Many years ago I was in a relationship with someone who desperately wanted a Samoyed.  Having already been fully engaged in animal rescue at that time I had a really difficult time with the knowledge that in his mind only a purebred Samoyed would do, still, he had an important occasion coming up and all he wanted for a present was a Samoyed puppy.  I did tons of research, interviewed dozens of breeders and talked with veterinarians before I settled on a particular puppy.  Truly she turned out to be one of the greatest dogs I've ever lost my heart to.

About two months after we opened our hearts and home to Ivory I received a call from my very upset boyfriend who was at the mall and happened to wander into a pet store only to come across a Samoyed puppy obviously in distress.  I rushed down to see for myself and found a male puppy of about the same age as our rambunctious 4-month-old puppy at home but who could barely stand and could not walk unassisted because he'd spent his entire life in a cage.  My heart broke into tiny pieces at that moment.  After calls to my vet, the ASPCA, local news reporters and an attorney we walked out with that puppy.  It was not long until that particular "mall pet store" was shut down for cruelty.

Frosty had issues.  OK, that's a vast understatement.  I spent many hundreds of dollars just making him live, then hundreds more rehabilitating him.  While his life was cut short due to genetic defects he still was able to grow into a happy and relatively-healthy dog.  We were devastated when he died but knew we'd given him a far better life than what he could have had if we'd not taken him from the deplorable conditions we found him in.

Truly this was a tale of two dogs.  Don't support puppy mills by purchasing puppies from pet stores.