"You can't change a dog's past, but you can rewrite the future."

- Agnes Carass

Meet The Adorable Rescue, Stella

Stella's beginnings are unknown.

What is known is that life had not been kind to her. Her pawrent, Michelle M., first saw Stella when a dog that had been abandoned across the street, brought ALL the loose and stray dogs from up and down Michelle's street to her porch. (She notes that most of these dogs had homes -- and were returned home -- or were safely picked up by ACPS and rehomed.)

Stella was in this group of dogs.

"She looked like she had a litter of puppies and she was deathly afraid of people."

Michelle fed her and tried to earn her trust over a period of several months. And then she disappeared for nearly a year.

And then she showed up again, this time looking "fat and clean," so Michelle figured Stella had a home and had just gotten out.

"I didn't see her too often again until June 2022," recounts Michelle. "She was coming around almost every day, and was looking worse and worse."

Michelle managed to follow Stella one day to figure out where she lived. "I followed her.. and the house she went to was boarded up." Michelle adds, "She seemed to be abandoned."

This time, Stella allowed Michelle to catch her. Michelle took her to the Jacksonville Humane Society, where it was decided that Michelle would do a stray hold on Stella at Michelle's home. (JHS was unable to take Stella in at the time.)

After vaccinations and a spay were completed, and Michelle taking Stella to adoption events with no one committing to adopting her, Michelle realized that Stella had already found her forever home.

#FosterFail #BigWinForStella

The Many Looks of Stella

The biggest challenges Michelle had after adopting Stella were her sensitive stomach and getting her used to feeling safe indoors.

"We had a lot of challenges find the right food for her and [one] that also worked for the other dogs, two of which are also sensitive."

Relaxing and opening up indoors was perhaps the bigger challenge. "I had earned her trust while she was outside, but being inside was difficult," relates Michelle. "Once she realized being inside was nice and comfortable, she started opening up more."

Today, Stella is "an extremely silly dog and does some hilarious things."

Stella's favorite things:

Cuddles. She loves to cuddle and will "practically climb into your lap for cuddles."
Car rides
Meeting new people

"Stella officially came into our lives at a hard time, " explains Michelle. "She kind of gave me something to focus on and helped in the grieving process of my mother's passing. She's a shining example of 'things happen for a reason'."