Former Foster Spotlight: Chester

Chester came in to rescue in March of 2014. He was listed in a local classified ad as free to good home. The rescue contacted the owner and they agreed to release him to rescue. Turns out the kids had all moved out to go to school or get married and they didn't want to take care of a dog any more. Chester had been kept kenneled much of the day every day and had gained a lot of weight, but from the first moment he came into rescue it was clear that Chester was a special dog with the sweetest personality! 

After coming into rescue Chester's forever family saw his photo on Instagram and put in an application for him. They drove all the way from the Bay Area of California in the snow to adopt Chester here in Utah!

Since being adopted Chester has undergone quite the transformation! Here is the story from Chester's mom:

When I first brought Chester home I knew he and I had a lot of work to do to get him down to a healthy weight. I brought him home in April of 2014 and he weighed over 25 pounds. Our goal: 16-18 pounds. I gave him a couple days to settle in his new (FOREVER) home with us, and then we got straight to work. I walk my other two dogs twice a day every day weather permitting, but I didn't want to push Chester too hard too fast, so we started with short walks once a day. It didn't take a lot to tire the poor guy out...we'd come back from a fairly short walk and he'd inhale water, and then sleep for over an hour. This process was repeated every day and as soon as I'd notice that he didn't seem as tired after his walk, I'd start walking a little further. I probably took him too soon, but there's a hiking trail that I love to take my other dogs to and I really didn't want to leave him home alone, so we packed in the car and hit the trail. Chester was so excited! He did okay for a while, but after just the third hill, he was starting to struggle so we turned around and went back to the car. Again, he inhaled water when we got back to the car, and he slept for the rest of the day. The hiking trail was definitely too much this early in the game, but he was doing great on the daily neighborhood walks, so we shortened the walks and upped it to twice a day. I took him to the vet in late June just so the vet could see how he was doing and make sure he was still okay healthwise. I'll never forget the smile on my vet's face when he brought Chester back to me and said in disbelief, "he weighs 18 pounds." I was shocked! He went on to tell me that, his heart, hips, knees, etc., were perfect, I was doing everything right, and to keep doing what we were doing. Eighteen pounds was still a little much considering his size, so now we had to get down to 16. Fast forward to November, Chester is at a perfect weight of 16 pounds and he can climb the hiking trails with ease. Now that he's at a healthy weight, he's become more playful and he's not sleeping all day anymore like he was when he had all that extra weight. Plain and simple, I've noticed that he feels good, is loving life, and he's finally happy. Now he can even keep up with his one year old Cavalier sister, Paris!

Chester and Paris 

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Chester on his first hike, and then finally conqering the hill!

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We love to hear these happy endings! Thank you to Chester's new family for working so hard with him to get him healthy and for giving him a wonderful FOREVER home!