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Princess Leia: Origins

The Story of the Perfect Puppy

By Karri RichardsonPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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This is Leia, and of course she is a princess. She is a mix between a Golden Retriever and a German Shepherd, and probably a little bit of other breeds. I have never met a dog like her in my entire life. She has so much spirit and so much love to give that I can't fathom how I am worthy of her.

A little backstory: My boyfriend and I had just moved out of a house with a few roommates and were moving into my mom's place due to high cost of living in Denver. We had been talking about getting a puppy together and looking at which type we should get. Craig (my now fiancé) and I both really love Huskies, so we were looking and trying to find a Husky pup at a shelter. I ended up remembering a shelter that had specifically puppies, most from puppy mills or found on the streets or in bad situations, so I went onto their website to research them a little more. This shelter has adoption times every weekend and all of the puppies go super fast. We were keeping an eye out every weekend for a pup that stood out. One weekend I saw an Australian Shepherd mix that I really wanted, so I sent Craig out while I was at work to go and adopt him. The adoptions start at 11 AM, and apparently you have to be there at 7 AM to get in line. He didn't go until closer to 11 and by the time he got in, the one we were looking at was already adopted. He called and let me know, and said that there was a puppy he had put his name on the visiting list for that he thought was super cute and he really wanted her. He started to tell me about her little bent legs and how she was smaller than her brothers and sisters and how everyone kept passing her up because she looked like her legs would cause a lot of problems. He sent me pictures and I was in love.

I am a huge Star Wars fan, so I knew we needed a girl's name from the series. I wanted something a little more in-depth than the original characters from the movies, but Craig insisted on naming her Leia, and it couldn't be more perfect. Leia lives up to the name: she is fierce and loving, beautiful and demanding. I really mean it when I say demanding; she is a big ball of sass!

When she was about six months old, my stepsister had left the pull-out couch out, and she crawled under it. She ended up hooking her eyelid on a loose hanging spring and it really damaged the inside of her eyelid and that, in turn, started causing ulcers on her eye. At first we thought it was a shard or something stuck in her eye, the vet scraped off a little layer and it wasn't the eye. I took her to an eye specialist who said her eyelid was folded in wrong and causing issues. They had to cut off a sliver of her eyelid and said it would heal curled up, but it didn't. She had to go back in and have it cut and sewn so that it would curl away from her eye. They sewed her inner eyelid shut to protect the eye during healing, too, which was extremely creepy looking. Leia lived in a cone for months and months. I felt so awful but I knew she would be better. Now her eye has a tiny scar on it and she looks like she is opening that eye super wide every now and then, but other than that, no other issues.

Leia is a little over two now, and when we got her they said she was eight weeks, but she ended up being a little under six weeks—they lied just to adopt her out. She was barely old enough to be eating kibble, and her bent legs were from growing on cement and other hard surfaces. I researched it and always had her on carpet or grass, and fed her food that was high in the correct nutrients for her legs to strengthen and straighten. Now we have a perfectly healthy and strong, 50 pound ball of energy. She snuggles like crazy; in fact, she just moved because she wasn't quite close enough to me. She basically lays on top of me at all times. I am never cold!

The past year has been a disaster. Craig and I had to move across the country to Ohio. We were staying with his parents, trying to get on our feet and start a better life. Now, I wont go into detail, but it was not a good place or situation for any of us to be in. Leia wasn't eating right, all the yelling and noises stressed her out beyond belief. She had allergies that she didn't have in Colorado, and even with Benadryl she was biting and scratching so much that she was covered in bruises and scabs. I was the human equivalent of her stress, too. We were not healthy there. I brought Leia back to Colorado with me; unfortunately, Craig is not able to join us back here for awhile, and it was so hard splitting them up. They had an amazing bond since he picked her up at the shelter. And I can tell she misses him a lot. But besides that glimpse I get of her sadness, her skin is healing and she is eating like a little pig. She is getting healthier by the day and I am so happy to see her going back to her original self. All I can wish for now is for our family to be back together and complete as soon as possible.

Until then, I will be snuggling and spoiling my perfect little puppy! And I hope she stays healthy and loving and never loses her attitude, like when I tell her not to do something and she looks at me and lets out a huff. Or when she just looks at me with so much attitude when I don't immediately grab the rope in her mouth. And I will always let her steal my pillows and hog the blanket.

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About the Creator

Karri Richardson

I am a very scattered person, I have many interests and many dreams. I am 26 with a B.S. in Marketing. I work hard to provide a good life for my dog. The last few years of my life have been crazy, trying to find my way in life.

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