Phoenix was a 3 year old purebred female golden retriever from North Carolina. Phoenix’s former owners moved out of their home while it was being remodeled, leaving her chained to a post in her yard. The length of her chain left her restricted to an 8’ X 8’ concrete pad with absolutely no shelter except for the bottom of the deck above her. If that wasn’t bad enough, the only water she had was the filthy water she could barely reach from stepping on the swimming pool cover and, according to her first vet, it appeared she had no food at all for at least 4 and possibly as much as 6 weeks! The food and water bowls filled with leaves, dirt and debris tell a story of total neglect (and misery). Fortunately a good samaritan found out about Phoenix’s living conditions and was able to convince her owners to give her up. This wonderful good samaritan then contacted a golden rescue in North Carolina and they saved this little poor girl. An immediate trip to the vet showed that she had absolutely no body fat and virtually no muscle mass … her body had been burning all the available muscle tissue to stay alive. She needed to gain approximately 30lbs + so she had lost almost 50% of her body weight to starvation. Amazingly, Phoenix was both heartworm and fecal negative and her blood work showed that, other than being slightly anemic (no surprise there), she was in good health and just needed to get a lot of high quality food into her and lots of love and TLC. She was just a great all around dog doing well in her foster home in North Carolina — then the storms came. It turns out Phoenix was severely thunderphobic so there went her foster home. Our friends at the North Carolina golden rescue asked us to help Phoenix — knowing we have more foster homes than they do and of course we said yes. Phoenix then began life in her new foster home and quickly bonded. We had an app from Florida interested that agreed after speaking that with all the storms Florida would not be the best place for her. Phoenix’s new home had to be absolutely perfect, especially after all she had been through. We knew she got along with dogs but quickly discovered that Phoenix thrives around children! So, a home with a children was a must for this girl. A family came along and sounded like the perfect fit! At the first meeting the foster said it was love at first site. Phoenix will now have a 2 year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel brother, an 11 year old human brother and a 7 year old human sister to play with. She will also have a stay at home mommy so if one of those scary storms pop up she will have someone there to comfort her. Congratulations on your forever home Phoenix!