Mia
The View's Mutt Show Finalist Makes California Debut
This past February, when five adoptable ASPCA pooches were featured on The View's First Annual Mutt Show, one of Cupid’s arrows hit its mark on the other side of the country. While 2 ½-month-old German shepherd mix Mia frolicked in front of the cameras in New York, Larry and Sheila Alberg watched from Bakersfield, CA, and fell deeply in love.
Says Sheila, “As I was watching The View I simply thought, ‘How cool! All these dogs will probably find homes today! Then Mia walked out. It seems crazy to have a connection via a recorded television show filmed nearly 3,000 miles away, but the second I saw her I knew she belonged in our family.”
Driving from California to the ASPCA Adoption Center in New York City to pick up a dog she’d never met was the last thing Sheila imagined herself doing. “Last year we lost our Chesapeake Bay retriever and our German shepherd,” she says. “I was still grieving and felt that adopting would somehow be a betrayal of our boys, but the compassion the ASPCA staff showed was unparalleled—and when I hugged Mia, I felt for the first time that I could let go of the loss.”
As you are reading this, Mia and her new family, which includes a five-month-old Lab named Lincoln, are bonding in their motor home on their way back to California—and according to Sheila, the newly adopted pup is already part of the pack. “Mia’s the sweetest social butterfly you'll ever meet,” she reports, but the pooch also knows how to stand her ground. “She's madly in love with Lincoln and enjoys roughhousing with him when we stop for the night, but she’s tough and doesn't take any guff from him either.”
As they head west along Interstate-44, Sheila admits she can't wait to get home to show Mia her new yard. And if traveling together is any indication of life to come, the Albergs have a cornucopia of cuddles in their future. Says Sheila, “In this cramped 40-foot space, Mia and Lincoln somehow always end up on our bed. It's really sweet to wake up and see them sleeping right next to us.”
"Kudos and hugs to Eileen, Destiny and all the other wonderful people at the ASPCA,” Sheila raves. “They carefully checked our references. And the education they insist on giving adopting families gave us a whole new start with Mia.”