Rescued from a Puppy Mill, Finn the Bichon Frise Is Now the 'Happiest, Most Grateful Animal'

Pet parents Alex and Lizzie describe the sweet bichon frise they know and love as "the ultimate survivor." You wouldn't know it from his disposition now, but their fluffy little ball of joy named Finn grew up in deplorable conditions. It wasn't until little Finn came to them as a foster pup that he had his first taste of what a life of love could look like.

The couple tells Daily Paws that Finn's long road to recovery began in March of 2019, when the pup was placed in their home through Angels Among Us, an Atlanta-based rescue group who found Finn—along with 700 other dogs—in horrible conditions. The only time he was taken out of his tiny crate was for breeding, and the neglect he'd experienced was something no animal should ever have to go through.

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Thankfully, Angels Among Us found foster homes for Finn and the other dogs from the situation. At the time, Lizzie and Alex thought they'd only care for Finn temporarily, with the goal of fostering him until he found an adoptive family. When he arrived, the pup was in rough shape. His fluffy white coat was stained from the dirt and feces he'd been kept in before being rescued. The nervous pooch would hardly even step over the threshold of his crate, and took a lot of coaxing until he would even come near them. "Everything was so scary and new," Lizzie says. He also had muscle atrophy from being stuck in a cage for so long, but Finn's issues weren't just physical. "Mentally, he didn't know how to do all the things that a dog was supposed to do," Lizzie says.

Before long, Finn had started transforming into the fun-loving dog he is today. Lizzie and Alex say their other pooch, an adorable caramel-colored floofball named Felix, was a huge part in helping Finn learn the ways of the world in his new home. "Finn took to Felix, our other dog, almost instantly," Alex says. "He started following him on cues for what to do and how things worked around here." The couple says it was the bond of these two cuties that helped them realize that Finn was home to stay, and decided to officially adopt the pup as one of their own. "We could not separate him from Felix because of how much he loved him."

Nowadays, they say Finn is just happy to be a member of their family. Whether he's cuddled up in the bed with Lizzie and Alex, playing with Felix, or bouncing with excitement at dinner time, they say everything Finn does brings their family joy. "He is the happiest, most grateful animal that I have ever met," Lizzie says. "It's for the better that we adopted him, and that he came to us. He is the perfect dog."