MORGAN EDELMAN Staff writer

This is the seventh 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 Nova and I am an 11-month-old Staffordshire bull terrier mix. When I was only a few months old I was rescued by Gwinnett County Animal Services and brought to the shelter. I don’t really remember much about my life before the shelter because I was so young, but I am happy that I was taken away from my old family when I was so young.

While I was living in the shelter, I was housed beside a dog that was very sick. She had tested positive for parvovirus, which is a highly contagious viral disease that is life threatening. Since her disease was so contagious, our section of the shelter was quarantined for two weeks so that the virus wouldn’t spread to anyone else. That was two whole weeks I had to sit in the shelter without any chance of being adopted because the humans didn’t know if I was sick or not.

Luckily, as soon as I was put up for adoption, my new mom found me and adopted me immediately. Since I have been living in my new home with my mom she has been working with me on learning where I can go potty and what proper manners are. She understands that I am still a baby and it is going to take some time for me to learn, but I am trying my best.

When my mom adopted me, she already had a dog named Jax, so I gained a big brother. One of the reasons my mom adopted me was to help him come out of his shell and I have been very good at that. I make him play with me all day and we have come to love each other very much.

My favorite things to do now are play with my brother at the river and play fetch with my mom with my favorite bumblebee toy. The past five months of living with my mom and brother have been amazing and I couldn’t imagine my life any other way.

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.