This is the story of Layla, and actually, one of our fan club members sent us this story about a pruppet who was a Crime Junkie fan. And obvs I loved the story. It was actually a short piece on this website called Love What Matters, which is full of a bunch of feel-good stories. Originally, I thought that Layla’s mom was the listener who sent us the piece, but it wasn’t! It was someone completely different. I reached out to the author of the piece, who was Layla’s mom, Jillian, and asked if we could feature Layla, she said aof course and told me even more of Layla’s story.

Jillian said that her sons’ favorite thing to do is to watch videos on YouTube of kids opening birthday or Christmas presents when inside the box is a puppy. Her sons would just cry and cry at them (this is like me with stray dog rescue videos), and they just wanted a big dog SO badly. Jillian and her husband didn’t HATE dogs, but I can confirm as a parent, sometimes, you just get to the point of like, if I have to clean up pee again, can it JUST be human pee? Not dog pee too? They’re a commitment and expensive.

But, in a moment of weakness, they agreed to FOSTER a dog. Jillian admits, she was a bad mom and basically asked for the George Clooney of dogs, as she described it. Like an impossibly well-behaved, crazy high expectations, because SURELY no rescue group would look at the application and be like, “Yep, we want this family and have the perfect dog for them!”

Then, two days after they had submitted their application, Top Dog Foundation that focuses on senior pups called and were like, “We have the PERFECT dog for you.” So, they go and pick up this long, short, corgi-looking dog named Layla, who had been surrendered by her elderly, former parents when they moved into an assisted living residence.

Jillian’s sons immediately took to being dog owners. They picked up poop, took her on walks, and threw slumber parties with her where she’d snuggle up between them.

They fostered her for seven weeks when they got the call that a family had been approved for her adoption and asked if they could make the move tomorrow. Jillian was kind of shocked and still not ever wanting to adopt a dog, but sad to see Layla go, agreed, and they dropped her off the next day to go to her forever family… She typed up detailed notes that she doesn’t do well in the heat, she sleeps with a nightlight, she loves ice cubes and car rides, and Crime Junkie podcast and handed her over. The boys had never cried so hard than that day, and for weeks afterward, all they could talk about were their memories of Layla. They would even pray for her before bed and wake up to tell each other stories of the dreams they had where Layla was there.

But, Layla wasn’t getting along with the cat at her new home (or rather, the cat was a bully to Layla), and the opportunity for Jillian and her family to bring Layla home came up, and they JUMPED on it! So now Layla is in her REAL forever home with parents and brothers who adore here. For father’s day, the boys made tie-dyed shirts for themselves and their dad, and even did a little bandana for Layla to match! She has a ton of personality, and even though she’s short, she insists on jumping up on things by herself and gloats when she succeeds. She has to take some medication every day, and sometimes, they’ll find her pill pushed under her bowl which means, she picked it up, spit it out, and then hid it so the family wouldn’t know. Which, I love imagining.

And to bring Crime Junkie back into it, Jillian said in the piece, and in my emails with her, that Layla is a MOMMY’S GIRL, like, velcro dog. Always by her side, so they listen to Crime Junkie together every Monday morning.

Click here to read the Love What Matters article about Layla.