08/21/2025
Hi, my name is Amanda. I volunteer at BestPals managing our social media and socializing our cats. This post is a little different today. I wanted to share my families story and the impact that BestPals has had on our family.
August 9th, our family dog Benji passed away after 12 years. We saw it coming but didn’t want to necessarily believe it. This loss was devastating to our family. So devastating that my dad said he didn’t want another dog, my mom was crying multiple times a day, and I felt like a piece of our family was missing. On Monday, August 11th, the director, Michelle reached out to me about a dog that was brought into BestPals care due to the owner having to be moved to assisted living. This lady and her dog, Bailey, whole lives completely shattered. I sent the picture to my mom while she was crying about Benji, and her tears stopped immediately. Did we really just lose Benji on Saturday and on Sunday Bailey (who sure looks a lot like benji), gets surrendered? My mom and I cleared our Monday morning schedule and took the hour commute to BestPals to meet this sweet dog. When we got there, we noticed that Bailey was extremely attached to Michelle in the 24 hours that he had been with her. We had some reservations as Bailey had already lost so much, did we really want to pull him from Michelle? After about 3 hours of being down there meeting Bailey, we decided to try Michelle’s Foster to Adopt program and brought Bailey home! We brought Bailey home without telling my dad (it’s a theme in our house to surprise him with dogs), so when we showed up with Bailey, my mom is laughing and giggling and yells “happy anniversary!” My dad had the biggest smile on his face and is now completely obsessed. From the words of my dad, “he isn’t going anywhere. You’ll have pry him from my cold dead hands.”
The shy, scared dog we saw at BestPals no longer exists. My mom’s completely shattered heart has healed a bit. My dad’s desire to not have another dog, has completely vanished.
Michelle has been in communication with Baileys original owner and reassured her that Bailey is doing amazing and let her know that my family would be more than willing to bring Bailey down for visits when/if she is ready.
Bailey now has 8 acres of land to run on (supervised of course), 3 new family members who are obsessed with every ounce of him, and another dog friend at home, Buddy, who loves nothing more than WWE wrestling first thing in the morning with Bailey and sharing his tasty kibbles he brought with him!
We can’t help but feel that Benji sent Bailey to help heal our broken hearts.
Benji now rests in Heaven with full eye sight, with a healthy liver and kidney, and our other friends we lost throughout life as well.
Buddy now has a friend he can play with.
My parents home and hearts now feel a little fuller.
And I can see my parents smile again. This simply couldn’t have happened without BestPals, so Michelle, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Bailey is home.
(First two pictures are Bailey in his new home, third and fourth picture and Bailey with his new friend Buddy, fifth picture is Bailey eating from my dads hand the first 10 minutes of being home, sixth picture is of our Benji boy who is now in heaven, sixth picture is of benji and buddy cuddling on my lap, and seventh picture is of the area my parents worked so hard on and where is Benji is now resting. Videos of Bailey in the comments!)
