If your dog is a rescue........

[Pam]

Ripley is my only rescue. Bella was 2 years old and I was getting the itch to have another dog. I have always had two dogs at once and after 2 years the itch was getting stronger. My early thoughts were that I would probably adopt a pug puppy since I have admired them for years but have never owned one.

My daughter and I were at the shelter one day where she had gotten her cat. She was turning in the paperwork which stated that she had been spayed. It is the policy at this shelter to give you a small refund if you provide proof after adopting that you have spayed/neutered your pet.

Well, before leaving, she and I decided to just "look" at the dogs. We didn't get far before I saw this horribly matted little mess of a poodle sitting in a litter box with a blanket on it. I spoke to him and he very timidly walked over to the side of the cage to see me. His tail was trying to wag but he was very very timid. I couldn't see his eyes or anything else for that matter. He was a mess and didn't smell so good and his hip bones were very evident. He was a stray and had obviously been on his own for a while. I went into the cage and sat on the floor to see what he would do. (My daughter did one of these when I did that! LOL!) Anyway, he very timidly walked over to me and sat himself in my lap. That sealed the deal! I fell in love with this sweet little soul and after the 9 day waiting period was over (to see if anyone claimed him) he was mine! I still adore pugs and maybe one day will have one, but somehow my heart has always belonged to poodles so Ripley is now my 6th.

[CountryWolf07]

Anna.. well.. my dad was the one who found her.. My dad knew she was the right dog.. she was given up by her owner.. and dumped to us at the SHELTER..

[Tonya]

Dusty had been at the shelter for months. They'd liked him enough to keep him alive that long, but it was finally his last week. He was so estatic when we brought him outside that I had to keep him. I couldn't imagine such a happy dog being put to sleep. Now, two years later, his excessive happiness is what drives me nuts. lol.

Roxy came from a sled dog rescue. The thing that made me fall in love with her was how she got on her tummy and crawled to Jaden. It was so sweet. She is so awesome with kids and small animals.

She was one year old and supposedly had been kenneled with no socialization all of her life. I don't know what the deal is, but she knows every obedience command and is one of the mellowest dogs I have ever had. Someone worked with her.

[sabies]

Sadie was like Simba and Kia - in a corner of her cage looking like a trembling shadow. When she was let out she would crawl rather than walk but after one night at home she knew she no longer had to cower.

She was and is small, gentle, and quiet yet very active at times - just what I was looking for.

[RubyMutt]

I saw Ruby on petfinder.org before I met her "in person". I had been looking for a dog for a few months - still getting over the death of a previous dog, but greatly missing a canine companion. I had no specific breed in mind - I just knew it HAD to be a rescue. I searched PetFinder for an adult medium sized dog at a shelter in my area. It actually eventually came down to two dogs - my Ruby and a BC mix named Echo. Echo's shelter was very hard to deal with (long story) so we drove nearly 2 hours to Ruby's shelter to meet her. We fell in love with her and "the rest is history"

[CathyBogart]

We went to an adoption "just to look", and my mother was looking at a very sweet rotty mix when Star quietly stood up and placed her front paws on the top of her pen and smiled up at us. We looked at her and couldn't leave without her. We had been thinking off and on about getting a dog for almost a year, and she just clicked with us.

She was perfect too: Energetic but not ridiculously so, and mid-sized at about 25lbs.

I was no tthere when the family chose Wilbur. We knew we wanted a second dog, and my family visited an adoption while I was on vacation. I can't say that I blame them though, he has been nothing but wonderful!

[Lissa]

I randomly happened to visit a friend one night and they had just found a puppy being abused. they already had 6 dogs and 3 cats and would have kept her but after I held her then saw the look on my boyfriends face when he held her I started shaking and smiling and said I would love to take her. Originally I was going to keep her for maybe a week and help them find a new home for her since I wasn't a dog person and already had 2 cats but after a week I knew she was going to stay. It cost a lot of money, she had worms pretty bad and flee's plus broken teeth. She slept for a week straight when I got her then slowly became the hyper non-sleeping dog that i love. Nothing has made me happier in years, she is my baby.

[anna_66]

Of our 3 only Huney was a rescue.

A co-worker of mine knew that I had a chow before and wanted to know if I knew of any rescues because someone had dumped a chow at her brothers in the country. She had taken some food out, but could never get her. So I said my neice & I would try.
So after I got off work we went over and pretty much "chased" her everywhere. If we got too close to her, she'd bolt. After a while I was ready to give up, but Ashley said "Are you sure you don't want me to try one more time?" Of course I did and lo and behold she got her to come over to her! So we scooped her up and put her in the car. She didn't move, just laid there.
Well, needless to say we weren't even thinking of keeping her, but after a week had gone by, Mark finally said "Well, you better get her spayed if she's going to be staying"
I was elated! And since, she has been nothing but sweet, lovable and the best girl you could ever want

[Tonya]

Wow, Anna. Huney is one beautiful rescue. All these dogs are so beautiful. It's so hard to imagine that someone actually dumps them off.

[lovemyshiba]

Abbey came from a beagle rescue here in town. We knew we wanted a second dog so Kito would have a playmate, and we applied through PAWS to adopt a dog. I told the woman there how much I loved beagles, and they didn't have any, but she gave our number to the man who ran the beagle rescue. he called us at 5pm on a Friday night, and we were on our way by 7. When we got there, he had 15 beagles--Abbey was the one who would just lay there and let all of the other dogs bite at her, play, wrestle, and just take everything, so we brought her home!!

I went to the SPCA one day, and was on my way out, when a woman got out of her car with a little black fluffball and yelled "hey, do you want a puppy?" I told her no, that I couldn't get one right now, and she told me she was on her way in to surrender him, because he whined too much and was a big baby. I took Riley in my arms, and drove him home right then.

We went to the SPCA again a month ago, and found a beautiful rottie in the back of her kennel, not making a sound. They told us she was mean, but we took her out anyway. My husband went back 4 times, and then we went together and brought Jada home.

[tomkatzid]

We found Ashlee on the internet. I wanted a dog small enough to wash in the sink. What was I thinking, look at those long legs !!! I went to see her in foster care. I liked another dog there too, a black part Newfi. Way too big for us. But he was so cute. A few days later the foster Mom brought Ashlee to our house for a visit. Tom knew right away that she was 'the one'. We called the next day to say we would like to adopt her. Then we still had to wait for the weekend to get her. Her name was ASHER and we changed it to ASHLEE, but we call her both. We took her to PetSmart on the way home for a collar and then to the park for a walk. She jumped out of the truck, over Tom's shoulder to get out as soon as he opened the canapy door. She hates car and truck rides still. But loves it when we get there.




We wanted a small dog , but no one in our shelters. So to the internet again. I found Curly, about 3 hrs away. I waited 3 days to call, a Saturday. The lady told me 'she was PTS this morning do to over population'. I cried for hours, knowing it was my fault. Tom said to look on their site again . Then we saw NINA. I called and put her on hold. We drove with Ashlee the 3 hrs to eastern WA. and Tom went in. I stayed in the car. He was back out in minutes, saying 'come in come in, she is so cute and nice'. We played with her in a little fenced area and the girls got along well. That was that, dog daughter #2 was ours !!

I asked about Curly and was told she had been adopted out 3 times and brought back 3 times. Poor poor pup.

[Sudilar]

I was called out to our kill shelter to check out a Great Pyr that was turned in. My daughter walked around to the last set of cages and saw a sickly, emaciated GSD. We went home to get my husband to go adopt the Great Pyr. When we got back to the shelter, I went over to tell the GSD that I chose the Great Pyr because she should be harder to adopt out because of her size. When I went to tell Killian that I was taking the Pyr, I could not. As I checked him over, I knew he was in the last row....death row, sickly, 69 lbs. What chance did he have? We adopted the GSD, Killian. I spoke to the counseler and told her that if no one adopted the Pyr, that I would take her too. Luckily she was adopted.
Two years later, Shiloh was coming out of fostering to be placed back in the shelter. There was a walkathon and she chose us. She and Killian got along wonderfully. Who would have known that she was not exactly dog friendly. I had no intention of adopting that day, but apparently, she did! LOL

[Andie]

Bull was left on my dad's friend Teddy's porch on Christmas 2001. I actually do remember him as a puppy cuz Dad and Ted were working on our house at the time and Ted doesn't go anywhere without his dog Lug (and Bull just tagged along with Lug). Well, they guess that Bull got into the horse pasture behind Ted's house and got trampled. Ted doesn't believe in vet's I guess because Bull never had his hindend fixed ( Lug's never been to the vet either) Bull crawled around Ted's yard for a while til he could finally walk again and Ted decided that he didn't want Bull anymore. Ted was going to have someone take him off and shoot him but Dad took him to find a "good home". I still think Dad knew I'd want him and it was just his way to keep Mom from getting mad at him. (She didn't want another dog). So I did the begging thing and they finally "gave in" May of last year. Now I can't remember life without him!

[stacwase]

I've rescued 2 dogs from shelters.

I knew Max was the dog for me because, even though he was huge and could have torn her apart, a little girl volunteering at the shelter with her mom walked right up to him holding a tiny puppy in her arms. She wasn't the slightest bit scared, because she knew he was gentle! Then when I took him for a little walk around the shelter grounds he took off and jumped in the first open car he saw - and I love a dog who loves car rides. Also, he's physically so beautiful that he just took my breath away.

I chose Pepper because her little body went into spasms of delight when I walked up to her kennel door! The people at the kennel were shocked that I wanted her. She was filthy and matted and full of burs and definitely wasn't cute at that time. She was such a sweet and affectionate little pooch, though. I had to wait to take her home - to give her owners time to find her if they wanted her. It's very cold where I live, and the shelter was unheated and it was December! So I brought in a dogloo for her and a bunch of blankets. When I was bringing her home I had her sitting at my feet and I was putting the dogloo into the back of the van. She jumped right up into it the second I set it down. It was "hers" already.

[Dawn]

Ginger was a rescue. She was in a home with a young couple that had 2 very small children. They didn't know anything about dogs and were frustrated with her and were bringing her to the local shelter. I intercepted. She was very ill, never been to a vet, on a poor diet (they were feeding her that nasty food that looks like hamburger meat in plastic baggies) Her belly was so swollen from worms-she looked like an Ethiopian child!
The vet said the worms should have killed her and it took 7 treatments to get rid of them!
The people had been keeping her locked in a bathroom with no paper-so she had no clue she wasn't supposed to go poddie on the floor. I'm still having a hard time teaching her to go outside. They obviously had been beating her - she was scared of everything!!
They told me she kept hurting the baby, so they had to keep yelling at her and locking her up. (god knows what "the baby" did to her-because she still is terrified of small children!)
It took months to get her over her fears and it took months to get her healthy, she had complications when she got spayed. She just wouldn't heal. The vet said we probably should have waited a little longer-cause she hadn't built up enough strength yet and her imunity system still hadn't recovered enough.
Well, she made it thru. She is doing better now. She is a very hyper pup, which I didn't realize at first-she was so sick and unhealthy she didn't have the energy. She does now!!!
She and Tyr get along great and he needed a playmate-so she'll probably be staying with us.