Slider

In 2002, I decided to adopt a dog for some unconditional love and companionship. I went to the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast and met a 1 year old German Shepherd/Australian Cattle Dog mix and immediately fell in love. He was found abandoned at a rest area on I-95. A security guard fed him and gave him water for a week before calling animal control since no one appeared to be coming back for him. He was given the name Radar at the shelter (based on his HUUUGE ears), then Radar became Slider (of course I HAD to give him a baseball related name), and he was my constant companion for the next 14 years. He made me laugh and smile with his goofy antics, dried my tears with his fur, watched baseball games with me every night, and tolerated the cats, simply in exchange for a warm, dry place to sleep and bowls of food. At age 15 his rear legs could no longer carry his old, frail body due to degenerative myelopathy, and on December 5, 2016 Slider Radar Benkovich peacefully left this earth for the Rainbow Bridge. I was heartbroken, and said I would never get another dog – my heart couldn’t take losing one again. Grief is the price we pay for love.

Video tribute to Slider

Pom Pom

Then I came across an article about HSTC’s Home For The Holidays program, where shelter animals would be fostered out for a 2 week period, to allow shelter workers to spend more time with their families during the holidays. Reluctantly I looked at the available dogs on HSTC’s website and saw an 8 year old Collie/Shepherd mix named Pom Pom. Something in her face just made me want to help. So 15 days after Slider left me, I found myself driving to the shelter and agreeing to foster Pom Pom for 2 weeks. When I got to the shelter she was a mess – missing fur all over her body due to some kind of skin infection and flea allergy, infections in both ears, and she looked like she had recently given birth to puppies (at her age!). But I was determined to show her a good time in the 2 weeks we would have together. We went to the Ft Pierce jetty and watched pelicans, we went to look at Christmas lights and listen to Christmas music at the marina, we went to the dog park, and we got sand in our toes at the beach. At the end of those 2 weeks I took her back to the shelter to get her ears rechecked. They were still slightly infected so she wasn’t ready to go up for adoption yet. Secretly, I was happy about that. Two weeks later the shelter’s foster coordinator called me and asked if I was ready for them to list Pom Pom on their website. I was like, that’s MY dog, nobody is adopting her but ME! So on January 14, 2017 I went to the shelter to sign the paperwork and Pom Pom officially became MY dog. I believe Slider sent her to me to help put my broken heart back together again.

​

Pom Pom is somewhat of a celebrity, check her out on page 21:

Wagging Tales Spring 2017 Edition

​

Pom Pom loves baseball like I do! Here she is at the St Lucie Mets’ Bark In The Park Night, May 2017