The Love That Is Layla

I'm not a religious person. I am happily content with being an Agnostic. I have no clue what is "up there" and won't even try to guess. But SOMEONE was looking out for our family when they put Layla in our life. Someone knew that we needed her. See, on November 18, 2007 my husband Marcus and I had to put our beloved Maltese, Billie Jane, to sleep. I'm not going to go into how agonizing that decision was, because most of you understand. I will tell you that I was left with a hole. I adopted Billie Jane from a shelter in late 2001. She was from a puppy mill and I have yet to meet a more damaged dog. Her vets considered her autistic. She probably wasn't born like that, but became like that due to the horrible neglect she endured. She had been debarked, was missing a foot, had slivers and splinters up and down her back, had to have all but 5 teeth pulled, and was incontinent. Until she died, every free moment was used to take care of her. She was diapered, had to be
given water as she couldn't usually find it on her own, and had to be carried up and down the stairs. She never once kissed me on the face, learned a trick, played with a toy, or stopped peeing in her diaper. But I was in love with her. Her quiet kindness, the way she always looked for me, the silly way she walked with just three feet…… I was 100% gaga.

Now you all are wondering, well isn't this blog supposed to be about Layla? Well, I am almost there, I promise. As I said, I was consumed with taking care of Billie Jane. And then one day, she was gone. I was lost. Yes, I still had 5 other pets to take care of (including one dog, one cat, two rabbits, and one bitchy lovebird), but I found myself constantly thinking of her. And then January 2008 rolled around and I realized that I wanted to adopt another dog. Not another puppy mill dog, as I just didn't think I could do that again, at least for awhile, but a shelter dog that needed us. So my husband and I started looking. And we came across Small Dog Rescue. Up for adoption was this rather unremarkable looking little black terrier mix named Midnight. It wasn't love at first site. But I felt badly for her and I knew that we would be a great home for her. Even after making the decision to bring her home with us, she still hadn't totally grown on me. But we strapped
her into her seatbelt (NOTE TO ALL! PLEASE put your pets in seatbelts. Think about it, what would happen to them if you were in an accident?! Most pet stores sell them.) and started our journey home. Halfway home, she had chewed through the seatbelt. NOT a good start! So I broke the cardinal rule for once in my life and brought her up into the front to sit on my lap. And then, she looked me in the eye and crawled right into my heart. She snuggled as close to me as she could. And she didn't move the entire drive. That was it. She had me. I was hers forever. We renamed her Layla, as it means "black as night" in Arabic.

Things have not been all hunky-dory. When we got her home, we realized that she was not potty trained. This was not Small Dog's fault. Layla had been sick while in foster care and so spent most of her time in her kennel recuperating. She doesn't pee in her kennel, so that is why we think her foster mom thought she was potty trained. Anyways, we broke out Billie Jane's old diapers and started working with her. It has been two years and she has yet to potty train. She has gotten MUCH better, but the diapers are the only thing keeping our carpets relatively clean (unfortunately they do nothing for cat urp!). And you know what? We could care less about the diapers. They are SOOOO easy to use, plus we were used to them with Billie Jane. This is just another reason why we were meant to be Layla's parents. Heaven knew we could handle an unpotty trained dog.

She is not the sharpest tool in the shed in other ways too. She thinks she is mightier than she is and so often doesn't make jumps, specifically from our bed to her brother's bed located on a trunk across the room. Or occasionally she will just barrel into a wall. There is nothing physically wrong with her, she is just not too smart. And that's OK! It makes her even more adorable to us. The main thing, though, that makes her the best dog is the fact that she is the most loving little thing I have ever met. All she wants to do is be held. Honestly, I can never get too much affection from my hubby because she wants to me sandwiched between us. "GIVE ME LOVE" she says! She is so gentle with all of our other pets. While my other dog, Nephi, wants to occasionally "play" with the rabbits, all Layla does is lick them and lay down next to them to share their lettuce (and some bunny turds!).

All of our pets have full names (first, middle, last) and hers is Layla Yoda Bean Rinke. The Yoda is because when she is in a loving mood, her ears look like Yoda's ears. It is adorable.

As you can see, I am in love. And the reason I am in love is because of Small Dog's relentless rescuing of small dogs. Thank you so much for all that you do. Layla has helped to heal my broken heart. She is actually a little heart herself. She is all love and that is exactly what we needed. Heaven bless you!