One Day. One Dog. A Lifetime of Change.

“I can't imagine what my life would have been like without her.”

“I adopted Wooky from Southern Pines on December 26, 2005.”

That’s how Sean’s story begins. A single sentence. A quiet memory of a day that changed everything.

He had just moved home to Hattiesburg after earning his master’s degree in San Diego. The weight of a PhD program was already settling in, quiet and heavy. He wasn’t looking for a grand new chapter. He just wanted something steady. Something warm. Something that might fill the quiet space left by the dog he grew up with, the one who passed away while Sean was in San Diego.

“I never got the chance to say goodbye,” he says.

So the day after Christmas, Sean gave himself a gift. He came to Southern Pines and met Wooky.

“I immediately fell in love with her,” he remembers. “Her beautiful smile and her big bushy beard.”

He didn’t hesitate.

From that moment on, she was his. And he was hers. They were inseparable. 

Together, they built a life side by side.

Over the years, Sean met a girl. He fell in love. Bought a house. Got married. Earned his PhD. And Wooky was there for all of it. The long nights. The hard days. The joy. The tears. The in-betweens. “She’s been my best friend and my favorite pillow for every smile and tear,” Sean tells us.

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Wooky embraced every bit of it. The changes. The milestones. The people who came and stayed. As Sean’s life expanded, so did hers. She became the wise, funny leader of a growing pack, including two more rescues from Southern Pines: Pumpkin and Tigger. The firecracker pup who once tore through the muddy woods grew into the calm center of a growing family.

She’s also been a longtime patient of Southern Pines Healthy Pet Clinic, receiving care from the same place where her journey began.

“At this point,” Sean says, “I know more about Wooky—how she thinks, how she acts, what she likes, what scares her—than I do about myself.”

Wooky didn’t just live everything with Sean, she helped shape his life. “I can't imagine what my life would have been like without her,” he says. 

This is why Spay It Forward is so important.

When Wooky was adopted, she wasn’t a tiny puppy with a blank slate. She had recently given birth to a litter of puppies, and she had been through more than we’ll ever fully know. 

And Wooky was ready to begin again. Thanks to donations from supporters like you, she got that chance.

Your support makes it possible for our clinic to provide quality, low-cost vetting services for our shelter pets. That includes lifesaving vaccinations, preventatives, and medications, and makes it possible for each pet to receive their spay and neuter surgery. When you donate to our clinic’s Spay It Forward fund, you are helping shelter pets like Wooky receive the medical care they need to find the loving homes and families they deserve. 

Would you consider Spaying it Forward and making a gift to help pets in need?

Make a Difference Today!

Because when you Spay It Forward, you’re helping thousands of pets, just like Wooky, rewrite their stories to find new beginnings and second chances.