[QUOTE=LooneyBoone;810685]Wonderful stories everyone! All these animals are very lucky to have run into such wonderful people in their lives. :thumbs up

And thank you Molly and Bailey. :) Avalon reminds me of Reyna, grey kitties are awesome.

BTW Boone looks larger then he really is in that picture lol he's only 34-35lbs and is a German Shepherd/Australian Cattle Dog mix at best guess.[/QUOTE]

They do look alike, I was thinking the same thing! :D Grey cats certainly are special, aren't they?? :lovestruck: Now I want to go home and cuddle with my babies!!!

Drifter... Drifter wasn't really a rescue per say but my dad adopted him for me in 2000 after always saying he'd get me another dog since they rehomed my first dog one day when I was 5-6 years old while I was at school. We had been visiting the humane society often and on that day there had been a litter of 3 brindle pups Mastiff mixes and a skinny little, aloof black dog who was curled into a ball in his kennel. It seemed like he had shut the world out, given up. These two had caught my eye, my dad then said pick one. I was over the moon. When I found out the black dog with no name was to be put to sleep the next day I quickly chose him.

He was so skinny, and confused. Didn't want to get into the car which would later become a fight of getting him out of the car as he would grow to love it so much. He was afraid of the house, we left the door open as we had supper so he could come in on his own but he'd sit and cry, pace back and forth. He'd never been in a house before it seemed. He was guessed to be around 6 months by the shelter, our vet said he was closer to 11 months. He was clear as well that he'd been abused based on his personality, whenever someone had a a baseball bat, hockey stick, broom etc in their hands he'd either run or get very defensive, shouting scared him enough to take cover under something and his tail was misformed, the bones jutted out like they had been broken and healed on their own given him an somewhat curly tail.

Over the years he grew to be my shadow, my guardian, my best friend and even joked that he was my boyfriend. He adored me beyond words and I was the same. We had an odd bond people often said, we were very connected, intune to each other.

He'd always been a healthy dog, but this past Christmas he started having seizures, the vet found out he had a grade 4/5 heart murmur and when the blood tests came back his liver wasn't functioning well so medication for his seizures was no longer an option. He did fine for awhile, but the seizures then became more common, his arthritis grew worse despite supplements, and he started loosing control of his bowels and bladder both during seizure and normal. My loyal gentlemen had aged before my eyes and though he tried to remain the dog he had been in his younger years his body was dying while his mind remained bright and eager. Walks became a painful thing though he tried his best, he still loved them, loved his car rides, love life still but what life did he have having seizures every week, unable to walk more then 5 -10 minutes before having to lay down, constant diarrhea and being banished to sleep in the garage because my parents were tired of cleaning up his messes in the house? I had promised long ago I wouldn't be selfish when this time came despite not wanting to ever lose him I knew I had to think about him. He was helped across the bridge July 13 2009. He had a beautiful 24 hours before, we went to all his favorite places, he was spoiled with all his favorite and forbidden people food. He was wagging his tail up until the very end so much trust and love in his eyes. He was only 9 years old but his body seemed to have aged far faster then his mind. I did what I thought best for him and though I wish the outcome had been different and often feel guilty about "playing god" I know deep down it was the best thing.

He went from a skinny, nervous, abused stray who was adopted to an often overweight, happy, game for anything best friend who would have laid his life down for me. My partner in crime who was so human like in his emotions it was scary.

I don't have any pictures of him when we first got him, those pictures have been lost in moving and him chewing them up.

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what a nice story about Drifter, I would say you rescued him for sure!

I love that last picture. what an expressive face!

I am sure he is an :angel2: watching over you now.

Gak, LB, what a beautiful story with a wonderful dog. I'm tearing up again! Thanks so much for sharing Drifters story and pictures. He looks like he was a very happy boy.

:cloud9:

Another post on behalf of BenMax.

[QUOTE]This is a dog that I took in that was tied and beaten for 4 years of his life. Initially he was afraid of everything and everyone. I had to teach him how to stand up, climb stairs, and different textures of flooring. He turned out to be spectacular. He was one of the best foster dogs I ever had.[/QUOTE]

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[QUOTE=Bailey_;810698]Gak, LB, what a beautiful story with a wonderful dog. I'm tearing up again! Thanks so much for sharing Drifters story and pictures. He looks like he was a very happy boy.

:cloud9:[/QUOTE]

LOL - cry baby! I think you need to get into fostering Bailey! So what do you say???:D I'll hook you up!

Thanks again MollyWog - big big huggs!!!

Wonderful rescue stories everyone. Gotta say - when I grow up I wanna be just like you guys. ;):thumbs up

[QUOTE=BenMax;810703]LOL - cry baby! I think you need to get into fostering Bailey! So what do you say???:D I'll hook you up!

Thanks again MollyWog - big big huggs!!![/QUOTE]

I honestly don't know how foster people do it!! I assess dogs for a rescue out here, and even THAT is hard, let alone bringing them home. Rewarding I know, but I'd probably cry 99% of the time after seeing some cases.

You've got me intrigued though BM. Could you PM me and just tell me a bit more about it/what to expect, etc? :thumbs up

[QUOTE=mollywog;810644]I am posting this on behalf of BenMax who is, shall we say, computer challenged? :laughing: I kid, I kid....

She first contacted me to let me know that she has Molly's twin in foster!! This dog is literally the spitting image of Molly- same colouring, same silly ears, same size, same cuteness :lovestruck:[/QUOTE]

Oh my LORD those [B][SIZE="4"]EARS[/SIZE][/B]!!!!!:lovestruck::lovestruck::lovestruck::lovestruck::lovestruck::lovestruck::lovestruck::lovestruck:

LB - Drifter's story is so wonderful. RIP sweet boy. My two were rescues but their stories are not so dramatic, neither were abused or anything, just very lonely puppies who had been abandoned one to the pound and one to a rescue. Bless you all who have helped so much with so many of these sweet animals.

I don't have any before pics but I have pics of them now!!! I am a don't matter where you come from but only were your going person so that is why i don't like to refect on bad past memories. Here is some of my crew.

Here is berlin my first kitty i adopted from the shelter. She hid and only came out to use her box and eat and now she sleeps ontop of me and my hunny. And my "cat hating dog"
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This is my first kitten ever. I got her from a no kill shelter. My son picked her out. A local pet store who works with the no kill shelter in fostering the kitties had the the kittens in the store when we went to get dog food. My son named her little stripe, but we some times call her stripper because she likes to "pole dance" on my table legs.
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This is my proudest accomplishment. I got him and he was a year old. Not even house trained/litter trained/paper trained. was scared of anything, if you were to go and pet him he would pee on himself and yelp like you were squeezing the life out of him. Now he is trained, loves going for walks, is my one year olds best friend, and we are teaching him manners now too! he is catching on really fast and will chase frisbies and is just a happy dog all around.
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Maneater I bet this isn't the first time you've heard it but your Chi's are just TOO cute :cloud9: :lovestruck: and your kitty is a sweetie too! Thanks for sharing!

Here's Kailey!!!! :lovestruck:

Links to her story for anyone who wasn't around last summer:

[url]http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=54339[/url]

[url]http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=54505[/url]

[url]http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=54532[/url]

She was terrified of EVERYTHING and tried to attack anything that made her nervous, had virtually no concept about house training, was so used to taking care of herself that she had an F-you attitude for a good two months straight....emaciated, coat felt like straw. I can't believe they nearly killed her....no one took the time to understand where she was coming from and to make the effort to give her what she needed. Once we did that, we realized we had the most intelligent, beautiful and loyal GSD there ever was. And that's when we became foster failures! :cry: :o :D

We found our special girl all because of pets.ca and German Shepherd Rescue Toronto! :thumbs up Can't imagine our lives without her now. :grouphug:

Such wonderful story's. :cloud9:

OMG,sooo many wonderful stories,from wonderful people:grouphug:
Yeah,I got teary-eyed a few times,but then full of wonder at all of you,love happy-ending stories:dog::cat:
Thank's everyone:thumbs up

Thanks for the stories and I rescue animals, domestics, wildlife, livestock, exotics on a dailly basis, some are strays, some are sick, some are injured, while some were abused and neglected. Too many stories to list, but I am happy that I can tell them to people who will listen. And I am sure we all can agree that it is very rewarding.

ACO22