DALLAS (KDAF) — A lot of people jump at the chance to adopt a brand-new puppy, but what about those animals who have been left behind?
Perhaps they are in their later years and need some love. Well, there are a couple of ladies in Dallas who have taken it upon themselves to do bucket lists for animals who are in their final weeks or months of life.
Inside DFW host Jenny Anchondo got them some treats and paid them a visit to check off some bucket list items with them.
Lauren Siler created the Instagram account, Dallas Animal Foster, which thing has blown up and people are loving what she is doing for these sweet sweet dogs.
It feels like this sort of hospice opportunity for dogs at the end of their lives.
“I was actually in Anchorage, Alaska, and on my way back home from a family trip, I saw Annie’s picture at the shelter and it just broke my heart,” Lauren said. “I flew all the way back to DFW. My roommate and best friend Lisa picked me up from the airport. I showed her her picture, and the rest is kind of history.”
From there Lauren was determined to find Annie, searching through all of North Texas to find out how she could adopt this sweet old dog.
“I had to go down a rabbit hole to figure out which rescue group was able to tag Annie and get her out of the shelter. That is where The Powerful Rescue came in. I reached out to them. They were looking for a foster, so I said, ‘Bring me Annie.’ And they did,” Lauren said.
As life turned out, Lauren wasn’t only going to be taking care of one older pup.
“Then a couple of months later, they called in and asked if we were able to take Tippy. So we just became the retirement home for old dogs,” Lauren said.
Lauren projected that she only had about a month left of love to give Annie before she passed, so she got to work, giving her the best life a dog could ever ask for.
“With Annie, we thought we had a month with her and so it was like, ‘How can we make this month action-packed and full of fun for her?’ We started with a birthday party. We don’t know when her birthday is, but we just threw her a birthday party. We did Christmas in July. We did Valentine’s Day in August. We did a lot of different bucket list things,” Lauren said.
The love was contagious. People on Instagram have taken a loving to Annie with Dallas Animal Fosters garnering more than 19,000 followers.
“On Instagram people just like really got behind the fun the Annie was having, and showing her like what all the great things in life were and can be,” Lauren said.
The bucket list still goes on, so if you haven’t caught onto the movement just yet, you still have time.
For more heartwarming bucket lists posts with Lauren, Annie and Tippy, you can follow them at @dallasanimalfoster on Instagram.