Sweet Pea (Formerly ZuZu)

This is not an adoption story, since Sweet Pea (a 4-6 year old black & white cocker spaniel) has lived with us for eight months now. It's an update on much a special dog has added another dimension of happiness to our lives:

We sure did find a great dog in Sweet Pea! She is such a dear! She & our 6 yr old grand daughter became best buddies last month and Sweet Pea obviously mourned when Maya went back to NJ. Both the dog & our other grand daughter, 4 yr old Sophie, truly love each other and see each other several times a week. We're going to have another grand daughter in January, so it will be interesting to see how she reacts to a baby. (I'm talking about both Sweet Pea and Sophie in this case!)

Sweet Pea is good about stopping when I holler "No!" when she runs after yard critters - and has yet to run off - or even into the street (thank goodness). She feels compelled to guard us from mice in the basement and spends hours listening & watching. To my knowledge, she has yet to catch any.....

A few weeks ago she was quite naughty... during the night, Sweet Pea stole from the pantry - a package of wild rice-blueberry pancake mix and then ripped it apart in the living room! She must have added water to it, as by morning it was caked on the carpet! She managed to spread the dust everywhere and I have had to "trim" the carpet to get the crusty part off. What a mess! Although we told her she was a bad dog, we couldn't help but laugh! A naughty dog is so much more fun than a boring one! :>)

The July heat & humidity was tough on her, so I had her clipped extremely short. Surprise! Her leg feathering is really SPOTS! Her legs look like a Dalmatian's! Pretty cute. Now that it's getting cold again, I'll let her grow out more. I love that she has so many curly cow-licks on her head - just like me!

Although she is boarded at least once a month, she truly like the people at the kennel - and they like her, so that makes me feel less guilty. Every day I am grateful that she came into our lives. I still cannot fathom how someone could have let her go and will always wonder what happened.

Dianne

Our Sweet Casper

When I moved from an apartment to a house in the fall of 2005, I immediately starting looking for a dog to adopt from one of the local rescue groups. Casper with SDR caught my eye, and not just because of his cute face. His description said he would "need a home that can give him a little extra love" - I thought, I've got extra love to give! The first time I held him he was shaking with fright and I knew he was the one for me...a little boy who needed to be shown that humans can be kind and loving.

It took him about 3 weeks for his first bark, and then one morning he was rooting around in the sheets of the bed and I knew he was starting to feel comfortable. Leaves blowing across a sidewalk and people approaching him too quickly took a little longer to get over. Over the course of a few months, he really came out of his shell and what a sweet, gentle, loving personality he has! He has fully accepted my husband into his life, though each night Casper first curls up next to me, reminding his Daddy that was in my life first :) He's now living the life all dogs should: snoozes on the couch, belly rubs, walks in the park and of course, lots of yummy treats.

Casper brings so much happiness into our lives, and he also opened my eyes to the horrific world of puppy mills. Though he has made tremendous progress in becoming a "normal" dog, I think some of the horrors from his former life must still haunt him as certain noises and shadows make him tremble. Such awful, awful places puppy mills are!

Casper definitely changed our lives for the better. My husband and I have since adopted another wonderful puppy mill rescue and we are now a doggy foster home. Casper inspired us to raise awareness about puppy mills and I make drives to Iowa, South Dakota etc to pick up recently rescued dogs, just like Casper.

Our Sweet Casper is not about 11 years and I can see that the quickness in his step is slowing but each night when I get home from work, I get a greeting that melts my heart. Thanks you SDR for rescuing Casper and bringing him into my life. He has truly changed my world and I will not stop the fight against puppy mills until they're gone!

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New Life for Old Min-Pins

My first experience with adopting a dog from a rescue society was so life changing, there was no doubt I would repeat the adventure in the future. My first rescue was Angel, an old min pin who had lived her entire life in a puppy mill. She didn't bark, play with toys, walk up stairs or on a leash. She was the most amazing dog and we were able to provide her with 7 glorious years of non-puppy mill life. She passed away this summer at the age of 16 with all of us by her side. Her passing was very hard but it also taught me a great lesson...this world is full of puppies, happy loveable puppies! The greatest kept secret are older dogs. Not a day goes by that I don't think Angel appreciated her end of life home and family and with a little work she came out of her shell, learned potty training and was a fabulous dog. There was not a doubt in my mind that I would adopt another senior.

Zeus and Zena made my heart sink! Two 11 year old min pins born together and lived throughout their lives together...and separated for fostering. Two dogs is always a lot to handle, but two older dogs is a different story. They don't need to be constantly supplied with toys, exercise and supervision. Older dogs love to nap and cuddle. It took Zeus about 3 weeks to get over his anxiety of a new home (the heavy breathing, panting, etc) He followed me from room to room. He cuddles at night, does his business where he's supposed too and has shed some of his excess weight! He had problems with arthritis and walking, but with a bit of weight loss he's back to perfect health. Zeus was the quite one...Zena was the leader and I couldn't wait to get these two back together. Zena was right at home immediately, but she was very wary of strangers. Like Zeus, she also cuddles at night, does her business where she's supposed to do and has slowly started to lose some weight. In th
e past few weeks we've noticed their amazing little personalities....Zena is the 'guard dog' of the family, never missing a leaf fall or a squirrel run by and Zeus is the trouble maker, into any bag on the floor and even having survived eating two bags of M&M's! They both go for walks in the mornings, they sit for treats and are very patient around the neighborhood kids.

Older dogs are often over looked for being un-trainable and not as much 'fun'. Any dog can be trained and re-trained as long as patience is first on your list. Rescue dogs come from tragic situations and there is nothing quick about getting them 'normal' but it is achievable as I've seen with three dogs now. Small dogs live years longer than larger dogs, even with these two being 11 I know they'll be in our lives for many years to come and what makes it so comforting is knowing they will have had the best years of their little lives being with us.

Miss Tallulah

Well since adopting Tallulah a few weeks ago, we have surely learned what we have been missing out on by not having a youngster in the house again. She is so full of life, so curious (sometimes overly) and so hilarious (free entertainment for sure!). Our older dog, Casey, a papillon, is a rescue from a hoarding situation and has a lot of issues, some of which he is seeming to overcome with the addition of such a social butterfly like Tallulah. Since she loves people and is so interested in checking everything out (I mean everything!) Casey has become less shy about being approached by strangers when we are out and about, and although they are not yet bosom buddies (he gets irritated when she pounces on him or steals his chewies, and she at him when he cuddles down on her bed) they will look for one another when separated for too long, and they play chase in the back yard. That someone could have given her up after having her a year is something we can't understand, but then w
e would never have been so lucky and gotten to adopt her if they hadn't. She is working hard on learning manners (like not jumping sky high so someone will pay attention to her, and not barking at every noise outside, which is really really hard when it's so nice out and all the windows are open and the sound of a squirrel running through the fallen leaves is soooo tempting!) and finding ways to push Casey's buttons (and ours!). She loves car rides, people on motorcycles and bicycles are worthy of a good growl or bark, especially if they are in the next lane at a stoplight, and everything and anything must be chewed, or at minimum, tasted. If it's on the floor or the ground, it's fair game to Tallulah. Thank you SDR, we are grateful that we found you and that you found us worthy of being her forever home.
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