Marv's Story

This happy go lucky guy has a very sad story to tell. (With a VERY happy ending though)

Mid February a teacher here in Las Vegas, emailed me to tell me what had been happening. Apparently Marvin's owners moved out of their house into another home here in Las Vegas about 8 weeks ago and left him and his poodle mix brother in the backyard. The teacher is the neighbor and once she saw that they have vacated the house completely and that the dogs were still there, she started going over to feed/water and walk the two dogs. Marvin is absolutely as sweet and friendly as can be.. but you can tell from his first photos, he must have been fed (overfed) because he is very overweight. The association of the homes contacted the owners quite a few times and they keep hemming and hawing about whether they are coming back. Some days they say they are coming back for them, others they say they don't want the dogs. The teacher is getting very frustrated as she called Animal Control and Humane Society and apparently here in Nevada, since they were being fed/watered (Even though it is BY the neighbors), they were not "neglected" and since they haven't SOLD the house (Even though it is OBVIOUSLY completely vacant), it was not "technically" considered abandonment. It had been 8 weeks and since they have told the Home Association once again they are not coming back for the dogs, this teacher took in Marvin and her sister took in the poodle mix.

The teacher had two dogs that didn't get along with other dogs, she we had to immediately pick this poor guy up. He went straight to the vet to be thorougly examined. While our vet went in to neutered him, she saw two bumps (from a plant out here in Nevada) on each of his paw that needed to be drained/removed. He had a horrible ear infection and just was in really poor health, all the way around. After 4 days at the vet (being fixed up and boarded) - he was finally able to be sent home to our foster family. Our foster family is actually in Southern Cal, so a friend of ours transported him down to her.

Marv was with the foster family for approximately two weeks, when he went in to get his sutures removed and be weighed. He had already lost 14lbs! Shows what a little exercise and LOVE will do for an animal. About two weeks later, I got an email from Andrea (Our foster family) saying that each and every member of her family did not want to give Marv up. So I am pleased to announce that Marv will be staying PERMANENTLY with her family!

Below is what Andrea wrote about her experience with Marv and how they came to adopt him.

In January 2006, I joined the Lab Board and immediately was attracted to the rescue work being done there. I started following the rescues of Lisa and the LVLR and knew I wanted to help, so my husband and I applied to be foster parents for LVLR. Our first foster doggy was Marv, he came to us after being left in a backyard and he was in pretty bad shape, overweight, ear infection and stitches in his ear and paws. He fit right into our home, never had an accident in the house, took to crate training like a champ. As Marv healed and lost weight, my family and I started facing the reality that he would be adopted soon. We had taken in a 2^nd foster doggy that was adopted out within a week. The night before I delivered our 2^nd foster dog to his forever home, I sat watching the dogs play and my heart started to ache for Marv. Would I be able to give him to his forever home? Well, I just kept telling myself “you are a foster mommy; you will have to give him up”. The next day, we delivered the 2^nd doggy to his home and it was a great experience and a great match. On the way home my husband said to me “you know I really wouldn’t mind adopting Marv”, I thought I was going to burst! Then we came home and each of my kids came to me and asked “Can we keep Marv?” Well there was no need to talk me into it; I already knew he was right for our family, so I emailed Lisa asking to adopt Marv. I can’t say that he is “now” a member of our family, because I think he bounced his way into our family on the first day! I never would have thought of adopting a rescue dog prior to meeting Lisa, but now, I can’t imagine getting a dog any other way.