Isabella’s Story (and happy ending – finally)
Isabella, a beautiful name for a beautiful Shepherd mix dog. Isabella came to Houston in Sept 2005 after her family evacuated from New Orleans ahead of Hurricane Katrina. When her family left Houston to go back to New Orleans, they left Isabella behind with relatives. After a couple of weeks, the relatives took Isabella to a boarding kennel until her family could retrieve her. After a year of waiting patiently for her family to return to pick her up, Isabella was abandoned at the boarding kennel. At that point, she entered HOPE’s dog adoption program and started her journey of finding a new home in Houston.
Within a year, our girl got adopted but was returned to the boarding kennel after three months. A year later, a second adoption, but again, it didn’t last and she was returned to the boarding kennel again. She was on the verge of getting adopted a third time when she came down with a serious (and mysterious) affliction that almost killed her. After a lengthy recovery from what turned out to be an auto-immune condition, she was back in the saddle again and ready to start attending weekend adoptions.
Isabella was on the local FOX news station when they did a five-year anniversary story on Hurricane Katrina and it generated some interest in her – but not an adoption. About a year later, FOX did another story on her and she was also featured on Facebook; this time her story was picked up by other media. A family in the Clear Lake area read about her in their community newspaper and wanted to meet her. They were hoping that she could be a friend for their dog and also wanted to provide a home for her so that she wouldn’t have to live at a boarding kennel for the rest of her life.
Isabella was adopted for the third and final time on Feb 19, 2012 into her forever home. She now has a family that loves her, a comfy dog bed of her own and a pool to play in (she loves the water). She has settled in nicely and they adore her! Isabella’s six-and-a-half year journey to find her new home would never have ended so happily without Fondren 5 Star Kennels and the help of Marlene Marino’s Forgotten Pet Advocates.