wherever he ended up, he would be so ridiculously loved that letting him go would someday stop hurting. That the home waiting for him would make the heartworm treatment, the 443 days in a kennel, all the unanswered pleas for help, and every tear I had cried over that dog worth it.
Thirty days later, on September 16, 2023, it happened.
Thor found his person.
His name became Slim, and his mom has stayed in touch with me ever since. Over the years, she has sent me pictures, videos, and little glimpses into the life he has now. I got to watch from hundreds of miles away as the dog nobody seemed to want became somebodyās whole world.
Every update healed a little piece of my heart. The tears because I couldnāt euthanize him. The tears because I couldnāt find a rescue to take him. The tears because he lived in that kennel for so long. And especially the tears I cried after loading him onto that van, feeling like I had abandoned a dog who trusted me to take care of him. Every single one of them became worth it!!
And thenā¦ a few weeks ago, I got a text from his mom. By complete chance, she was going to be traveling through South Carolina and asked if she could bring Slim by to see us.
I couldnāt believe it.
On July 3, 2026, exactly 1,051 days after I loaded Thor onto that van, the dog I was certain I would never see again walked back through my doors.
And there he was.
My Thuddas šš.
Older, more handsome than ever, happy, healthy and so very, very loved.
I got to put my arms around him again and see with my own eyes what I had only been able to see through pictures for almost three years. The dog I once cried over because I couldnāt find anyone willing to take him had a mom who loved him enough to stay in touch with the woman who loved him firstā¦ and then drove him back through South Carolina so we could see each other again.
There are a lot of parts of rescue that hurt. There are decisions I replay in my head, animals I couldnāt save, and days when it feels like no matter how hard we try, it will never be enough.
But then there is Thor.
A dog who was brought to my office to die on May 31, 2022ā¦ and walked back through those doors four years later as Slim, somebodyās beloved boy.
I thought I was saving his life when I refused to euthanize him that day.
I had no idea that one day, 1,051 days after saying goodbye, he would come back and remind me why I keep doing this.
Some stories really do come full circle. š
And to Christieā¦ thank you. Thank you for seeing in him what I saw all those years ago. Thank you for giving him the life I used to stand beside his kennel and pray he would someday have. Thank you for loving him so completely, for keeping me a little part of his life through every picture and update, and especially for knowing what it would mean to me to see him again.
You didnāt just give Thor a home. You gave every hard day of his story a happy ending. And bringing him back to me, even for just a little while, was a gift I donāt think Iāll ever be able to put into words.
Thank you for loving our Thuddasā¦ your Slim. š¾š¶
