About Holy Roma

Our Saint

Some things happen by accident. Some things happen by design. And some things - the ones that change you - happen the day after you land in a new country with nothing but a suitcase and a lot of hope.

Roma was born the day after I immigrated to the United States. I got her at seven weeks old - a tiny American Staffordshire Terrier with fire in her belly and absolutely no idea what she was about to become.

She had other plans from the start.

At ten months old, never having set a paw in a show ring, Roma walked into her first dog show and won her breed and the terrier group. At eleven months she won the APBT UKC National Championship Best of Winners. She wasn't supposed to win. She was just an untrained bed hog. Nobody told her that.

She traveled the world with us. She lived fully and on her own terms. She was the kind of dog that made strangers stop on the street - not just because of how she looked, but because of what she carried. Something steady. Something warm. Something that made you feel like everything was going to be fine.

If any dog ever deserved to be called a saint, it was Roma.

When she passed, I wanted to build something around her. I kept coming back to the same thought — Roma was a saint. Not like a good girl. Like an actual saint. The real thing.

Turns out I wasn't the only one who felt that way about their dog.

Holy Roma is for all of them.

— Nika