Our story
How a scruffy little rescue dog changed everything
This is a letter to every person who ever felt like something was missing — and didn't know a dog was the answer.
This is our story...
Where it started
It was 2021. Life was quieter than I expected.
Coming out the other side of COVID, I found myself in a season of change — newly on my own, figuring out what I actually wanted. Something was missing. I started searching for a dog almost without realizing why. I found T-Bo on Petfinder — a scruffy French Bulldog–Shih Tzu mix with hair so long you couldn't see his face. The best anyone could piece together: his owner had passed away, and whoever was handling things afterward just left him behind. He was found near a small mountain town in Central California — no shelter anywhere nearby. A local woman everyone in town knew as the person who took in strays brought him in, and she connected him with The Little Red Dog. They saved him, fostered him, and started looking for the right person.
Before I ever met him, the founder, PJ, interviewed me — and she didn't go easy. My living situation, my schedule, my life. She was protecting him. I didn't fully appreciate it then. I do now.
The Moment
That first meeting changed both of us.
At the meet-and-greet, Baxter wasn't interested in anyone — guarded, on edge, sniffing around. He definitely wasn't interested in me. So I took him around the corner, away from all the noise, and sat down on the curb. Elbows on my knees. And I just let him be. No reaching, no coaxing.
After a few quiet minutes, something shifted.
The rough start
Home didn't fix everything overnight.
I'd love to tell you Baxter walked into my house and everything was perfect. It wasn't. He peed on everything. My rug — I lost count of how many times in that first month. I took him to the pet store the day after I brought him home, and he peed all over that place too. He was anxious. Jumpy. Defensive — snapping at people who got too close.
And honestly, why would he trust anybody? Everything he'd ever known had already disappeared on him once.
The first two months
So I just didn't leave his side.
I made a decision: he wasn't going to be alone again. For two months, I took him everywhere. Bars, restaurants, pool halls, lunches with friends — he rode in a backpack with his head poking out, watching the world go by. He slept in my bed every night. And I kept telling him the same thing: we're a team, dude. I'm not going anywhere.
Slowly, he started to believe me.
Then a book happened
We became inseparable — and then a book happened.
We traveled 4,500 miles in a Sprinter van — seven states, a month on the road, visiting rescue organizations along the way, bringing them books and listening to what they actually needed. We biked the beaches of Southern California. We hit restaurants and bars where Baxter charmed everyone who walked by.
Knowing what Baxter had almost lost — and how many dogs like him never make it — I wrote Baxter's Second Chance and founded BaxterDog Media.
Baxter today
Today, Baxter is a fixture in San Clemente.
His story is in a children's book. He's got fans he's never even met. But mostly, he's just my dog — the one who showed me that sometimes the thing you didn't know you needed shows up with a wagging tail and no apologies.
There are thousands of dogs just like him out there right now, waiting. That's why we're here.
