One year ago, Reddit user goldie0702 made everyone’s hearts swell with before and after photos titled “What a difference one day can make. Meet Spokey!”
The pictures showed a forlorn dog in a shelter, head hung low as though she’d simply given up, alongside the smiling post-adoption snapshot.
They received almost 1.7 million views.
Now that Spokey and her family have gotten to know each other, they decided it would only be right to share a little more of the story.
Spokey met her humans for the first time at the Maryland SPCA; she had been found in rural West Virginia twenty pounds underweight, and showed clear signs of having been a mom in the past. Her owner wrote:
We fell in love with her the minute we saw her, and returned to the SPCA every day until she was available for adoption.
When the new pup parents took their best friend home, it was a bit of a roller coaster ride. But with help from the shelter and so many amazingly supportive comments from Reddit users, they got Spokey to come out of her shell. The post read:
She is very calm-tempered, but is both mesmerized and terrified of vehicles as they drive past her. We are having some trouble getting her to eat and drink, but we are told that can be normal with rescue pups.
She got the hang of it pretty quickly, it seemed.
She sheds more than ANY dog I’ve ever had! And when its all over, she stares at me as though I have wronged generations of her family.
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And don’t even get them started on the sleeping arrangements. Forget getting up to get a snack or use the bathroom—she will know, because this girl can’t snooze unless she’s touching someone.
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Things worked out pretty well for Spokey, after a somewhat mysterious and difficult past. She proves to us that rescue dogs are miraculous in and of themselves, and the effort we put in makes us better people overall.
“Spokey is happiest, silliest, most loving dog I’ve ever had,” her human wrote. “[She] has made my life 100% better. I couldn’t be happier that she was brought into my life.”
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Fast-forward one whole year with a loving family, and Spokey is a completely different dog. In fact, she’s sort of a drama queen.
“This is Spokey’s version of ‘spending time outdoors,'” her human wrote. “Nothing like enjoying a bright sunny day with a puffy doggy bed and all of her food and toys.”
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The only time Spokey ever truly looks upset, her owner notes, is when she gets brushed.