Happy Tails:

Bo Bo

Bo Bo...the sexy blond fella in the middle, with his new found friend, Raider, another rescued Belgian Malinois. Both living in luxury and obviously loved by the third playmate (the one without the tail) at their new home in Northern Virginia. The same family also recently adopted a Great Dane to add to the party!

Bo Bo's twin brother, Rio, also pulled from the shelter, was taken in by the same Belgian Malinois Rescue group. He too, is in a loving home.

Kudos to Angela McCalla of Del Rio Kennels and the Anastos family of Fredericksburg!

Cocoa

(picture 2) Cocoa is living here in Virginia with Denney and me right now. She is an absolute love. What I'm gonna do is send you a Cocoa picture right now, and send you a write-up from work tomorrow, when I have a little time at lunch.

We can't imagine life without Cocoa.

One picture is Cocoa and her brother Denney asleep in bed -- Cocoa's head is on top of Denney. The other picture is of Cocoa and her big brother Madison playing frisbee - they both chase the frisbee, and take turns catching it and bringing it back.

Pepper

(picture 2, picture 3, picture 4) Thank you for getting our dog, Pepper, to the good folks at Mid-Atlantic GSP Rescue. I am so thankful to you for getting him out of the shelter and to people who care about him. I contacted the rescue when we were looking for a pet. I saw Pepper's picture on their web site and asked if we could meet him and possibly see if we were a match.

The rescue people brought Pepper to our house, check out our yard, fencing, and us and it was a match. Pepper is the best dog ever! He is smart and loving and has given us so much love over the past couple of months. We also adopted a second GSP named Killian from the Mid-Atlantic Rescue. Killian and Pepper are best buddies. Killian is 14 months old and Pepper teaches him so many things. Pepper gets along great with other dogs.

Killian and Pepper have been going to the "Best Friend" dog training program for private lessons. Right from the start, Pepper was the star. He now knows sit (which he had down prior to us having him), heel, down, stay, and come. He is so good natured and good with people. He doesn't bark or jump up on anyone.

Our friends have also fallen in love with our dogs. We walked all fall through the battlefield in Gettysburg with our friends. Since this past weekend was nice, we all walked again. Pepper and Killian were so glad to see everyone after this long winter. They remembered exactly why we were there and lead the way on our walk.

I am attaching several pictures so you can see how happy we all with our additions to our family. There is even a picture with a friends GSP puppy and one of the two of ours with Santa (it was a benefit for a local rescue). Thank you again for getting Pepper free so that we could have him in our lives. He is a great dog! We are crazy about him!

Pam and Jim Pitzer

Mindy

My husband and I adopted Mindy (known as Dixie at the shelter) in October of 2002. Growing up with Golden Retrievers, I purchase a male Golden Retriever puppy. We looked for some time to find a dog with the personality we wanted, and with no luck gave up. One day we happened in to PetSmart with some friends and found the Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia. Neither of us had ever heard of rescue groups for dogs and neither of us had seen a Dalmatian in person. We laid eyes on Mindy, a 1 ½ year old female Dalmatian and fell in love! When we filled out her application and she rested her head on my husband’s knee, we realized the feelings were mutual.

One year and a half later, we can’t imagine our lives without Mindy. We started volunteering with the Dalmatian Rescue, and have been fostering for a year now. In that time, we have had the opportunity to help 10 other Dalmatians who were going to be put to sleep find loving homes. I am now a board member of the rescue as well as the resident canine counselor. We have met so many friends and made so many memories all because of one dog. Mindy is now loved and cherished as our daughter; we can’t imagine our lives without her!

Houston

Houston was just a young pup when he was adopted from the Montgomery County Animal Shelter. He now lives on a large farm with 3 boys to keep him occupied, and many sheep, cows, horses, and other animals to watch over. His important day-to-day jobs include seeing his boys off to the school bus in the morning, and keeping the cows out of the yard. In his free time, he enjoys playing soccer with the boys, (although sometimes when he steals the ball, he just likes to bark at it.)

Quincy

Quincy was adopted as a puppy from the Montgomery County Animal Shelter. After growing up in Blacksburg, Quincy moved with his owners and is now living the good life in sunny California, where he enjoys hiking, long walks on the beach, and vacationing at Lake Tahoe.