by Celeste Thibault

Rescue Success Stories: A little dog…a little Facebook Page. Five and a half years ago, a four-week-old Chihuahua mix puppy stole my heart. She needed to be rescued and she picked me, a chance meeting, when she crawled onto my lap and into my life. We named her CC Rider and she became the perfect little companion to her two brother dogs, Wiley, a then 12 year old German Pinscher, and Evil a one year old Chug that had been rescued from a ‘give away’ situation in a parking lot six months earlier.

She also became an inspiration to me as I learned patience, love and kindness from one small little dynamo. I had been following many pet and pet rescue pages on Facebook and decided CC Rider needed a voice. Since we wanted the page to be about rescue and not about CC, we named it Rescue Success Stories. Slowly we gained likes on the page with CC making some close friendships with fellow pages–one with a bestie, Maizee Pearl.

We shared ‘before and after’ pics and stories of rescued pets, info on health and diet, fun activities, a glimpse into life in CC Rider’s world on a daily basis, with our main focus always being on kindness and the excitement of successful rescue. CC Rider wanted people to see what a dog could ‘become’ and we showed so many success stories. We also shared dogs in need of rescue and cats are shared every Caturday.

It was evident to all that CC and I had a very close friendship and that I portrayed her exactly as she was–smart, saucy, kind, and concerned for all, loving every animal and human she ever met. Our page grew steadily and we interacted with several of our friends and fellow pages. We are not a huge page but we really felt we had some impact. CC Rider had a light and we were going to ‘let it shine.’ CC was proud to have met some of her page friends in person as they visited us when they came to our hometown of Las Vegas. And others from as far away as New Zealand sent holiday cards and gifts.

CC included information about living with a Diabetic Senior dog as her brother Wiley aged and became Insulin dependent. And how to introduce other dogs into the family pack as we had the addition of my sons dogs into our home. We also showed how a dog can be introduced successfully to a baby in the family when my son and his wife brought us our grandson Luc, 18 months ago.

We enjoyed so many experiences with other pages, and also experienced losses, when dog friends went to The Rainbow Bridge. CC and her friend Maizee Pearl almost always present when needed. In January of this year CC’s best Facebook friend Maizee Pearl went to the Rainbow Bridge just before her 17th birthday. During June of this year CC was diagnosed with liver disease, she was in clinic care for four days before we saw improvement and all of her page friends rejoiced the day she returned home.

She was well on the road to recovery when on July 8 she became suddenly distressed and passed away on the ride to the vet. It was discovered that she had suffered a coronary embolism. I was devastated and came home in a daze. The pain of her loss as my constant companion was almost too much to comprehend. That evening I posted honestly about CC Rider’s sudden passing, after sending messages to several close friends. For the next couple of days I considered closing her page. She had become the face and voice of Rescue Success Stories or RSS as many people referred to it.

I checked the page the next day and saw that the picture and announcement had been shared over 1,000 times and commented on tens of thousands of times. Messages of love and kindness poured in, with encouragement to continue on letting the light CC Rider lit ‘shine on.’ The decision was made that CC’s brother, Evil, would become the spokes dog for the page and we have continued to gain friends and share rescue success stories…with a very special little dog, CC Rider, forever in our hearts.

Be sure to hop over and like the Rescue Success Stories Facebook page–you won’t regret it www.facebook.com/pages/Rescue-Success-Stories. Check out more animal rescue & pet related articles in our Pet Perspective section.

Celeste Thibault is originally from Minnesota. She has lived in Las Vegas for 18 years and is retired from the communications industry. Celeste works with dog rescue and rehab and rides a Harley.