[reeskujo]

I thought it would be nice for everyone to share their stories about their rescues...I'll start first with Kujo and Nina.

Kujo is my 5yr.old Akita that I rescued 6 days from being put down in Florida....He's what I call my hurricane dog...His owner lived in a mobile home when one of the bad hurricanes hit and had to evacuate..Apparently he could not take my Kujiman with him which I understand but he felt the best thing for my baby boy was to leave him tied to a tree with no shelter to ride out the hurricane alone!....AC was going to put him to sleep only because he was not only a big black dog he weighed 85lbs at 10 months but they felt with that and his breed he'd never be adopted....With all the Akita's I bred he is the best and most loving one I could have asked for...His biggest issued is he can't be crated or he'll slam his head against the kennel door until he gets it open or bleeds whatever comes first.

Then there's my 2yr.old Husky who is worse the 5 2yr.olds...She was dumped at 4 weeks and the rescue I work with took her and got her through Parvo and then 2 weeks later pneumonia as well as a severe tape worm infestation...I decided when I first saw her at 4 months to foster her,train her and then find her a home...Well she turned out to have many behavioral issues which I think are caused by breeding,taken from her litter at such an early age and then having so many months at a shelter...Hubby and I were worried if we adopted her out she would be returned which would make her issues worse or if placed in the wrong home abused....She's extremely sweet but very needy as well as dog aggressive regardless of how much training and socialization I give her...She challenges my Akita for pack status on a daily basis even though he hasn't given it up in 2yr.s and has seperation anxiety from hubby...I must say though she has a personality to die for and has us laughing and smiling constantly...Sometimes I want to ring her neck...LOL....But we love her dearly and she's made outstanding progress....She's very bright and loves to train and will due it for as long as you ask her to...

Well that's my story on my rescues so I hope everyone else will share there's!

The stories on how I acquired my dogs are pretty cut and dried-- in essence, boring, lol. But here it is anyway:

When we bought our home, our very first home, I had been waiting for 12 years to get a dog. So as soon as we moved into our new home, I began my quest in earnest, scouting the classifieds, checking the community bulletin boards at the grocery stores, talking to friends, and visiting all the shelter websites. When I visited one of the local kill shelters one afternoon, I looked at many dogs, but didn't find "The One." I was about to leave when the officer asked me more about what I was looking for. She said she had a little spaniel puppy, just 3 months old, in a back room. She told me she was indeed available, but she was in the holding room because the main kennel was full. The officer told me that someone had found the puppy wandering the streets alone, frightened out of her mind, and brought her to the shelter. So I said sure, I'd have a look. Oh my. (sigh) It was love at first sight. The next day I convinced my husband to come see her, and he too was smitten. Annie is now five years old, and such a joy! She has brought us so much happiness, we decided to get her a sister....

So just this year my husband told me I could get another dog or puppy if I wanted (I had let him know I wasn't happy about my human babies growing up, and that I needed to be a "mommy" again, and Annie was not enough work)-- he said he would prefer a puppy. Of course, I really wasn't looking forward to housetraining again, but okay. I convinced him to be open to an older, but young dog just in case we couldn't find a puppy with our qualifications. So I began my search. I conducted this one pretty much entirely online, due to our difficult work hours. We had set a list of criteria, such as breed type, gender, age, cost, and distance to travel. I found a rescue within the state, although a bit further away than we really wanted to go. But Dottie was obviously an English Setter-- one of our breed choices-- even though she had been misidentified as a "spaniel mix" (also one of our breed choices). She was a year old, already spayed, and current on shots, for a lower fee than what we got Annie for! The rescue said Dottie had been found neglected, starved, and abandoned, on a chain in a yard. To their knowledge, she had never lived indoors, and so was not housetrained. Well, okay. We were looking for a puppy anyway. At least this one was already spayed-- a definite plus! Well, boy did we get lucky-- Dottie is indeed potty trained! She had just two accidents in the house her first week with us, and that was only because she didn't understand the doggy door. But when she finally figured that out, she had no more problem. What a find! We feel we got sooo lucky. She's cute as a button, an absolute pixie, sweet as sugar, healthy, spayed, current on shots, and potty trained. It just doesn't get any better than that, folks!

I had a dog growing up that someone dumped in an old ababdond apartment buliding, My dad brought her home when I was about 6 or 7 and she was matted with Mange and had ear mites, she looked terrible!! She turned out to be the Best dog and lived to the ripe ole age of 13!! The feeling that I had with having a family pet,I wanted My daughter to have!! So after searching and searching for a dog that would be right for our family, I decided that getting in touch with a Rescue group instead of spending Hundreds and Hundreds of dollars on a specific breed of dog.....

I came across a rescue group in the town I live in and she was telling me about a Cocker Spanial mix Mom and her 3 babies that were dumped in back of a store and someone found them and turned them into a high kill shelter, that is where the rescue group came in and saved them days before being "put-down" I spent a day or so getting to know the puppy and making sure she was right for Our family!! I fell in love with her immendently!! We have had her for 2 weeks and she is wonderful!!! I am so glad that I choose to go this way!! I know that I saved a dogs life and will continue to support all the rescue groups that help save these animals lives!

I was casually looking to get a dog just as I was about to graduate from college and came across a yorkie mix that I really wanted. When I found out she had already been adopted I was upset and my sister applied for a puppy on Petfinder she thought would be perfect for me in my name without me knowing. I later got a phone call asking if I was still interested in this puppy. I had never met this dog, seen a picture or anything, but I still said "YES." That weekend, we drove almost 4 hours to my new puppy's foster home to pick him up. My dog, Griffin, is the greatest thing to happen to me so far in my life. I am forever grateful to my sister, my dog's foster mom before I got him, and God for bringing us together.

I think my best adoption story was back in 1980. I had decided that I wanted a dog, and went to the animal shelter in Orlando (where I lived at the time) and cruised through the kennels looking at the animals available. I spotted an absolutely gorgeous Irish setter, but he would not respond to me at all. Then I passed a kennel with an almost grown German shepherd-looking pup with the most enormous feet I'd ever seen on a puppy. She was leaning against her kennel wire, following people who walked by with her eyes, and as I passed, she took a deep, shuddering breath and let out a long, heart-rending sigh. I stopped and locked eyes with her, then went on, but kept watching her. She watched other people pass, but did not react. When I went back by her, she did the same thing... deep shuddering breath, long sigh. I KNEW she was pulling a number on me, and I suspect that she knew that I knew. She'd decided that she wanted to adopt me!

That did it! I decided that I absolutely HAD to have this canine con artist! In spite of the huge feet at 11 months!

I adopted her and the vet sorted her out for me... collie, shepherd-- and St. Bernard! She eventually grew into those huge feet, finally weighing in at 110 lbs at about 20 months!

And she was the very BEST dog I've ever had. Intelligent, aware of her strength around me (I'm a shrimp-- the dog weighed more than I did!), and a real beauty, shepherd marked--tan with black saddle-- but with silky collie fur texture and the long, graceful muzzle of a collie, and the massive shoulders and powerful legs of a St. Bernard.

And she continued being an ace canine con artist till she went to the Rainbow Bridge at age 16.

She was the one who convinced me that dogs most certainly DO have a sense of humor! Little things she would do to play harmless pranks on me had me convinced within a few weeks of her adoption.