The door is always open for dogs in Libbie Walthall’s heart

Libbie Walthall has an open-door policy for dogs. 

She has a soft spot for them. They are always wagging their tails at her feet. They are forever barking during “yappy hour” on the porch.

She cannot remember a time in her life when a dog wasn’t in it.

“I think I might have been born this way,’’ she said, laughing. “I have a natural feeling for animals. My mother and grandmother grew up that way.  Dogs. Cats. Birds. Rabbits. I’ve had them all with my children. It’s just a part of us. 

“We love our dogs. They are family.’’

Tuesday, August 26 is National Dog Day. It’s a day dedicated to the celebration of canines — both mixed breed and purebred — and to promote awareness of animal rescue.

The date is considered the universal birthday of all adopted dogs. For the past 12 years, National Dog Day on Aug. 26 has consistently trended No. 1 worldwide on Twitter (now “X”).

Walthall has been an advocate for animal rescue for more than a decade. She fosters dogs for Catherine Wood, of Rock On Rescue of Middle Georgia.

She has three dogs of her own — Fresca, Bear and Lily Bean — who watch a revolving door of fur babies come through her Monroe County home from shelters in three counties.

 Many of her foster dogs are like weary travelers at a rest stop. They want nothing more than a safe place to land. They have been neglected in back yards, dumped on the side of the road and rescued from sidewalks in front of grocery stores.

Their emotional luggage is heavy, and their physical conditions are fraught with heartworms and chemical burns. She once kept a foster dog who was blind, and another that was deaf, at the same time.

The animals arrive with names like Percy, Ellie, Maple, Willow, Lemon and Luke. She loves them unconditionally and gives them a new “leash” on life.

Sometimes she becomes so attached she gives them the key to her house … and heart.

In 2011, she received a dog through Maine Lab Rescue. She had him with her in the car when she pulled up to the drive-thru window at Zaxby’s on Zebulon Road.

“I want y’all to see my new dog,’’ she said to the employees. “What should I name him? I’ll tell you what. Let’s name him Zaxby.’’

Two years later, on July 6, 2013, Walthall and her daughter, Allison, were seriously injured in a car accident on Interstate 16 near Savannah. Allison’s dog, Bella, died in the wreck. 

After weeks in the hospital, followed by months of extensive recovery and rehabilitation, Walthall returned home … and Zaxby was there.

“When I walked in that door, he never left my side,’’ she said.

Zaxby died in 2023, five months after Walthall moved from her home in Macon to Monroe County, north of Smarr. 

A black lab arrived for fostering in the spring of 2016. Her name was Raven but she might as well have been called Serendipity. Walthall had no idea the dog was pregnant. Raven birthed eight puppies in a plastic kiddie swimming pool in the laundry room. 

Another lab named Gracie had been left in an outdoor kennel after her owner died. She was deaf. Walthall took her in when she was 12 years old. 

“She followed me, and we got attached,’’ Walthall said. “She would look in my eyes like she knew what had happened to her and knew she had been rescued. 

“She was a homebody who wanted to be with me. And, even though she couldn’t hear me talking to her, she wanted to be right there beside me.’’

Gracie died this past December. 

There have been times when Walthall has fostered as many as 20 dogs at a time. Now, the number has leveled off to around half that number.

She said the three dogs she owns all get along and are patient and good-natured with different housemates that come in and out the door.

  And that door is always open. Walthall wouldn’t have it any other way.