At nearly 10 years old, Marnie was found by Animal Control, smelly and matted on the streets of Connecticut in August 2012. She went unclaimed and was moved to a shelter where they named her Stinky. After 4 months at the shelter she was adopted via a petfinder.com post. They said she was blind in her left eye, which looked gray & cloudy, and she would never see from that eye again. She also really did smell bad.
Exhibit A: “Stinky” aka Marnie the day she was adopted
Stinky took a MetroNorth train with her new bae Shirley down to her new home in NYC and stunk up the whole train. She was soon renamed Marnie after musician Marnie Stern, and started smelling nice after 14 decaying teeth were extracted. While it may seem as though this is the reason for her tongue hanging out, if you look at Exhibit A, you can see her tongue was hanging out even when all her teeth were intact. The reality is Marnie just has a long tongue, and has always had a long tongue, and its awesome, and she licks it every few minutes to keep it from getting too dry, and when it’s snowing she puts her tongue back in. Marnie’s eyes are the window to her soul, but much can be gleaned from the status of her tongue.
Many people have asked about Marnie’s head tilt….According several veterinarians, Marnie once experienced a brief illness called Vestibular Syndrome. Many owners mistakenly think their dog is dying or having a stroke when they actually have Vestibular Syndrome, and most dogs are able to recover in a few weeks and continue living normal, pain-free and happy lives— sometimes with a head-tilt.
Soon after being adopted, the cloudiness in Marnie’s left eye slowly began to clear up and turns out she is not at all blind. As Marnie became more comfortable and confident in her new home, her personality began to shine through. When the bae started to take Marnie out to small parties and social situations, Marnie felt happier than ever.
Marnie’s favorite activity is running up and down long carpeted hallways. She also enjoys smelling everything especially grass, exploring new spaces, long walks in nice weather, partying, and lots and lots of sleeping. Her favorite foods are broccoli, chicken, watermelon, muffins, greek yogurt and eggs. Marnie doesn’t like baths, but the only thing she truly hates is being left home alone, and she experiences a lot of anxiety when this happens. She won’t even touch her favorite treats until her bae returns. So basically, Marnie gets to go everywhere.
Senior rescue dogs are known for being especially grateful and loyal to their new owners for giving them a second chance on life, and Marnie lives every day exemplifying this joy and gratitude.
Marnie is the most popular rescue dog on Instagram. If you see her in the streets of NYC, please say hi.
