06/14/2026
We didn't even have her for a month.
It was just 27 days.
Little Greta Garbo came to us after we saw her picture on the Walton County Shelter social media and were bombarded with requests by our supporters who just KNEW that this little girl was destined for Frankie and Andys Place.
They were absolutely right.
We went to see her, and found this little 17 year old poppet of a dog, shivering and scared in the shelter, with no clue why she had been callously dumped there by her owner.
We have been doing this for many years, long even before we opened Frankie and Andy's Place; we have rescued hundreds upon hundreds of dogs, and the thing that gets us every time we go to the shelter to look at a dog, is that every single one of them has no clue why they have been dumped.
"I was a loyal companion to my people my whole life, and then they dumped me when they bought a puppy".
"I nipped the kid next door because no one was there supervising him and he pulled my sore ear".
"No one taught me that it was wrong to jump up".
"They had a baby and dumped me. I wouldn't have hurt that baby if they'd just spent some time showing me what to do around her."
"I barked at strange people coming into the house and they said they couldn't stand the noise. I'm a German Shepherd, what did they think I was going to do? It's always been our job to be watchdogs unless we are taught otherwise".
And in Greta Garbo's case...
"I went blind and felt poorly, so instead of taking me to the vet and helping me navigate my new condition, they just dumped me at the shelter. At 17 years of age. I tried to be a good dog all my life, they cuddled me and loved on me all the time when I was perfect, small and cute, but when my eyes went cloudy and I started to stumble into things, they just got rid of me. Now....now when I needed them most. It was very noisy and very scary in there and all the surfaces were hard, it was a strange place for me so I couldn't find my water bowl."
I didn't ever want to be the person that wishes ill on anyone, but people that dump their dogs like this make me want to wish a million karmas on them.
They will be old and frail one day, I pray that they get a taste of this from their own families so that they understand their actions and may ask for forgiveness before they depart.
Greta came home with Aunty Cindy that day, for a decompression stay before coming to the cabins. For 4 days, she strolled around and relaxed, learning to trust human touch again and finding that her needs would finally be met.
However, sadly, the damage had been done before she came to us.
Her kidneys were beyond repair and the symptoms started to show before she came to the cabin with some horrific diarrhea as she was on her way to the cabins. She went back to Aunty Cindy's with some medication and we put off her joining us for a few more days until she felt better, hoping that this was just stress colitis.
It was not.
Kidney issues often hide in plain sight, masquerading as other things, until they are very bad and this was one such case.
She felt well enough to join her new family a few days afterwards and spent the better part of a week exploring and getting to know the others. Easy going, happy to keep herself to herself as long as she nabbed the biggest bed, this little girl looked for all the world as if she had been with us for an age, until disaster struck again and she stopped eating.
We rushed her to the vets again, where they found that she was in late stage kidney failure, and she spent the weekend on IV fluids in the hospital and it was hoped that she would be home again on Monday for us to continue care at home.
But then on Sunday they discovered a severe heart condition.
And that heart condition meant that she could no longer receive IV fluids in the quantities needed to help her kidneys.
It was a catch 22, give her the fluids to heal the kidneys or stop the fluids to maintain her heart and kill the kidney function. That is not a choice at all, is it?
And so we did the kindest thing possible, we let her go.
She passed gently and quietly, eager to be done with her pain, in the arms of our angel Aunty Cindy.
As she passed, she heard these sweet words in her ear... "We love you. You matter to us, we wish we had found you sooner but just know that you have been loved and that you leave with love. Safe journey, little one."
And now she is whole, running around chasing butterflies like the puppy she is again, with perfect eyesight and limbs that do as they are asked.
Sweet Greta Garbo, thankyou for stopping by, now you must rest in peace.
