10/02/2026
October's Pet of the Month is Hope Harper! Hope Harper was a rescue from Open Arms Rescue (OAR) in Akron,NY. Her family had this to say:
"She didn’t have a great start in life. She was left outside, where her sibling froze to death and she was malnourished, she was 27 # at 8 months old. She lived in a small area without a lot of room to roam where she developed burns on her paw pads from having to stand in her own urine and f***s. My husband and I had just helped our female furbaby over the rainbow bridge….it was about 3weeks after that we noticed our male dog was lonely. I reached out to OAR to inquire if they had any Black Labs or mixes up for adoption…or if they could keep us in mind for the future. I received a call back immediately stating they had a female that needed to be rescued but they couldn’t until they secured a foster to adopt family. I asked for details and immediately said yes as my heart ached for this baby in need.
Hope Harper joined our family February 21, 2023. It was a very rough start. Our male baby who is a big lovable goofball wanted to show Hope love and make her feel welcome. Well Hope Harper wasn’t having it. She growled at him and would take bones, toys etc away from him. She had accidents in the house because she was terrified. I almost had to return her because I didn’t see it working out. With lots of patience after about a month she knew she was safe and finally found her forever home. She started playing with her brother non stop, run zoomies in the backyard. She is just a lovable girl. Always wants to be in your lap or following you wherever you roam, including the bathroom 🙄. I enrolled her into Fetch n Catch where her brother also attends school. I swear they can both read a calendar and tell time, they know when it’s their day for “school”. They absolutely love it there. We also love it because both babies come home nice and tired!
This past August it was like any other school day. We get in the car and headed to school. I have a minivan, or as we refer to it in this house, The Lab Cab. I didn’t have the middle seats up as I normally do so I had the windows down a little more than usual. Hope Harper loves to stick her head out and take in all the smells. In her typical crazy self she will go from the drivers side to the passengers side to stick her head out to ensure she hasn’t missed anything. I had heard scraping on the inside door but that is nothing out of the ordinary because she goes from side to side. Next thing I know her brother is barking uncontrollably and it wasn’t a normal bark. I looked in my review mirror and saw a car pulling over on the side of the road. I looked back and noticed that Hope wasn’t in the van anymore. I pulled over my heart sunk. The kind woman that had pulled over had said that my dog was back a little bit by a barn and appeared ok but very scared. I found her she appeared ok but being a first responder i knew there could be internal injuries. I dropped her brother off at school and headed to the vet. I cannot say enough about the amazing staff at Lancaster Small Animal Hospital. Hope Harper ended up with some bad brush burns, a laceration on her leg that needed 6 staples and a broken tooth. Hope Harper is back to her crazy self again and you would never know what she had been through. She now wears a harness and gets seatbelted in the van. I cannot stress enough the importance of making sure your pets are secure in the vehicle. We were extremely lucky. Thank you again to the staff at Lancaster Small Animal Hospital."
We love Hope Harper here at LSAH and were so glad we could make sure her story ended up a positive one; give this cutie some love in the comments below! 💜💜💜
