Vanessa Marie Rose, a digital strategist from Canada, fell head over heels in love the first time she looked into her rescue dog Toby's eyes.
However, when she looked into Toby's ears, she found an unpleasant surprise: tiny Toby had been tattooed on the tender skin inside his ear.
Fluffy white Toby is cute as can be, but he didn't have an easy life before he met Vanessa. Like this sweet pup who was skinny and scared before finding a happy family, little Toby went through a lot before he finally landed at an awesome shelter called Snookie's Society.
Fortunately, the shelter took great care of Toby and found him his home. Vanessa was waiting with open arms for this little love. Together, they have both made each other's lives so much better.
More recently, Vanessa decided that she wanted to express solidarity with her cuddly rescue dog for all of the scary things he experienced before he came home.
When she found the tattoo hidden inside his ear, it didn't take long for Vanessa to figure out exactly what she needed to do next.
Vanessa Marie Rose recently took to Twitter with an incredible story.
The digital strategist, who lives in Toronto, adopted a sweet little pup named Toby after she met him in a shelter called Snookie's Society.
Toby had a tough history of his own, as Vanessa discovered when she adopted him. She found a tiny tattoo in his ear, probably placed there as a kind of serial number.
In honor of Toby's tough start in life and her own love of the little pooch, she got Toby's tattoo, the number "05" inked in her own ear.
Snookie's Society rescued Toby from a high-kill shelter in Ohio, scooping him up just before his time ran out.
They took care of the little pooch and introduced him to his new mama, Vanessa.
Vanessa told BuzzFeed that as soon as they met, "I just had to have him."
She brought him home to join her and her cat Tyler. Together, they make a sweet little family of three.
For Toby, his new family is a far cry from the life he'd previously led. Before landing in the Ohio kill shelter, Toby was used as a breeding dog by some sort of puppy mill operation.
It's likely that he was tattooed there, the "05" acting as a kind of breeding serial number.
According to BuzzFeed, he spent his first six years trapped in a cage. He was let out only occasionally, and rarely got much exercise. As a result, he was left with back problems and stunted growth from being trapped in a cage.
Not surprisingly, poor little Toby also suffered from a lot of anxiety problems.
Toby's anxiety issues only got worse when he was passed from one cruel and abusive owner to another. In addition to his tattooed ear, he was continually mistreated. He was eventually surrendered because his anxiety made him "not a good enough pet."
Fortunately, Vanessa knows a bit about mental distress. She adopted Toby just as she was dealing with some mental health issues of her own, and she says that together, they saved each other.
More than six months after adopting Toby, Vanessa decided to get the permanent mark that shows just how much she and her pooch have gone through, separately and together.
Her newly inked tattoo reads "05" just like Toby's. According to her Twitter profile, "Today I marked myself so I could be with my dog forever."
We can't think of a sweeter way for her to show little Toby just how much she loves him.
If you love this darling story of a darling rescue pup and his devoted mama, be sure to SHARE for every dog lover you know!
