ASPCA Happy Tails: A Home of One’s Own

Our loyal readers will remember the fab five poodles who charmed us last year. They were the special pups who needed extra TLC after being rescued—along with nearly 30 other dogs—from a home in Queens, NY. All of these fortunate pooches were adopted, and we recently caught up with the new parent of the fab five’s lone lady, Bonnie. The eight-year-old was beloved at the ASPCA for her affection for other small dogs and calm, collected humans. Now she has a quiet home to call her own.

“My daughter and I first met Bonnie when we visited the ASPCA hoping to get a cat,” explains Patrice Mattia of Manhattan. “We did in fact have a cat in mind who we had seen on the website, but as it turned out, she wasn’t a match for us. My daughter, who had been looking at the dogs, said, ‘What about the little poodle?’ We were able to meet Bonnie that day, and thought she was adorable. I went back the next day to play with her.”

The shy pooch was a perfect match for the family, and they officially welcomed the little lady into their home on August 14. “She is the sweetest little dog in the world,” muses Patrice. “She’s a little on the quiet side, which is fine with me, and her favorite things to do are sleep and eat!” That’s not to say Bonnie’s a bona fide couch potato—she still enjoys her city romps. “Her morning and afternoon walks are energetic, especially if pigeons are around,” Patrice says. “Her night walk is a short ‘walk’ period, just to take care of business, and a long ‘carry’ period—we stay out window-shopping for a long time. She only weighs five pounds, so I swoop her up in my arms.”

Clearly, urban wildlife is still a new and marvelous experience for the previously sheltered lass. “If she’s in the park, she is in heaven and walks and sniffs forever,” notes Patrice. “She almost never barks except when she sees pigeons. Then I think she surprises herself with her own bark, like ‘Where did that come from?’”

Patrice adds: “We totally love her—it feels as though she’s always been with us.”

Courtesy of ASPCA