Barbie Needs a Dream House

We live about 25 minutes outside of Nashville, where the homes are spread farther apart, everyone has a little more room to breathe, and the changing scenery makes it easy to feel each season. It's one of the things we love most about living here. With all that open space comes plenty of wildlife and animals to enjoy and occasionally, a wandering dog or cat. Over the years, we've helped several lost pets reunite with their owners. Some neighborhood dogs even roam freely from time to time. So when we spotted a sweet brown dog walking up our road on a Saturday afternoon, we assumed she belonged to one of our neighbors.

She wouldn't let us get close. Every time we tried, she would dart back into the woods. We did what we usually do and posted a photo of her in our neighborhood group chat (the same one I wrote about in my ice storm post), hoping someone would recognize her. But no one did.

Later that evening, we spotted her walking along our road again. We tried tempting her with food and water, but she kept her distance. She seemed frightened and unsure of strangers, even growling when we got too close.

What we know now, is she was likely abandoned. What we didn't understand at the time was that she wasn't avoiding us because she was aggressive or unfriendly, she was waiting. Waiting for the person who had left her behind to come back.

We shared her photo on local Facebook pages, hoping someone was missing a sweet brown-and-white mixed breed dog, who looked like she recently had puppies. But no one claimed her.

By Sunday morning, she was still there, playing the same game of keeping her distance whenever we got close. We left more food and water in a safe spot off the road and hoped that, eventually, she would begin to trust us.

When I got home that afternoon, my heart immediately dropped. As I pulled up our road, I saw a brown dog lying in the middle of it. I was sure she had been hit by a car.

Thankfully, she was alive. She was simply exhausted, resting in the worst place imaginable - right in the middle of the road at the bottom of a blind curve.

At that point I think she was so tired, she didn't have the energy to run. We carefully slipped a leash over her head, bribed her with pieces of a bagel, and got her into our car. For the first time in at least two days, she was safe, cool, and out of danger.

Every other time we've found a lost dog, we've been able to reunite them with their owner almost immediately - either through an ID tag on their collar or a quick post on Facebook. Since we had already exhausted those options, we figured the next step was to take her to Metro Animal Care and Control (MACC). If you've ever read a post about a found dog on social media, that's usually the advice everyone gives. What we didn't realize was that MACC was full.

We arrived less than 30 minutes before closing and were told there simply wasn't room to take her. They gave us a list of local rescues and organizations that might be able to help, so we started driving.

Over the next several hours, we visited two rescues, only to learn that neither could take in found dogs the way MACC does. Most rely on foster networks, which take time to coordinate. We also drove her to two emergency vets to have her scanned for a microchip and checked for any medical issues that would require immediate care.

She had no microchip. And despite spending at least two days outside, she was surprisingly healthy.

Four hours after we first loaded her into the car, we felt defeated. With nowhere else for her to go, we decided it was up to us to keep her safe for the night and try again in the morning.

We set her up with food, water, and a pile of blankets. Within minutes, she was sound asleep.

The next morning, I jumped on my computer and I emailed every rescue on the list MACC had provided, called the organizations that had phone numbers, and continued posting anywhere I could think of online. MACC was still full and explained that availability can change by the hour depending on adoptions, owner reunifications, rescue pulls, and incoming animals.

One thing became clear very quickly: Facebook is still one of the most powerful tools for finding lost and found pets.

One of the most recommended groups in the Nashville area is "Skippy Lou's Lost and Found Pets." After spending hours feeling like I was getting nowhere, I made a post asking a simple question: What do you do when you've found a dog with no owner, no microchip, nowhere to take them, and no great setup to keep them long-term?

That was exactly our situation. We live in a smaller home with two antisocial dogs, and we didn't have a great setup for safely keeping everyone separated for a long period of time.

Almost immediately, one of the group's moderators reached out and connected me with a volunteer from Wags & Walks Nashville.

The moderator told me the need is overwhelming. Shelters are full, rescues are stretched thin, and many lost dogs are never reunited with their owners because they have no identification and no microchip. She told me some of these dogs absolutely belong to someone, but without a way to identify them, and with some owners not on social media, the chances of reconnecting them becomes much harder.

Wags & Walks was already an organization I admired. I'd followed their work for years, and I personally know several people who fostered or adopted through them. What I didn't realize was how much of their work happens behind the scenes, helping dogs like this one find a safe place to land.

Before this experience, I don't think I fully understood everything that goes into rescue work.

It's not as simple as taking in a lost dog, posting a photo online, and waiting for an adopter. They need to evaluate the dog, do a full exam and provide any needed medical care, medications or update vaccines. It's providing supplies to whoever is caring for the dog while they work to place them with a foster; food, toys, dog bowls, treats, leashes, crates, etc. Then it's working hard to get a foster who has room in their home, matched with that pup.

Watching it unfold gave me a whole new appreciation for the amount of coordination, compassion, and hard work required to help just one dog find safety. And if you look at the Wags & Walks website, you'll see they're helping a lot of dogs.

We ended up having Bear, as I named her because she was a mama bear and loved to snuggle, for an entire week.

In that short time, she became part of our routine. She fell in love with Tilly and Fleet, chasing them around the yard, curling up beside them on the couch, and soaking up every scratch and belly rub she could get. We fell in love with her too: her happy-go-lucky personality, her constant smile, and joy she found being near us just sitting outside or walking around the property. She was just happy to be included.

Exactly one week after we got her into our car and off the side of the road, we loaded her up again to bring her to her new foster home.

We met her new foster family at their home in Nashville, a sweet young couple with a warm home and another dog for her to play with.

A few hours after we dropped her off, they sent us a photo. It showed her curled up on the couch, completely at home.

For the first time since we had spotted her wandering our road alone, I felt she was exactly where she needed to be.

It's only a temporary stop. But for now she's safe, loved, and surrounded by people who are helping her find the forever family she deserves.

I've found myself checking the Wags & Walks website almost every day since then, hoping to see her pop up - ready for adoption. Today, I finally did.

Bear is now listed for adoption under a new name, Barbie. (Apparently there was already another Bear in the program.)

Seeing her face on the website made me smile. Just over two weeks ago, she was lying exhausted in the middle of our road, scared and alone. Today, she's healthy, safe, and one step closer to finding the family that will love her for the rest of her life.