MORGAN EDELMAN Staff writer

This is the fourth of a series of eight articles about shelter dogs that have been adopted and found their forever home as told through their eyes. This series is part of a senior capstone project that is meant to raise awareness of the importance of pet adoption.

My name is Bailey, and I am a 4-year-old boxer. Looking at me now you would never know the rough start to life that I had. When I was only one-year-old, I was living on the streets. I was extremely emaciated and my body was full of worms and fleas. My beautiful coat was also bleached from living outside for so long.

One day, these random people found me and brought me to safety. This was the best and worst day of my life because I had a secret that they didn’t know at the time. After the vet examined me, the humans realized that my secret was I had just given birth to a litter of puppies. The nice humans that rescued me went back to try and find my babies, but sadly, they were never found.

I was lucky enough to be brought to the rescue organization, Angels Among Us, where they took amazing care of me. After all my treatments from the vet were done, I was able to start looking for my foster parents. Since I am a purebred boxer, it did not take long for people to start showing interest in me. I ended up going to stay with a family that had another boxer living with them. This made me so happy because I am very social and a big brother was just what I wanted.

My brother and I bonded instantly and my human parents loved me too, so they decided to keep me forever. I have been living with my new family for about three years now, and I couldn’t be happier. My mom tells everyone that it feels like I have always been a part of the family and they couldn’t imagine life without me.

My favorite thing to do now is dig up all of the sticks and roots from my yard. I also love my morning treats from my mom. Even though my life wasn’t all that great in the beginning, it led me to my family now, and I know this is exactly where I was meant to be.

Each year there are approximately 3.9 million dogs that enter shelters and about 1.2 million of those dogs are euthanized. I was lucky enough to make it out alive, but unfortunately, not everyone has the same luck as me. Please take this into consideration the next time you are looking for your new best friend.