A Ballad for Sunny
In the tradition of the Wild West, people write ballads about dogs like Sunny – the sad Labrador who waited for days on a hillside hoping his beloved owner would return. That’s how we opened our original story about Sunny two years ago.
Sunny was first spotted standing on a hillside near Edinburg, Texas. The next day he was still there, waiting and watching for the owner who abandoned him. He looked heartbroken.
When Kim and Kevin Porter heard his story, they drove over 2,000 miles roundtrip to foster him for SOLR. They named him Sunny, because of his sunny disposition. But he was not in good shape. “We didn’t believe he had a lot of time left on this earth, so we decided to adopt him,” says Kim. They wanted whatever time he had left to be the very best.
Sunny suffered abuse before being rescued, but no one could imagine how much. His former life left him with painful arthritis, damaged hips, a skin infection, heartworm, two compressed disks in his back, and heart congestion. Yet that wasn’t the worst of it. “Something we didn’t know was, at some point, he had been shot with bb’s and they were still lodged in his body,” says Kim. “But you would never know any of that when you watched him chase a ball or walk in the grass.”
Sunny loved car rides and taking walks in his stroller. He loved riding on the golf cart to a park in the Porter’s neighborhood. But walking was a struggle, despite physical therapy. So the Porters bought him a stroller. “He would sit by the stroller each day waiting for us to load him up for his walk. We should all live out our twilight years in such a fashion… enjoying a simple walk around the neighborhood.”
The Porters took Sunny on an amazing road trip in 2023. “We traveled with all four of our Labs for two months up into Oregon and Washington and Sunny absolutely thrived! We visited the beach where he was able to walk on the sand, as well as up in Washington where he loved walking on the trails in the woods. It was an amazing trip and even though Sunny had a difficult time walking and had to be lifted in and out of the truck and camping trailer, he was always so excited to go on any adventure. He had a big spirit and will be missed very much. We’re so grateful to have been his parents,” says Kim.
Sunny lived two years after being rescued – longer than anyone could hope. According to Kim, he was determined to live as full of a life as possible, despite chronic pain. “Sunny surprised everyone. He was in our life for 651 wonderful days,” says Kim Porter. “He was a tough, sweet dog who only wanted to be one of the big dogs.”
Sadly, Sunny crossed the rainbow bridge on June 19th, 2024. It was Father's Day.
It’s said that a rescue dog is a grateful dog. If Sunny could speak now, what might he say? He loved his second life. He loved going to a Sniffspot with his fur siblings where he could chase balls in the grass, or swim in the shallow end of the pool. “He would get so excited on the way there that he would bark until we let him out of the car,” says Kim. Sunny might hope his story would inspire people to foster, especially dogs who are seniors, sick, or need special love.
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