Name:  Emily & Taylor 
Dog's Name:  Jonah
Breed:  American Staffordshire Terrier
Age/Years of friendship:  Jonah is 5 years old (turning 5 this month!) / Years of friendship: 10 months but feels like a lifetime
Where did you get your dog from:  Angel City Pit Bulls
Location:  Los Angeles, CA 
Social Media Link:  www.instagram.com/icecreambetch

In June 2016 my partner Taylor and I decided to pick up the pieces of our broken hearts, having lost our first foster dog Gia due to health issues, just a month prior. Gia was what we believed to be a Cane Corso mix, a true gentle giant, who showed us the depth of our love and admiration for velvet hippos, patience and determination for the great responsibility of taking care of a life, other than one’s own. Gia also loved all other dogs and despite our fragile emotions over her passing, we knew she would be beyond pleased if we fostered another dog. The opportunity to foster again arised when local rescue Angel City Pit Bulls reached back out to us when they were looking to place a particular dog in foster care.

Our foster coordinator Mackenzie brought over a slightly scrappy, fawn guy named Jonah, with a classically handsome American Staffordshire face, complete with natural eyeliner. He was missing patches of fur due to demuxed mange, acquired during his time in the shelter. His butt was bare, a huge rectangular patch of black and pink spotted skin, which extended to the top of his tail. He also had some exposed skin streaks on his face that looked like warrior paint.

We had actually seen Jonah at the NKLA adoption event, the first volunteer event we had mustered up the strength to attend, in the wake of Gia’s trip over the rainbow bridge. ACPB had sprung Jonah from the shelter that very day. He was a spunky guy outside of the crate, happy to soak up the sun and sniff the grass. He even hopped onto one of the small motorized vehicles that was carrying the fold out tables and chairs around the event. He was all “hello, world!” and when inside the crate he waited patiently with eager eyes for attention.

We noticed Jonah that day, and perhaps it was fate, because the following week ACPB asked if we could foster him.

We welcomed him into our home and it didn’t take long to take to his quirky personality. Rambunctious, playful, goofy, chill, loving, these are all words that aptly describe Jonah.
We treated his demuxed mange for three months and throughout that time we took him to a few ACPB adoption events. When we dropped him off at one of the events at a downtown brewery, it felt a lot like dropping your kid off at Summer camp. Four hours later we eagerly went to go pick him up. Upon our return his excitement doubled upon seeing us, especially when he set eyes on Taylor, with whom he developed a very strong bond, and to which we now fondly refer to Jonah as a “daddy’s boy.” The volunteers said he did great but that he was rather gassy at the event (looking back, we thought this was because he enjoyed being with us so he didn’t want to get adopted by anyone else).

Then one day Taylor got an unexpected phone call. I remember him picking up a call, talking and tearing up while on the phone. I grew concerned but waited patiently for him to wrap the call. When he hung up he told me that ACPB wanted to bring him to the NKLA center within the next day or two so that they could try and adopt him out since they have a very high adoption rate there. We spent a few seemingly long, agonizing hours debating on if we could handle giving Jonah up.

There we were, finally presented with what we knew would be inevitable someday and it turned out we couldn’t bare to part with him. At that moment he became a lot more than a foster dog, he was indeed our fur baby, our son.

This is Jonah and our story. What’s yours?

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