Alban had been transferred to the San Francisco SPCA from another county. He had already been at his second shelter for over a month, and the staff were worried that he wouldn't be adopted because he was so shy. When I walked up to the glass, he looked up at me and meowed piteously. When I went in and sat down, he curled up and my lap, and began purring. He had found his human!
Santo (white & tan) and Halas (brindle & white) are both dogs rescued from pounds on their last day. While living in Los Angeles I volunteered for a dog rescue. I had helped drive many dogs for the rescue but when I went to pick up Santo my heart literally jumped and I knew she was the one for me. After 3 weeks I convinced my husband that she should become part of our family. That was in 2004 and 5 yrs later we are still blessed to have her in our lives.
In 2005 we moved to Fargo, ND and I still wanted to help rescue dogs, pitbulls in particular. I saw an email about a poor pitbull in a shelter that was closing. He was the last dog left in the shelter and they were desperate to find him a rescue. The dog was in MO but I figured we could get him transported and I could find him a home. He caught a ride to South Dakota and I got up at 3am to drive, get him and bring him back to Fargo. He was so thin and sad when he got into my car. He slept the whole drive back. My husband was laying on the couch when Halas and I came home. Halas crawled on top of him and gave him a big kiss and snuggled with him.Halas has been with us ever since. He and Santo are best friends and our lives are so much richer for having them as family members.
Sparky is a Border Collie/Husky mix and was 5 months old when we found each other in a Bide-A-Wee non-kill shelter on Long Island. It was June 1998 and my Westy 'Boomer' had passed away awhile back and I decided to go to the shelter "just to look around". There were alot of other dogs in cages all barking and yelping for attention. Sparky was just sitting patiently in the middle of his cage as I walked by. He looked up and I said "hey pup, what's your story?" At that he came to the cage door and stuck his nose through to check me out. I put the back of my hand down so he could give it a sniff. He did, then licked my hand and put his head against the bars for a scratch. He got one alright, and a new home. He's been my best friend ever since.
The day before I met Buddy, I had made the decision to give a kitty a forever home. I went to my local Humane Leauge to look for an adult, Orange Tiger cat, but because I was held up at work, arrived after they had closed for the day. The next morning, I arrived at a client's home to find a big, Orange Tiger cat sunning himself on the windowsill of their garage. She reported to me that he had been around the neighborhood for about 2 weeks. When I went out to meet him, he jumped down, ran up to me, and began rubbing against my leg. I noticed that he had been declawed and I knew that he would not last much longer outside. That evening I picked him up, and Buddy has not left my side since. He follows me everywhere he can and even loves to go for car rides with me! He makes me laugh every day with the silly things he does. I know that we were meant to be! Some days I feel like he rescued me!
One day I spotted a beautiful kitty in our yard. We determined that she was living in the woods by our house. We started calling out to her every morning and she would come for food and love. She eventually made her way into the house and now she rarely even goes outside. Someone must have dumped her but we can't imagine why. We named her Tika and call her Tika, kitty of the woods. She is in fact Tika, Queen of the house!
We got the "White" vinyl fence now all we needed was a dog. Searched on Petfinder and found Myia, a fawn color dog rescued from a shelter in Alabama and shipped to NJ through Lifeline Animal Rescue. Almost a year later I saw Jasmine (aka Jazzygirl) through Lifeline again and I knew we had to have her. Even though our couch is torn up, and our yard has big holes, we just love them to pieces. Now our family is complete with two kids, two cats, two fish and now two dogs!
Roxie, our lovable mutt, and Max and Maxine, lovely black "Bombay" cats, all came home from the shelter on the same day, when they were about ten weeks old. Roxie and Max are best friends, even sharing dinner most evenings!
Belle was 2 1/2 years old when she was diagnosed with Addison's Disease. She became a frightened little girl afraid of everything. We got Meeko to help her and they became inseparable and took care of each other. When Belle became temporally blind, Meeko became her seeing-eye dog until she recovered most of her sight. 2 years ago Meeko died at the end of June and within 3 weeks Belle died, now they are in heaven having fun again.
This little love muffin came to us on a cold January day. She, her sister and 2 brothers were dumped on a riverbank in NJ. Someone that knew our office is an animal loving and adopting group, sent an e-mail telling us they could keep the 2 Marmalade boys, but Kalico and her sister ( Reese ) were up for a good home. I called my husband and Bless him, he told me I could do whatever I wanted. I brought Kali home. Charles is a big man, 6'6" and about 290 pounds, but he was reduced to a bowl of jello when Kalico jumped into his lap, snuggled into the crook of his arm and immediately fell asleep. Ever since that day, she's become his Baby. Her sister, Reese, was adopted by an co-worker and is now part of a 3 dog & 6 cat household and just has happy as our Kali.
My daughter Dominique took Koala (the white dog) to a dog competition that the City of Kaufman was sponsoring. The Human Society had a variety of animals there for adoption. Dominique fell in love with Shorty and talked her boyfriend (whose nickname is also Shorty) into adopting him. She left the house with one dog and came home with two dogs! It has been over five years since the adoption, Dominique got married and moved off, but Shorty (the dog) is still with me. Shorty is the sweetest, gentlest, most loving dog I have ever met and I can't imagine my life without him. As you can see from our family picture, he is one handsome boy! Joy Henderson
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