A note from Spirt Deer......

[MtnCamper]

This note is copy and pasted by permission of SD.

Last year, about the time PUT imploded, I read a post from someone regarding //www.petfinder.com . I had never heard of it or thought about finding pets online. Thanks to that post, I checked them out. Eventually, we found a shelter fifty miles from us, where we got our first kitty, Louis. A couple weeks later, we found a shelter 350 miles away, which needed a home for our newest huskies, Sparky and Sugar. We drove all the way there and back the same day, in frigid January temperatures and a wind chill of minus forty, to pick them up and add them to the family. A couple months later, it was back to Petfinder to locate a companion kitty for Louis, and Jack joined the family.

These four have been wonderful additions to our family. The new dogs gave a much-needed distraction to one of our four senior huskies during her last days when she was ill, and a great comfort to us after her loss. They've enlivened the other seniors too, who now play like dogs about five years younger than their fourteen year age. The cats, especially the brat Jack, are both loving and amusing. I could go on and on about how wonderful these shelter pets are, but suffice it to say we treasure each one of them and feel so lucky to have them.

I just wanted to say thanks to whoever posted to PUT about Petfinder. I don't know if that person is on this forum, but I can't post to PUT so I hope the message gets through. My chance reading of that post changed our lives for the better, and certainly changed the lives of our four new, much loved pets.

Rae and Fred calling the Minnesota BWCA home
Five huskies
Two kitties
1986 GMC Safari towing a 1995 Palomino Filly named Filly
1983 Itasca Sunflyer motorhome named Arvie

[Miss-Teri]

Not sure who posted the link for Petfinders - could have been Angel's mom, Tim5055, or any of us, but I'm am so glad that the new pets are not only enriching their lives, but that the animals likewise have found a wonderful "forever" home!
Rescue is a tough job for anyone in it, but happy endings like this are what keep us in it!  I recently went to one of the shelters that I rescue from for our Rescue and the AC officer had tranquilized all the animals, and half had already been euthanized where they fell asleep, including a fullblood Pekingese.  
I'd been doing rescue for 9 years, so I was used to just about everything, but now and then things still get me.  I walked over a few dead dogs that hadn't been bagged yet, and looked in a run filled with groggy awake puppies, asleep puppies, dead puppies (he stopped euthanizing when I called and said I was on my way so I could take a look), and some small adult dogs.  
I chose a few sleeping animals and took them out to my car where my oldest daughter was waiting.  She looked at the unconsious bundles and said, "How do you do this?!"  I held up a pup that I knew would wake up soon and said, "This is why."
Happy stories are so appreciated!  For Rae and Fred - Thanks for sharing - that type of ending, and the lives saved are what keep rescue people plugging on, regardless of whether it was one of their own rescues or some other rescued animal saved by a caring family!  Merry Christmas!!!

[brainpause]

http://larryandhollycrockett.com/vin1.jpg
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http://larryandhollycrockett.com/vin3.jpg
http://larryandhollycrockett.com/vin4.jpg

This little guy left me about 5 years ago, but I still think of him all the time. I got him less than a year after moving to Nashville for graduate school, while I was still single. I needed that companionship. And he provided it well.

His story is sorta like those above. I found him at the Nashville Humane Assn. He had been abused, and was rescued based on a neighbor's call to the Assn. I knew he was mine the moment I saw him (I had been going to the shelter for MONTHS, but no dog really appealed to me, even the cute ones!). Vincent had a bandage around his front leg where he had been shot, and they had set a broken leg. He was about a year old, and how fitting that a nursing student would get a dog with injuries!

He only lived to be about 3, as he ruptured a disk in his back, which paralyzed him in about 2 days. That was the most painful thing I've ever done: Watching my dog waste into paralyzation (this includes my grandfathers' deaths). And then deciding that I couldn't afford his surgery and having to put him down.

That dog lived an abusive wild life. But the moment I showed him some love and put him in my truck, he never wanted to leave my side. Even when I was mad at him for crapping all over the house.

Sorry to be longwinded. But I really encourage people to "rescue" animals. I have heard and experienced these stories of how rescued animals seem to be a little more loving and a little more special. The animals appear to APPRECIATE the love given.

Larry

[Tim5055]

I am happy folks are looking at rescue organizations  Purchases at pet stores usually do nothing more than support out of control breeding practices.

[Gone-Camping]

We didn't rescue Dante from a shelter, we took him away from an abusive home. The original owner let his children run amuck, jumping on the dog, pulling his tail & ears. Then "Spot" would get PO'd and bite them, and considering he's part Dalmation and part Pit Bull that would be a very dangerous bite. The owner would then beat the dog. My step-son saw this going on and told the owners wife he was going to take the dog away, he couldn't stand seeing him treated that way. A quick call to "GrandMa" and the dog was snatched away and brought here.
 
He was renamed from "Spot" to "Dante" and given a lot of love an attention. His world was shook again last November when "GrandMa" passed away, he then became nobody in particular's dog, but between myself and Step-son, we've basically adopted him as one of our extended little family.
 
Life can be cruel...or it can be great! Depends on what ya put into it!

[gr8grandpa]

I do not know if it was my post or not but I posted on here for someone to try petfinders. I found my little black poodle on there after my other one got hit by a truck. I got her a year ago yesterday and named her Eve.

[MtnCamper]

If any of you want to reply directly to SD, The post is on Popupportal.com.

[griffsmom]

I have only ever gotten my animals from animal shelters. About 5 years ago, we adopted a cat that had been shot in the hind leg--with a bullet, not a BB type pellet--and it had completely shattered her femur.  Someone had found her about two weeks after it had happened and she was barely alive.  They took her to the shelter and a local non-proft organization spent thousands of dollars to save her life and her leg.  (A good reason to donate to those types of organizations!)  When I found her at the shelter, she had five very painful-looking metal posts coming out her leg where they were trying to hold all the bits together inside.  The second I saw her, I knew she needed me (or actually I needed her since I was trying to find my cat that had been "lost" and I was in denial that a coyote had probably gotten him) Anyway, we became her foster parents and I used to take her to all her kitty orthopedic surgery appointments.  When she was evetually released from treatment, the shelter let us adopt her.  We've had her now about 5 years and she will always walk with a severe limp, but she doesn't seem to even be cognizant of her leg.  When the kitty voices in her head go off, she races up and down our stairs at about 70 mph and even though she only weighs about 7 pounds, she routinely kicks our other cat's booty and he weighs more than twice what she does!

[B-flat]

18 years ago on Christmas Eve I adopted "Taffi", a little Terrier-Poodle mix.  She died in August of this year and was buried beside my beloved German Shepherd.  Taffi was such a sweet and talented dog whose middle name was "ride" or "go" and I still miss her so much.  Even in her old age, when I picked up my pocketbook, she was ready to go for a ride wherever I went.  She would travel anywhere and was very sad when she couldn't go in "hot weather."  However, she seemed to understand the words, "too hot."  Taffi brought a lot of fun and happiness to my children when they were growing up.  After they had left home and came home for visits, she would get very playful with recognition the minute they came in the door.  Since Ajocko preceded her in death and he too was such a great companion and play pal to "Taffi," we had her buried beside him.

[NightOwl]

For years we had Yorkshire Terriers (bought from a private breeder, just like our Himalayan cats)  They were wonderful pets--not high-strung, very well-behaved, smart and funny, and had the courage of a tiger in the body of a butterfly--also they were very portable and we took them on all our vacations.  Great companions for our kids.  And the Himalayans were  so wise and beautiful and loving.  but that was years ago and they are all dead now and greatly missed.    BUT----

They have been replaced by a dog we rescued as a tiny puppy (dumped paralyzed at our farm) and three cats we rescued from the streets as kittens.  They are WONDERFUL PETS in every way!  Our adoring  affection for them borders on worship.  

And we would not DREAM of  buying purebred cats or dogs now.  If we outlive the ones we have, we'll go to our local animal shelter for their  successors.  Our children  are also parents of "shelter animals"    We all feel it is a moral obligation. All you have to do is go to a shelter and look an animal in the face who is begging for love--it  would melt the hardest heart to see those pleading eyes.

[Acts 2:38 girl]

I've always wanted a Cocker Spaniel!  Browsing, browsing.......

[vjm1639]

Our precious pooch was from a rescue league too.  He hadn't been abused, just not wanted as a puppy.  I wasn't even planning on getting a dog at the time, but the moment I picked up that bundle of fluff I knew he was mine.  He's been the best dog I've ever had.

[griffsmom]

We all feel it is a moral obligation. All you have to do is go to a shelter and look an animal in the face who is begging for love--it would melt the hardest heart to see those pleading eyes.

How right you are!  Whenever I have gone to a shelter to look for amissing animal or to get another, my heart has broken and I have ALWYS left crying-- sad that I couldn't take them all home and furious that people aren't more responsible in taking care (or more accurately, their lack thereof!) of animals.

[julecav]

I have to agree whole-heartedly.  My little peanut mutt is the best.  She is a great camping dog, wonderful with the kiddies and I love her to pieces.  I'm a firm believer that shelter dogs know that they are rescued and are grateful!!  Our newest addition we didn't get from a shelter but a free to a good home add so she might very well have ended up at a shelter is a cute kitty named Jinx (she's black) who is a love.  In fact our only "bought" critter is DH's ferret Makita ( yes, he names her after his favorite drill-could have been worse she could be named Dewalt)

[NightOwl]

Have the rest   of you ever noticed the following things happening?  You see a book with pictures of  kittens or puppies in it and next thing you know, you realize you are wearing a BIG SMILE on your face.

And the  same thing happens when you watch your own pet(s) for a few minutes?  I just cant help but smile when I see our dog or our cats.  And, please dont dismiss me as being helplessly sentimental, but that smile is always accompanied by a feeling of "all's well" in my heart.  No wonder they say that nursing homes with resident or visiting  dogs or cats offer a  priceless spiritual and emotional uplift to inhabitants which benefits them physically as well.