LEWISTON — Motto, the Chihuahua who was discovered desperately thin, neglected and eating trash on Bates Street, now has a home.
Kim Nixon, a yoga instructor and massage therapist who lives in Gardiner, adopted Motto from the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society in Lewiston earlier this month.
Motto is now, officially, Charlie Motto.
“He just looked like a ‘Charlie’ to me,” Nixon said. “But ‘Motto’ seems to be known far and wide, so I did want to keep his name somewhere in play, which is how he ended up with a first name and last name.”
Charlie Motto was found by a woman in early May and taken to the animal shelter. The shelter took him to veterinarian Stephen Kinney, who said at the time that the dog had “the worst case of dental neglect I have ever seen.”
Charlie Motto, who was estimated to be about 10 years old, had a large ulcer in his mouth and rotten teeth. He was so emaciated that his eyes were sunken and his bones protruded.
The vet pulled Charlie Motto’s teeth and ordered multiple mouth cleanings a day, daily medication and a special diet.
Police sought the dog’s original owner and shelter officials offered a reward for information leading to that person.
As news of the Chihuahua’s plight made headlines, humane society volunteer Laurie Marcotte was going through her own medical treatment. She’d been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in November and had endured eight rounds of chemotherapy, surgery, and was in the middle of more chemotherapy when she learned about the little dog found eating trash.
Marcotte, 52, had fostered 56 dogs in the past decade, but she knew shelter officials probably wouldn’t call her for this one, not wanting to bother her while she was so sick. So she called them.
“I said, ‘If that little dog that’s in the news needs foster care, I would be more than happy to take care of him through his ordeal,'” Marcotte said. “I was home all day long. I, too, was sick. And I had the time and the ability to take care of him.”
For two months, Marcotte and Motto healed together. When she was too sick to get out of bed, he cuddled with her. She finished her chemotherapy; he finished his antibiotics. She started to feel like her old self; he started to play and chase balls.
“He certainly gave me something to do and take my mind off it,” said Marcotte, who no longer has signs of cancer. “It truly was the first thing for me to do of my old life. It was great to be able to help him. It was a comfort. He was in a situation that was detrimental to his own life and I just really wanted to save him.”
In the days after the dog was found, the humane society received dozens of calls from people interested in adopting him. As time went on, that interest waned. By the time Motto had healed enough to be adopted two months later, Marcotte decided she had to start looking for a family for him.
Although the shelter would have the ultimate say in his adoption, Marcotte could help the process along. She had the ideal home in her head: a woman in her 50s who was retired or could make her own schedule, someone with another little dog (preferably female, since he adored Marcotte’s own Chihuahua-mix, Lilly), someone who believed in animal rescue and would dote on him.
The next day, Nixon reached out to Marcotte through the dog’s Facebook page. She was 56, a yoga instructor who was home throughout the day, who had a 14-year-old terrier named Ella and who was on the board of the Kennebec Valley Humane Society.
“It was crazy. It was like, she’s just what I want!” Marcotte said.
Nixon’s own rescued Chihuahua-mix, Eddie, had died a few months before. She wasn’t looking for another dog, but she’d just stumbled on Motto’s story. And she fell in love.
“I felt like it was fate,” Nixon said. “When I saw Motto’s picture and read his story, it was just like, ‘Oh my god, I have to take care of him.’ That was how I felt.”
Charlie Motto seemed to agree. Although Chihuahuas tend to be one-person dogs and he had already bonded to Marcotte, he went up to Nixon the moment she walked into the yard to visit him at his foster home.
“I wondered how that would go, but it was instant,” Nixon said.
She took him home that night.
“He just settled right in. It’s as though he’s always been here,” Nixon said. “You wouldn’t know he’s had a traumatic past.”
He gets along with Nixon’s other dog and her two cats. When he gets scared of the rain, Nixon soothes him.
Mostly, Charlie Motto spends his days snuggled up on the couch with a fuzzy blanket he quickly claimed as his own.
“I brought him home and it’s been happily ever after since,” Nixon said.
