Shelter dog finally has a home after heartbreaking loss

Transcript

00:00 At the shelter, she was pressing her body up against the cage, just looking for pets.

00:04 I'm Nicole and this is Reena's story for GeoBeats.

00:08 I'm sorry, you can't come with us, honey. I'm so sorry.

00:11 She was found as a stray dog out in the DC area and eventually someone adopted her.

00:17 And unfortunately, after a year of being adopted, that person passed away

00:21 and their children tried to step in and take her on, but their housing wouldn't allow it.

00:27 So she ended up back in the DC shelters and Reena wasn't having a lot of success

00:31 getting adopted in DC and they sent her up to New Jersey.

00:34 And she came into our life through my past dog, Trixie.

00:38 When Trixie had passed, my brother and I went back to the shelter that we got her from

00:42 to drop off donations. And as we were walking through,

00:45 Reena was the only dog that wasn't barking and it was a packed Saturday.

00:48 So there were people all around and she was just sitting there

00:50 looking for someone to come pet her. Trixie was also the only dog in the shelter

00:55 who was not barking. Oh my goodness.

00:57 So that really spoke to me because she reminded me of my last dog.

01:00 Hi, you ready? A week later, I signed up for a field trip,

01:03 which means you can take the dog out for a couple of hours during the day,

01:06 give them a break from the shelter. Do you know of anyone?

01:09 I brought her into my apartment. She immediately jumped up on the couch,

01:13 started kissing my boyfriend. She just was very happy to be in a house.

01:16 And so after talking it over with my boyfriend, we decided we're going to keep her.

01:23 The first part of her life was living on the streets and I don't think she fully got the

01:26 puppiness out of her. So we are experiencing a lot of high energy and we're adjusting to that

01:31 because we are used to senior dogs who just sleep all day. And this one likes to play a lot.

01:36 I don't know if you can see the rest of her, but her body is kind of like a cow.

01:45 My friends describe her as a chocolate cow because she does look like one.

01:48 And then she has these cute little floppy ears. When she walks, they just flop in the wind.

01:52 It's the cutest thing. She loves the same toys that Trixie loved. Some of them we still have

01:56 scattered throughout the house. Trixie passed away earlier this year. She was 12. It's interesting.

02:01 Trixie had specific spots outside that she always gravitated towards. And sometimes I'll catch Rina

02:07 near those spots, just sniffing around. So it's almost like, does she feel that Trixie was there

02:11 at one point? I'm really happy that she came into our lives. She gravitates towards the people who

02:16 need her a little bit more in that specific moment. Hello. For example, I brought her over

02:21 to my mom's a couple of weeks ago and she had a really bad day at work, which is very stressful.

02:25 And Rina just went up to her and sat right next to her on the couch. Didn't even look back at me.

02:29 She's so sweet. I mean, look at her. She's just a little floppy ear. The first three months that

02:35 we had her, we never heard her bark. She is fully broken out of her shell now. So she does like to

02:39 speak to us. If we're not giving her enough attention, she'll do like a little whisper

02:43 bark, like a soft bark, like, "Hey, you need to play with me?" My old dog, Trixie, the meaning

02:47 of her name meant joy. And if you Google the name Rina, it also means joy. Pretty, pretty.

02:53 So the fact that the two dogs had the same meaning in their name, it felt like Trixie sent us this

02:57 dog.