When 19-year-old Annie, a fit black Labrador retriever, surrendered, she wasn't at her best. She hardly eats or walks. Veterinarians say she may only have a month to live.
Then, her life changed when she was adopted by a new family: Best friends and roommates Lauren Siler and Lisa Flores were adopted.
Annie went from just hoping to live a month to being strong — and Instagram-worthy — in four months.
When Siler saw Annie's photo on Dallas Animal Services' Instagram page, he was about to go on a trip.
When she arrived at the city's animal sanctuary, Stephanie Rowe and Duke Hemstreet — of The Pawerful Rescue, a nonprofit organization in Royce, Texas, Founder - took her in. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Annie is living like a queen. (Courtesy Lauren Siler)
Lisa Flores and Lauren Siler are making the most of their time with Annie. (Courtesy of Siler)
"When we saw Annie...I personally felt like I was strong enough (parenting)," Siler told TODAY when she adopted Annie in June 2005 following the death of her dog Bear. 2021. "I know I'm strong enough to do this because I have to...I can't imagine not being with my dog, which makes me think that if all I got was Annie for a week, at least she'd be with her The dead know to love them."
"My heart would be more broken if she was taken to a bunker surrounded by people she didn't know, than when we have to go through that pain," she said.
In deciding to adopt Anne, Saylor said Law and Helmstreet were really good at setting expectations for an older dog and how much time they could spend with her.
"Initially, we were just happy to be in love and have her," Flores said. "So we didn't really think about how hard it was to let her go. I think we really focused on the joy she gave us at the time, it was just that we enjoyed the love for her and gave her all the experience. It was amazing.
"Annie brings joy not only to her family, but also to her Instagram followers. To make the most of Anne's golden years, Cyler and Flores decide to create a bucket list for her.
Over the past few months, Annie threw a birthday party (they didn't know her actual date of birth), painted a picture, celebrated Christmas in July, visited Hamburger, had a professional photoshoot, and more ."When people started following Instagram, they really enjoyed seeing these photos and these little videos about this list," Flores said.
"That's when the proposals started coming in. So we said, 'Oh, this is awesome! Like, we've got more ideas now because it looks like Annie's going to stick around for a while. So we've got a lot more work to do"
