Love Conquers All

By Syd Sullins

I will never forget the first time I saw Anastasia. She was one of Mauricio’s nine dogs. Mauricio was the happy gardener and dog lover who died of alcohol poisoning in May. When Mauricio passed, his brother let us into the house to meet his dogs and all were friendly and happy to see us - except for Anastasia. The brother had her tied up in a separate room and she was barking ferociously at us. The brother cautioned us that she would bite.

We evaluated all the dogs and then we sat down and developed a plan on what we would do with all these dogs. A question hung in the air of what do we do with the aggressive one. We can’t accept an aggressive dog at The Ranch it’s not fair to our workers, volunteers or the other dogs.

Something made me go back into the room with Anastasia. I quietly sat with her for a bit. It turns out she was just frightened by all the changes in her life. After a few minutes, she allowed me to pet her and then cautiously lay near my side. We decided to take a chance on her.

Two months later, we hosted volunteers from Street Dog Hero (SDH) and they fell in love with all of Mauricio’s dogs, including Anastasia. At The Ranch, with all the love of our volunteers, she had blossomed into such a sweet and loving dog. Anastasia was one of the first dogs SDH decided to fly back to Portland.

She quickly found her home and her mother is so in love with her. I think this photo perfectly represents the bond they have formed. We are all so happy that we decided to give Anastasia this opportunity.