Special dog finds special new home

When Jeanette Brown Bourgeois saw the photo of Mother Theresa that went with my Dec. 21 column, she wanted to know more about the small black dog with the perky ears.

"I saw her sweet face, and I started to read her story," she said.

She read that the little terrier mix had been brought to the West Bank Animal Shelter with a litter of puppies in September, that she had raised her puppies and then raised the litter of a dog who had been hit by a car. After that, she happily accepted five 2-day-old puppies whose mother had rejected them. She even nursed a motherless kitten at the shelter in Marrero.

Jeanette read that all the puppies and the kitten had been adopted, but the gentle dog who had mothered them was still in need of a home.

When she finished the column, she handed it to her husband, Sidney Bourgeois.

After he read about Theresa, Sidney said, "I think this would be a good dog for Brandon."

Jeanette smiled. That was what she had been thinking, too.

--- Danger of euthanasia ---

When I wrote about Mother Theresa, she was staying with Rocky Gates, a dedicated animal rescuer in New Iberia, who had heard the little dog was in danger of being euthanized because she had been in the overcrowded shelter so long.

Rocky had picked Theresa up in mid-December, determined to find the right home for her.

"She is a special dog, and she deserves a special family," she said when I called her.

She was specific about the home Theresa would go to: She was looking for a family with another young dog and with an older child or two.

"She needs kids and a dog to play with, and she has to be a house dog," Rocky said....