A Family Rehomed 🏠🇨🇦

Charlie and Angel.

In recent months, we’ve had a whole family of 5 of our dogs fly overseas to find forever homes in Canada. 

Even before this gorgeous family came to be, their mother Falah, had an extraordinary journey of her own, which we recently posted on our social media. 

Pregnant, and saved moments before being loaded onto a meat trade truck in rural China, she underwent a harrowing journey of hopping around and living in low quality conditions. 

Falah, after rescue.

Her original rescuer couldn’t take her in because people were angry the woman was taking in more rescue dogs in her already overpopulated household.

Worried the dogs would be attacked, she moved Falah to an old shop space, overseen by an owner who didn't want them there.

Here Falah gave birth to her children - Cooper, Sasha, Max, Angel and Charlie.

The presence of Falah and her babies eventually became too much, and another place to stay had to be arranged. 

Although Falah had been spared from the meat trade back in March 2020, the pandemic meant that transporting them took a lot longer.  

It was months before a car could be arranged to take them to their new boarding place. And soon afterwards, one of the partners who ran that shelter got hospitalized.

Now with 1 person looking after 80 dogs, it was difficult for Falah and her babies to get the socializing they needed. 

A year had passed since her initial rescue when we finally had our shelter.

By this point, the babies were timid and afraid of other dogs and humans.

We took them in and although it was challenging to get them socialized, we persevered. It took over 3 months to leash train them and make them touchable. 

Over the span of months, we were able to start getting them used to other dogs and people. They started to enjoy socializing, and playtime, which they hadn’t experienced before. 

Five siblings at the shelter.

The size of these beautiful dogs meant that they weren’t very easily adoptable in China, due to living space restrictions, so we decided to find them homes overseas in Canada. 

We quickly found an adoptive home for Cooper, a wonderful young couple near Vancouver. They’ve been a perfect match for each other and have enjoyed many little outdoor adventures as a family.

Cooper. (Courtesy of Stacy Johnson).

You can read all about their adventures in the Lady Freethinker article here, and even follow Cooper’s dedicated instagram here. 

On the same rescue flight was Cooper’s sister, Sasha. While she didn’t have an adoptive family lined up just yet, she had a temporary foster family who were eager to take her in and love her.

And they did, until one day Sasha got off her leash and ran away. 

We hired Al from petsearchers to find her, and he spent many days tracking her back and forth across the Canadian-US border.

It was a tense time full of uncertainty and fear but finally, after weeks, he was able to rescue her.

Max had a similar story. Although he adored his foster mom of two months, one morning when she dropped into the store, Max decided to bolt. 

Unfortunately, rescues running away is not uncommon, and so foster and adoptive families are cautioned to be extra watchful and careful with their pup at all times.

There was another full-scale search launched but thankfully he was found 9 days later.

Max, Sasha and Cooper. (Courtesy of Stacy Johnson).

We were very lucky this time that both dogs were found safe and unharmed. 

This family is doing much better, their mom in China has become a foster mom to some of the puppies in the shelter, her son Cooper is thriving with his new family, while her other 4 biological children are still waiting for their forever homes.

They’re such beautiful dogs that, we’re optimistic that they’re going to find their perfect homes in no time.

Their story is just one example of what it takes to conduct international rescues. International rescue is incredibly challenging, especially in China during COVID-19.

There were so many obstacles and challenges we had to overcome in order for them to be adopted overseas - it ended up taking 2 years in total. 

But through sheer effort and willpower, we managed to remain calm and get them to safe homes. 

We would like to give a big thank you to Lady Freethinker for sponsoring the flight that brought these beautiful dogs to Canada, and Rescue Paws for their help connecting them to their families.

These dogs were 5 of the lucky ones.

Right now their mother remains in China, recovering from a life that was very traumatizing. However, when she's ready, she will join her babies in Canada.

Falah, today.