Amy Hill Hearth

August 23, 2017

I had to say goodbye to my little canine writing companion recently. She was (we think) eleven and a half years old. Her name was Dot, and she was a tiny Boston Terrier.

If you’ve ever had a pet, you know the pain I am feeling. I miss her so.

Dot had a bad start in life, to say the least. We believe she was born around January of 2006. This much we know: As a puppy, she was put up for sale at a South Carolina flea market. She was purchased by puppy mill owners and brought to Maryland, where her future was very dim, especially because she never grew beyond seven pounds and the owners soon realized she was a poor candidate for breeding.

Luckily, when she was about a year old, volunteers from Maryland Pug Rescue removed dozens of dogs from the puppy mill, including a Boston Terrier they named “Plucky Little Dot.” Dot was then turned over to A Forever Home Rescue Foundation in Chantilly, Virginia for extensive rehabilitation and socialization. Her foster family worked very hard to get Dot healthy enough to be adopted. Unfortunately, because of her very small size and health concerns such as severely bowed rear legs, finding a good home for her was a challenge.

In August 2007, my husband and I were grieving the loss of our nearly 11 year old Boston Terrier, Wilma, when I came across Dot on the Internet. In honor of our beloved Wilma, we decided to adopt Dot. At the time, Dot was about a year and a half old. She had ten happy years with us. On July 26, 2017, Dot earned her angel wings.

There is no way to “replace” a dog, nor would we want to try. Knowing that there are many dogs that need a good home, however, we went ahead on August 19 and adopted Gemma, a seven-year-old Boston Terrier. Gemma is a puppy mill survivor and the mother of dozens of puppies. She was rescued in July by Northeast Boston Terrier Rescue. We look forward to giving Gemma a wonderful life! It is a relief to have a canine companion in the house once again. We miss our little Dot something awful, but we feel we are honoring her memory by providing a good home for Gemma.

Our vet once said to me, “I don’t believe in reincarnation but if I did, I would want to come back as one of your dogs.”

I think that may be one of the greatest compliments I've ever received.