Meet Penha and Serra! Here is their story of how they adopted their humans!

We had a rescued dog from 2009 up to 2019. It was a Cocker Spaniel that died because of cancer, it was devastating because that dog postponed death so many times that the faithful day was a chock to us.

At the second half of 2020, we began talking about getting a new dog.
We follow the social media of a animal shelter and eventually there was a dog with a story that made as start the adoption process.
The first dog we chose was a pup named “Serra Leoa” because it was abandoned near a bus central station, next to the stadium of Sporting Clube de Portugal, a club which the mascot it’s a lion. Also, when the rescuers got near her, they noticed that she was behaved like guarding a bag, inside that bag was the body of her dead brother.
She eventually ran when they tried to grab her until she felt into a small ditch and they were able to rescue her.

So “Serra” was our primary choice but they advise to make a shortlist and selected more two dogs, “Ibiscus” and “Penha”, that got her name because she was rescued in Penha de França, one of Lisbon’s parish councils.

When we got to the shelter, only “Serra” was available, the other two were already adopted. No biggy, “Serra” was our first choice anyway. So we started the adoption process; we went to the shelter during visiting hours to walk the pup and have her getting used to us. The first two visits were a bit frustrating because “Serra” was very shy, even avoiding the treats that we present to her, but slowly but surely, every time we visit her, we saw an evolution in the way she interacted with us.

On our 7th or 8th visit, when we got to her box for another walk, there was a dog there that was very similar to the pictures of “Penha”. That dog was immediately all over us, like we were her original owners that came to visit her. We eventually comment to the folks in the shelter that the new dog that is sharing “Serra”‘s box look like “Penha”. Which they replied “Well, that’s because IT IS “Penha”. The people that adopted her, returned her after a week so she’s for adoption again”
We were ecstatic! But we never considered to adopt two dogs…
We left that day but that idea was planted in our minds “we never add two dogs, and we already have three kids at home… Shall we? Should we?!”

Well, we did and we are very please for it. They are such good girls and it’s a joy to see them getting
We are still solving their minor traumas; “Penha” has a nasty Y shaped scar under the lower jaw, most likely caused by other dog because she’s always nervous when she meets a new dog. And “Serra”, to this day still shivers when we’re walking her and a bus passes by. And also she doesn’t like people she doesn’t know. But they are getting better every day, and so are we 🙂well know, time to take them for their afternoon walk in the park 🙂

Submitted by our friend @VascoFCosta