The death of John Wells’ beloved dog Scrappy took its toll on the whole family. Wife Jane Bertsch-Wells and kids Amelia, 25, and John, 21, all helped care for him later in life.
“In his last year we had to carry him around a lot,” said the elder John, an outside sales representative for Riverhead Building Supply and a sixth-generation resident of Sayville. “He was a big dog. The whole process was hard.” Although Scrappy was irreplaceable, a void was left in his absence. However, John felt apprehensive about adopting a puppy in his 60s.
“Our last dog lived to 12,” he said. “I thought about taking care of an elderly dog in my late 70s and thought, do I really want to do this?”
To help her parents heal, daughter Amelia began perusing Petfinder.com to find a small dog for her parents.
“It’s like a dating app for dogs,” John said. “You just keep swiping until you see one you like.” Amelia would send her parents photos of dogs up for adoption. John and Jane kept saying they’d rather not adopt — until they saw a photo of Nova. It was love at first sight.
“It was a beautiful photo,” said John. “A beautiful dog.” Amelia put her parents in contact with the adoption center in Texas where Nova was being boarded. But the center’s representative warned them that Nora had some socialization issues.
“She said she wouldn’t recommend bringing her to dog parks,” John said. “I asked why, and she said that Nova makes friends quickly and cries when she has to leave, to the point that the separation was too much for her.” The representative said she was concerned about separating Nova from her best friend at the center, a German shepherd named Tex.
“They were going to have to transport her from Texas to Connecticut,” John explained. “It was going to be a three-day trip, and she was going to be alone, dealing with losing contact with everyone she knew. It sounded terrible.” Then the center made a suggestion.
“They said, ‘Would you consider taking Tex, too?’ I said I really don’t know. We weren’t sure we wanted another dog at all after losing our last one. But we couldn’t say no.”
Within a few days, both Nova and Tex were on their way northeast, and the John’s family had two new members. The pups are inseparable from each other, and from John, Jane, and the kids.
As the Fire Island sales representative for Riverhead Building Supply, John has begun hosting home improvement trade shows on Fire Island, both in Ocean Beach and Fire Island Pines. The next round of shows is planned for September in both communities.
“This is my pet adoption story,” said John. “We couldn’t be happier. And I hope it can inspire others to adopt as well.”
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