I have been working with abuse cases through my job as a large- and small-animal massage and acupressure therapist for many years. In 2017 I got a call from a friend, a dog trainer, asking me to work with a little dog in their rescue. He and another puppy had been found in a box on the side of the road in South Texas. Their faces were cut up and their throats slit. The other puppy didn't make it, but by some miracle, this little guy, then called Lucky, was alive. He was shut down and scared of everything, and he would "scream" every time something frightened him. Having worked with bait dogs before, I knew what bodywork could do to restore the brain-body connection, so I agreed to take him for a while, and my son and I picked him up one evening in May. He screamed the entire way home, and we looked at each other thinking, "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

Little did we know the instant bond Lucky would form with our Boxer, Tigger, who came from Austin Boxer Rescue. In Tigger, he found safety, and they quickly became inseparable. Once he started feeling safe, it became time to address the scars that had begun healing on their own. They were swollen and red and bothering him, so we booked an appointment with Dr. Bouloy at Cypress Creek Pet Care—one of the kindest, most knowledgeable veterinarians in the business. His patience with Lucky was so heartwarming. Biopsies determined that he had cysts and inflamed tissue under the surface and would need surgery. Dr. Bouloy referred us to Dr. Vansanjee. A fantastic friend funded all the surgeries, and all of his scars were removed. I am forever grateful to the three of them.

The night before his first surgery, I signed the papers to adopt Lucky, renaming him Louie. I wanted him to go into surgery as someone's dog, not as a rescue with no home. He came home looking like Frankenstein. His skin was pulled so tight that we had no idea if it would affect his eyesight. It was three months of painful healing, with holistic salves for his wounds and his skin and many spent just holding him. Tigger was by his new brother’s side through all of it, one snuggle at a time.

Louie’s face has healed as much as it’s going to. His personality is funny and sassy, and the trust he has shown me keeps me humble every day. He is a perfect example of what it means to not get stuck in the past.