Josie is a 5 year old purebred female golden retriever that originally came to us from South Carolina. A golden rescue there took Josie in from the shelter. The story was that the husband made the wife drop her off at the shelter. The rescue briefly had her in a foster home and thought she had mega-esophagus and thyroid disease and immediately classified her as a special needs girl. They were unable to help her and they asked us to take her because we have deeper resources. We did and we immediately took her to one of our vets and had tests done and found out she did NOT have mega-esophagus disease! She only has a low thyroid with the help of thyroid meds it would pose a problem. Josie was adopted out to a family in Hawkinsville around Halloween. However, on November 25th, Josie pulled the retractable leash (never use one of those on a large dog) out of her owner’s hand and ran away. She was missing for 2 weeks. We sent over 20 volunteers down to Hawkinsville putting “Lost Dog” posters throughout the town. One of our volunteers paid for an ad in the local newspaper and we offered a $1,000 reward for her safe return. We got Josie back thanks to the people who spread the word and raised funds for her reward money. She has lost 20 pounds and had hundreds of deer ticks on her, but is now doing well after our vet staff stayed after hours to bath her and de-tick her and give her much needed medical care. Josie is back on her thyroid meds and doesn’t need to lose any more weight! We promised Josie she was going to be an Atlanta girl and live closer to us and with the help of one of our very dedicated volunteered, that promise is now Josie’s dream come true. Considering her journey we knew that whoever adopted Josie this time around, would have lots of Josie Guardian Angels hovering around! Thankfully, one of her (and our) very own Guardian Angels decided to make Josie her own. Now Josie is living the life with her new mom, her new golden sister and all the love, kindness, dedication and patience a golden lover has to offer!