18 December 2008, an emaciated black dog -- Border Collie mix according to the HSPCA evaluators -- is surrendered by someone who "found her" (i.e., probably the owner unloading his dog). After evaluation, she is named "Faith" and placed online for adoption. No one has noticed she's pregnant.
9 January 2009, still unadopted, she begins labor. She is pulled offline and gives birth to 8 pups. Mother and pups are placed in foster care until they are old enough for adoption. Foster family renames her "Twilight."
7 March, Twilight and her litter are brought back to the shelter. Pups are adopted within a few hours of going online--some will not live a year and others will end up like their mother, in a shelter... if they are lucky. Only 1 in 10 pups born finds a stable forever home. Spay and neuter!
14 March, still lactating, Twilight cannot be put online for adoption nor spayed for 2 more weeks. Overcrowding of the shelter's holding pens makes a skinny, lactating, shy dog a likely candidate to be pulled offline for euthanasia to make room for more adoptable newcomers. Chris and I agree to foster her.
31 March, she is spayed and we take her back to "recover" hoping to find a better home than the Russian roulette of a shelteris likely to provide. We rename her "Astra" --Brahma's unerring missile-- because, as she gains strength, she proves to be the fastest dog at the Bark Park.
Two months go by. In shelter lingo, Astra is a DOD, dime-a-dozen black mix breed; no one responds to our adoption ads.
1 June, Astra is adopted by us. Resident canines Farhaan and Magnus, felines Pertinax, Calpurnia, and Basmah; Tulsa felines Montecor, Antares, Minutia, Rocky, and Simba; and human step-siblings David and Samantha Liner, welcome Astra to the Liner-Proubasta family.
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