When Tom Met Sara

Tom Mylar was a man in need of a senior dog. Some may wonder why anyone would “need” a senior dog, but for Tom, it was all about balance. He’d just lost Dawson, the senior dog he’d adopted a few years ago from the St. Louis Senior Dog Project. Now he was down to his two younger dogs, and things just didn’t feel right.

“There was a void in my household with just the two younger dogs. I needed an older dog to provide some balance.” Tom explains what he means by “balance” in this context. “Perhaps it’s a sense of maturity, of greater contentment, of wisdom even – hard to say.”

Tom also has a soft spot for senior dogs and figures he always has room for at least one. He’d already loved and lost two senior dogs from the St. Louis Senior Dog Project. Now he was back to look for another.

Sara was a plain black dog with a grey muzzle. She’d spent most of her nine years at the end of a chain with only a shed for shelter. Now she was safe in a foster home, learning about a new way of life, a life of comfort and love. Sara had survived her past; now she needed a future.

We brought Sara to her first adoption event not expecting much. We just hoped the situation wouldn’t be too stressful for her.

Then Tom met Sara.

As for the balance Tom wanted, he says, “Sara provides it. Having come from a situation where she was forced to find comfort sleeping within a woodshed at night, Sara seems to really appreciate where she is now. She wags her tail a LOT. She is quite content and happy. And thanks to Sara, so am I.”

Ellen Ellick
St. Louis, MO