“It seemed that when Cooper came into their lives, the darkness lifted and everything changed for all of them.”
When this family saved a 12-year-old German shepherd from being euthanized, they had no idea that he would one day help them overcome a tragedy.
The Bauer family had found themselves in a very dark place emotionally after losing their infant daughter, who was born without a heartbeat. After that loss, the baby’s mother was having trouble sleeping and would often lay awake at night distracting herself with social media.
One such night, she was scrolling through Instagram when she came upon a post about a senior German shepherd named Cooper that was at a kill shelter. The caption said, “I die tomorrow alone on this cold cement floor.”
The post had been shared by a California-based rescue called FurryTail Endings. FurryTail is dedicated to helping rescue animals listed for euthanasia by local shelters and they hoped that someone would be compelled to help Cooper before his time was up.
Bauer could tell that Cooper was defeated at the shelter and his eyes looked like he had given up. She empathized with him because, after the loss of her baby, she also felt like giving up. Even so, she began to read the comments that were full of promises to save Cooper.
She decided to post a comment and share her interest in the dog and feeling peaceful about her decision, finally fell asleep.
The next day when she woke up, she had a message from the shelter. They told her all the other prospects fell through and that if she didn’t want Cooper, he would be put to sleep that day.
So, Bauer quickly gathered up her daughter, Lilly, and the two of them rushed to the shelter to pick up Cooper. When they got there, Cooper ran into Lilly’s arms and began to lick her face.
Being in Lilly’s arms, it was as if the now-happy Cooper knew he was saved. And, Lilly said that holding Cooper helped take some of her pain away. But there would still be some bad news to face because when they took Cooper to the vet, they discovered he had a cancerous tumor on his neck that would need to be removed.
But the problem was, Cooper was not healthy enough to have surgery. The vet told them they only had 6 weeks to help Cooper get healthy enough to undergo surgery or it would be too late to save his life.
The family was no stranger to cancer because Lilly was also a cancer survivor and they were ready to fight. They took Cooper home and made it their mission to get him as healthy as possible. They took him hiking and to the beach and within 3 weeks Cooper was ready for surgery.
Happily, Cooper made it through surgery and his family happily picked him up. They all already loved him and cried happy tears. They couldn’t imagine life without him and felt that he saved them.
Amazingly, Cooper came into their life a year after they lost their baby girl. But a week after they rescued Cooper, they found out they were expecting another baby. It seemed that when Cooper came into their lives, the darkness lifted and everything changed for all of them.
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