Sophie & Perry

Jan. 26, 2021

On March 26, 2020, we at the Beyond A Buddy Foundation got a call from one of our breeding partners, the breeder told us that we were no longer going to be receiving a female puppy from them. When we asked why, we were told that the puppy had a telescoped intestine over her colon and was in need of surgery. The breeder had decided that the procedure was too expensive and to put this little 7 week old puppy down. This was something that our Founder and Board could not accept, we contacted the Vet Hospital and without hesitation offered our credit card to pay for the surgery. Three surgeries, $12,000.00, four weeks of recovery and plenty of visits from our Founder later, little Sophie came to us and started training when she was 13 weeks old.

Sophie, like all our puppies went through the program and lived with 4 different foster families during the duration of her training. From the very beginning we knew Sophie was special, she learned faster than most and had the sweetest disposition. Throughout San Francisco's shelter at home order, Sophie got the extra attention we wish we could give every dog. She got two to three hours of training each day during her most formative months and it showed. Sophie graduated from training and passed her Canine Good Citizen certification in late October, the fastest of any of our trainees to date.

However, Sophie was going to require a special placement, due to her rough start in life as a somewhat medically fragile puppy and early limited opportunities, she has some hesitation with new environments. Sadly, she did not fit the bill to be placed with one of our clients given their unique needs at the time. We were determined to make sure Sophie was placed in a stable home where changes to her day to day life were minimal and she could settle into a kind of routine.

And then like a match made in heaven, in walked Perry Butler, owner of historic San Francisco eatery Perry's and pillar in our local community. We've visited this special neighborhood restaurant many times with our puppies in training, their friendly staff and comfortable atmosphere make it the ideal spot to slowly introduce young puppies to a restaurant environment. After several conversations since mid 2019, we found out that Perry was looking for another dog to join his family. He had several dogs over the years and Henry his current dog was getting older, so the thought of a younger dog to join them came to mind. Following a few meetings and conversations we determined that Perry and Sophie would be the perfect pairing.

Perry expressed his love and adoration for dogs early on, making it clear to us that he would provide Sophie with the kind of home every dog dreams of. He told us about how he came to own his pet dog Henry, and that though he was now 14 years old, could use a new friend. We then got to work qualifying Perry to receive Sophie, he had served in the Army National Guard for 3 years before earning a commission as an officer for with the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. Given his service, we determined that he would benefit from the kind of love, comfort and companionship we trained Sophie to provide.

Thanks to donors and community partners we were able to set up a COVID assistance fund to mitigate the cost of placing our dogs, for which Perry qualified and we were able to assist with Sophie’s overall cost. On Sunday, Nov. 29th 2020, Ms. Sophie was placed in her FURever home with Perry, his wife Jo, dog Henry and the rest of the Butler family.

As part of placing Sophie with Perry, we maintain her health insurance policy and will be covering the full cost of her spaying procedure in addition to potential complications that may arise from her surgery as a puppy.

We are so happy to have made this partnership happen and are abundantly proud of Sophie’s progress. She may have had a rough start in this world, but the future is nothing but bright for her. We wish Sophie and the entire Butler family the very best as they go through life together, and cannot wait to hear about her next chapter.