Shelters… They’re not such cold and cruel places like we were told. A significant number of official dog shelters do their best to rescue all dogs and completely eliminate the forever sleep list.
Unfortunately, most of these shelters don’t have enough funds, resources, or help to keep all the animals in need. Sometimes, they all have to face the sad truth: someone has to go in order to make room for someone else with a higher chance of survival.
Cooper was a part of this sad statistic. The poor senior German Shepherd has seen better days. He was on the verge of exhaustion, tired of life in pain.
He was defeated by life and knew exactly what was coming his way.
The morning that changed everything surprised everyone, including Cooper and even his future owners.
How Fast Can We Rescue Him?
As someone who was declared as a cat person and scared of dogs, Trisha Bauer often fostered lovely kittens. She never had the courage to get a dog… not even a small one.
Never in a million years did she think that one day, a German Shepherd would be roaming through her home freely.
After suffering a lot of personal tragedy, including having a child fight cancer, Trisha felt like life hit her harder than she could take it. The reality was too bitter to stay in it, so she often scrolled Instagram reels to lighten her mood.
During one of those late-night swipe up moods, Trisha saw a reel featuring a senior German Shepherd. The captions on the reel broke her for good:
“One night, I was on Instagram, and a reel with these words stopped me in my tracks: ‘Tomorrow I die on this cold cement ground all alone,’ and then a picture of a dog came over the video.’”
But, that wasn’t exactly what made Trisha change her mind about dogs.
“The moment my lost eyes saw his in the video, I knew he couldn’t die like this. His eyes looked like mine. Defeated with life.”
Below the reel, Trisha left a comment saying she’d be glad to foster him if that was needed, and then she went to sleep. She never expected the comments she’d see after she woke up.
One of the followers tagged her, saying that Wilbur (Cooper’s former name) would be put to sleep forever within just 30 minutes if no one comes to claim him immediately.
“Without thinking, I jumped up, woke up my daughter, grabbed a cat leash since it’s all we had, and got into the truck to go pick up a random dog I saw on Instagram with the same lost eyes I had.”
The eyes… They never lie!
As soon as Trisha locked eyes with the 12-year-old German Shepherd boy, she knew she was doing the right thing. And, the dog knew he wasn’t going to be put to sleep either. Cooper felt like he was going home.
Home finally found the lost GSD boy.
What Are The Odds?
Immediately upon signing the papers and officially becoming foster pawrents of Cooper, Trisha and her family took Cooper to see their vet. They were concerned about a lump on his neck.
The vet was concerned, too.
It turned out that the abscess on his neck was actually… cancer.
“Our daughter, Lilly, is a cancer survivor, too, and what are the chances this dog with cancer would find us… a family who would do anything to save him, cancer or not? That’s fate,” Trisha said.
But, Cooper was too weak and too skinny for an operation. He had to get better first, and that meant lots of TLC from the Bauer’s.
And, he surely got lots of it because just a few short weeks later, Cooper was ready for the operation.
The brave GSD senior took it like a champ, and even ran down the hallway to his family after recovering from anesthesia.
“Being the miracle boy he is, he didn’t just survive the tumor removal surgery and having half of his neck opened to get to it, but he came running down the hall to meet us after surgery with a look in his eyes I’d never seen before,” Trisha said. “Home. He had home in his eyes.”
A while after the operation, the family found out that Cooper was 100% cancer free. The old boy beat all the odds!
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The Bauers are a brave family of fighters. Life didn’t spoil them. They took everything like true heroes and channeled everything negative that happened to them into something positive. And, that positivity is what keeps them moving forward.
I’d say meeting Cooper over the reels and rushing to rescue him was a sign from above. Heaven sent them a guardian angel because they already gave two angels to Heaven.
Now, it’s time for this little family to enjoy life to the fullest as they wait for their baby boy to see the world. You should definitely follow Cooper, his big hooman sister, Lily, and their parents on Instagram. You’ll laugh, cry, and be inspired by the daily dose of the Bauers.
