In 2015, Wendy Wickersham learned about Gordon from a Facebook post describing the dog’s rescue. The Shiba Inu was saved by a Good Samaritan after surviving a hit-and-run in Taiwan that left him crippled and on the side of the road, according to the post, and is now looking for a home in the United States.
Wickersham, 47, tells PEOPLE exclusively in an interview for the 2022 PEOPLE’s World’s Cutest Rescue Dog Contest Presented by the PEDIGREE® brand, “I’m reading this sad narrative and then there was a picture of him and he’s got the biggest, goofiest smile.”
She moved on as she wasn’t wanting to get a pet at the time. But then, “I was browsing, and his face pops up again,” a few days later.
This time, Wickersham and her husband Jim Larson chose to begin the adoption process after being unable to turn away. To be ready for Gordon’s departure from Taiwan, the couple spent months working with Love and Second Chances, a California-based rescue assisting Gordon find a home. Wickersham and Larson made their home accessible for Gordon’s wheelchair, learned how to care for a crippled pet, and engaged a dog trainer to prepare their dog Yuki (who passed away in April) for the transition.
We had to give it everything, remembers Wickersham.
Gordon came in the US in November 2015, having submitted an adoption application in July 2015. At the airport, his new family picked him up and drove him home.
When seeing Gordon for the first time in person, Wickersham adds, “I don’t know who was more afraid, me or him.” The Shiba Inu changed from being “frightened” in his kennel to joyfully loving his first toy ball and “wanting to be held” over the course of the following few weeks.
Gordon’s dog mother explains, “It was about letting him realise that he was protected and that this is your home.”
