How We Adopted Our Rescue Dog– Mochi! October Recap

Our lives got a whole lot happier in October with the arrival of our newest family member– Mochi. A bit of a back story. My husband and I got a dog together when we were in our early twenties who was born on our 1 year anniversary. He’s a 4 pound Yorkie Chihuahua mix named Jake. He was our baby, and when real human babies entered our family… he was not impressed. Jake is now 15 years old. The kids adore him, but he’s not the best with them. He’s small, fragile and nippy. They love and respect him, but he doesn’t play with them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the kids say “I wish Jake would play with us! I wish Jake would fetch!”

Jake in his heyday.

At the beginning of September, we were visiting my great uncle’s house and the kids were playing with his schnauzer, Zooey. The look on the kids faces as they ran around the yard with the dog and threw sticks for her to fetch was magical. The Hubs and I looked at each other and said “Look at them! They are so happy. Is it time to add another dog to our family?”

We kind of left the idea hanging there (well The Hubs did at least), but I started to join different rescue groups on Facebook and paying attention to the different dogs that went up for adoption. I kept it in the back of my mind as a “one day” possibility, but I had heard from friends how hard it can be to adopt a rescue dog. I had heard of people giving up after putting in applications for over a year!  

Then, one week before Canadian Thanksgiving, one of my friends messaged me with a link to a listing for someone re-homing a dog. She had noticed that I had been joining rescue groups and saw a dog who she thought might be a good fit for us. I immediately messaged the woman rehoming the dog and started chatting with her. We went back and forth for a few days but I ended up making the decision to let the dog go because it didn’t feel like the right fit for our family. Around the same time I started talking to the woman, I noticed this sweet little face on a rescue page and fell immediately in love. 

While I was going back and forth talking to the other woman, I kept going back to the rescue page and looking at his profile. His name was Mo, and his listing which had been up for 2 months before I saw it said that he was a beloved family pet who was having to be rehomed because of a medical situation with his family. It said that he was a 3 years old Maltese Terrier who was good with kids, good with other dogs, and very intelligent. I didn’t even know if he was still available, but on the day that I decided to pass on the other dog, I sat down and filled out an application for sweet Mo. It took me over an hour to fill out. I poured my heart into it. I told myself that I should just forget about the application and not get my hopes up, but something in my gut (and heart) was telling me that Mo was meant to join our family. 

The next day, Thursday, my phone rang and it was the rescue organization. They said that they had planned on placing Mo that weekend with another applicant but that they had gotten my application and that it spoke to them. They asked if we could do a phone interview. We chatted on the phone for half an hour and at the end I was told that I had given them a lot to consider and that they needed to discuss it as a team and get back to me. They said that they would for sure put us as a backup for if the other application fell through  and promised to keep us updated. I tried to downplay it with the kids and not get any of our hopes up.

The next day, Friday, I received another call from the rescue organization. I was told that after reading our application and getting to know me better on my phone interview that they felt like we were the strongest applicants for Mo. They asked if we could meet him the next day and were told that we were now in the #1 applicant spot with the other applicant as backup.

As we prepared the kids for meeting Mo the next day, I told them not get their hopes up and explained that everything happens for a reason. I told them “Maybe they will end up choosing the other family to be Mo’s family. If that happens we have to trust that there is a reason behind it. Maybe there is another little dog on his way to the rescue group that is the dog who is meant to be with us. We have to trust that everything happens for a reason and that whatever is meant to be will happen.” 

Saturday we woke up with butterflies in our stomach and went to meet Mo, his family and the rescue organizers at a park about half an hour from our home. Mo was a little bit skittish and shy but I could see by looking into his eyes what a sweet, smart and loving dog he was. They asked us to take Mo for a walk around the park and the rescue organizers and owner stayed behind to talk. When we came back we were told that if we wanted to proceed that we could have a home visit the following day. Bean and I immediately said yes, while The Hubs was more practical and said that we should talk about it privately as a family first and get back to them later in the afternoon.

Bean meeting Mo for the first time.

The next day, Sunday which also happened to be Thanksgiving, we were paid a visit by the rescue organizers to make sure that our home was suitable for Mo. We were approved and waited anxiously overnight to hear when Mo was going to come and live with us.

The following day, Monday, we got the call that we could go and pick up our new family member! And that’s the story of how sweet Mo came to live with us!!! 

The day that Mo became a member of our family.

When we walked in the door for the first time with the two dogs, The Hubs stopped and looked at me and said “How did this all happen? How do we have two dogs?”

Our two boys.

It was all such a whirlwind! I had expected that it would take a long, long time to find our newest family member, but somehow, everything just fell into place! 

Mo had over 60 applications placed for him between August and October. Our application was the last one that they received, long after they thought they were done receiving applications, and something about it spoke to them. I keep thinking about that and how everything happens for a reason. If I had sent in my application even a few days later, Mo would have probably already been adopted by another family! If my friend hadn’t messaged me about the other dog, we wouldn’t have Mo in our lives. 

Yesterday was the 1 month anniversary of when Mo joined our family. He seems like he has been with us forever. He is loyal, loving, has the sweetest little personality and is so smart. He is so intuitive when it comes to reading people’s emotions and knowing who needs a cuddle or some love. We started pet training classes with him 1 week after he came to live with us and he has picked up his new commands so quickly. Yesterday we taught him how to shake a paw in less than 60 seconds! Our goal is to do agility classes with him and I’d love to take some service dog classes as well. I think he would be a wonderful dog to do hospital visits to cheer people up. 

We renamed Mo, Mochi but we still call him Mo for short. He and Jake get along great and his presence seems to have given our little old man some new life! 

Mochi has bonded with us all, but you can tell that he is especially loyal to Bean. As soon as she starts to walk up the stairs at night to go to bed, he races up behind her and jumps on her bed. He curls up with her and only gets up if she does. He stays with her all night long until she gets up in the morning to get ready for the day. He’s been such a great source of emotional comfort for her. Her teacher even called him Bean’s emotional therapy dog. 

Every single day I think about how thankful I am to have Mo in our lives and about how everything happens for a reason and how important it is to listen to that voice and trust that the right thing will happen. 

And that is the story of how we adopted our sweet little rescue dog Mochi. 

Ready to hear about some more things I loved about October? Read on! 

October Recap From Hello Creative Family

(The following links may contain affiliate links, that means that if you buy something I get a small percentage of the sale. )

Read-

The Circle by Dave Eggers- I still haven’t fully digested how I felt about this book. I loved the setting of the book and the parts about the community of working at a global tech company, but I wasn’t crazy about the main character.

Listening to-

Song on Repeat- Feels by Calvin Harris featuring Pharrell and Katy Perry

Watching-

Life in Pieces

Brooklyn 99

Loving-

Crafting with friends at home and at 4 Cats, drawing and making stamps of those drawings with my Silhouette Mint. 

Tell me… Have you ever adopted a rescue animal? What was your experience like? Have you read, watched or listened to anything really great recently? Leave a comment and let me know! I love to hear from you!