Writing my next book “Second Chance Dog,” I spent a lot of time researching Freida’s life, tracking her history. I was helped greatly in my research by a woman who owned Frieda with her husband while Frieda was a guard dog protecting his auto body shop near Glens Falls, N.Y. She had been purchased by a “breeder” in the Adirondacks who sold Rottweiler-Shepherd mixes for $50 as guard animals. I’ll spare the details of Frieda’s treatment, but I did learn she escaped from the auto body shop, was loose for several weeks and came back pregnant. When her owner learned this, he put Frieda in his car drove up the New York State Thruway and let her out of the car near the Warrensburgh, N.Y., exit, the entry to the three-million acre Adirondack Park.

Frieda lived in the Adirondacks for several years. I imagine she had her babies and they died in the wild or survived and are roaming those woods still. Frieda made her way South back to the Glens Falls area and avoided the ASPCA for many months. When she was finally captured, she was in the shelter for nine months before Maria walked in the door and took her home.  I learned while researching the book that she saved a family by alerting them to a fire. She spent years protecting Maria, and watches over her still.She is a wild girl still, filled with love, loyalty, instinct and prey drive. But this is her time to be safe and secure, loved and protected. She does the same for us. She is, in fact, the Second Chance Dog.