Giving a dog the greatest possible final days requires a community, but the effort isn’t necessarily as difficult as it might appear. Sometimes the people who care for a dying dog come together to create a moment that is so happy that all difficulties are momentarily forgotten and all that is left is the puppy’s ear-to-ear grin.
That’s exactly what happened when Jenny Leech, a seasoned hospice foster parent, saw that Huxley, one of her newest fosters, had a tennis ball obsession. A simple search to get Huxley’s favorite toy quickly developed into the most joyous surprise imaginable for the pup who had been through so much loss recently.
Huxley formerly resided on a farm with his elderly owner before coming into Leech’s care. Huxley was given to BAARK Dog Rescue by family members when his owner passed away.
Huxley was approved for foster care, and after that, a volunteer for BAARK posted a picture of him online with the caption: “Huxley doesn’t see or hear too well and moves slowly,” noting that he only had three legs as a result of an injury he’d survived as a puppy.
Leech learned about the posting and, despite his condition, fell in love with the gray-muzzled dog right away. He “seems like he’s in extremely horrible form,” the rescuers remarked, according to Leech, who spoke to The Dodo. I declared, “He is perfect.”
Just a few days after seeing the post, Leech invited Huxley over to her house, where she soon discovered that he was far ill than she’d anticipated. Additional testing verified her suspicions that Huxley had lung cancer.
Leech made sure his life was as comfortable as he could make it after receiving a cancer diagnosis. She anticipated that Huxley’s arthritis would slow him down, but she was pleasantly surprised to see that he continued to have a puppy spirit.
Then, one day, Huxley saw a tennis ball, and his puppy enthusiasm sprang forth. After her young grandson unintentionally started a game of fetch with Huxley, Leech claimed that she “kind of by mistake” learned about Huxley’s obsession with tennis balls. Leech stated, “[My grandson] found a tennis ball, and Huxley just took to it. I’m not sure whether he has ever played fetch, but we could see he was having a blast.”
Leech contacted her neighborhood tennis club to see if they would contribute some additional tennis balls for Huxley after realizing that his behavior changed the moment he saw a single tennis ball, becoming more puppy-like.
The racquet club went above and above to make the occasion special for Huxley in addition to being glad to pick up a number of tennis balls for him.
The person who planned it spent her lunch hour gathering tennis balls from the club and placing them specifically for him on the grass, according to Leech.
Huxley was virtually unaware of the sea of tennis balls at his paws when Leech and her family arrived with him to collect the tennis balls from the club. Huxley is a charming senior dog.
Leech recalled, “And all of a sudden, he comprehended, and his nose dropped to the ground.” The abundance of tennis balls initially overwhelmed Huxley, but as he sat down and we began tossing them in the air, he liked it,” according to Leech. He would essentially extend his neck to grab them out of the air.
Huxley soon fully committed to his tennis ball surprise. Leech stated that “he did not want to stop.”
Here you may see Huxley using his tennis ball gift:
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After the surprise, Huxley was able to take all of the tennis balls home with him, and he still plays with them at home with the cutest puppy enthusiasm. In addition to being fixated on fetch, Huxley has grown to love swimming. He definitely has a retriever’s heart, according to Leech.
“Huxley is doing wonderful,” according to Leech, despite the fact that his cancer is incurable. Leech and her family will continue to give Huxley lots of love and tennis balls for the duration of his hospice care in an effort to keep his puppy spirit alive until his very last tail-wag.
