Clementine came home to live with Deb in 2021, when she was believed to be about four or five years old. The rescue did not know much about her earlier life, except that she arrived pregnant. After raising her puppies, Clementine was adopted, but was returned soon afterward for reasons no one fully understood. When she first came home, she seemed quiet and sad, as though she was carrying the weight of too many changes. With time, patience, love, and many comfortable places to nap, Clementine began to feel safe enough to let her real personality shine.

Today, Clementine is a sweet, sensitive, comfort-loving queen with a deeply social heart. She adores children, car rides, cozy blankets, homemade dinners, Halloween costumes, soft sweaters, and anyone willing to pet her for as long as possible. When she is truly happy, her whole body relaxes, and she sometimes makes tiny purring grunts of joy. She has a few brave-but-worried edges too: thunderstorms, slippery floors, stairs, noisy food bowls, and unfamiliar dogs can all feel scary to her. But Clementine has learned, in her own careful way, that scary things can sometimes be handled one tiny step at a time.

Now about nine or ten years old, with a little gray around her muzzle, Clementine still becomes puppy-goofy when joy gets the best of her. She howls along with sirens, sunbathes in the yard in what Deb calls “playing dead dog,” runs happy loops when she feels safe, and then heads back inside when she decides it is time to be comfortable again. She is a very proper little lady with a silly streak, a tender heart, and a gift for reminding everyone around her that love, safety, snacks, and a good couch can change a life.