Early last year, a lovely batch of puppies arrived at Caring Hands Humane Society as strays.
There were five in the litter — two red, two black and one brown, with medium-length hair of waves and “poodle eyes.”
There were obvious poodle mixes — adorable as they possibly could be!
The litter was outgoing, loving everyone who came in to see them unconditionally. And happily, all pups went to loving homes.
One little brown pup named Kara was renamed Molly in her new home.
Molly enjoyed her life on the farm and was taken care of exceptionally well, even having her own heated shed. Over time, she grew bored, as a youngster can easily do. She became a heavy barker, barking all night at the cows and horses, as well as destructive.
Her adopters reached out to us, but it became too much and she was returned to Caring Hands 10 months after she was adopted.
Molly, being a year old, had become a large, powerful dog. All grown up, hair long and wavy, still with those light amber, beautiful poodle eyes.
Molly was gorgeous and highly intelligent. She quickly wanted to learn whatever we had to throw her way! She was a sponge!
Immediately, the picture taking came — and how could I resist?
With the magnitude of those eyes and the beautiful wavy, brown hair with blonde highlights? She was a natural. I’d simply lift the camera to my face and she’d sit immediately.
I do believe she was born for the camera. Of course, the trainer in me says the camera moving towards the face had become a “hand signal” for sit, so she naturally did just that. She loved the camera!
A couple weeks after her arrival, I received an email inquiring about this lovely lady that had been spotted through Petfinder.com, a Web site to assist you in finding your next pet.
“Do you adopt out of state? Do you ship dogs?”
I politely answered, “Yes, we adopt out of state.” And “We prefer face-to-face meetings, in person for adoption.”
Over the next day or two, there was a string of e-mails until one day I received a phone call from the lady behind the e-mails, Debbie Pearl. It was one of those phone calls you’d never conceive you’d have. She spilled the beans about who she was, her company and what she was looking for.
Debbie owns the company Paws For Effect. It is a company based out of Los Angeles that trains dogs to be in movies and commercials, etc.
And she was looking at our very own Molly. Yes, you read that right! She was looking for a labradoodle that nearly identically matched her brown labradoodle named Austin, and she was pretty sure she had found it in Molly.
She began having me do little tasks with Molly, and I was happy to oblige. I took her out back to throw the ball, noting how interested she was. I observed how she was with strangers. I measured her height, not once, not twice but three times! I took hundreds of pictures (which Molly loved by the way!) and I spent a lot of time trying to make her ears perk forwards. All seemingly a bit strange at first to me, but understandable because Los Angeles is 1,400-plus miles away. It became my job to make sure the proper match was happening — a job I truly enjoy.
Spending so much time with Molly, and after several e-mails and phone calls with Debbie, I was confident this was a great match. Her application to adopt was approved, but how do we get her there?
Molly would have to fly to California via the Tulsa, Okla., airport!
April 5 was Molly’s van and plane ride across the country. We all waited for the next morning so we could hear how it all went for our little superstar!
Debbie said when Molly got off the plane, she came right out of the crate and licked her hands all over, sat down for the camera (of course she whipped that out right away!) and looked right at Debbie as she sniffed the air, with a goofy look on her face.
We speculated she was wondering why she smelled the salty water in the air, as opposed to all the pollen and the country air!
But much to Molly’s personality, she didn't care! She was happy as always and was content to just tag along to wherever she was going next.
She played with a golden retriever and a terrier mix when she arrived home. She met all the dogs in the house and did exceptionally well!
She absolutely adores the golden, who is very similar in age, and the two have become fast friends.
Within her first 24 hours of arriving in L.A., Austin, the labradoodle, had an audition and she planned to take Molly along.
I’ve been blogging about her journey thus far. This will be an open-ended blog, continuing on with Molly’s adventures and successes via Caring Hands’ Facebook page. You can relive this or follow along here by viewing the “notes” section at www.facebook.come/CaringHandsHumaneSociety.
It isn’t common for someone to move to L.A. to be in the movies, and I can’t think of another time in Newton where a canine did just that!
Molly has made Newton history!
We have “Paw-tographs” at Caring Hands Humane Society, 1400 S.E. Third St., for those who would like a souvenir from L.A.’s new star! Donations are appreciated.
A note from Debbie: “Molly is wonderful and did fantastic on set. She wasn’t fazed by anything and seemed to take everything in stride, quite amazing for a dog who just got off a plane and has relocated in not even one day. She is highly intelligent, and both myself and my other trainer who was with me were extremely impressed by her. We will all be fighting over who gets to train her!”
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Lori Smith is kennel manager, training/behavior consultant and foster coordinator for Caring Hands Humane Society in Newton. The shelter, 1400 S.E.Third St., is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; and from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays. Caring Hands can be contacted at 283-0839 or www.caringhandshs.org.
