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My Adoptees

My wife and I had been together for a couple of years before we adopted our first "child". We were living in Florida then and found Goldie at the local humane society. Goldie's mother was a purebred Golden Retriever that was not spayed and lived in a neighborhood with several un-neutered males. Even though the female was always kept inside a fenced in yard, the males still managed to get to her. When the puppies were born they were taken to the humane society.

Goldie was a girl with attitude! Loving, but on her terms, not anyone else's. When she was around 1½ years old we were living in Indiana. A relative of mine had adopted a German Shepherd mix from the humane society for her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law had just lost her dog and they wanted to get her another. Well, Buddy (as we eventually called her) was just a little too hyper for a 70 year old woman! We said we would take her if Goldie got along with her OK. They hit it off the first time they saw each other and were great friends their entire lives. Not that they didn't have a little sibling rivalry and Goldie always "tattled" on Buddy. It was kind of funny because if Buddy was doing something she shouldn't be, Goldie had a different bark. Goldie was also good at getting Buddy into trouble even if she wasn't the one who had actually done something wrong. Buddy was just a big, loving baby. Both of these dogs loved to play Frisbee and it was so cool to watch them sail through the air to catch one.

We had Goldie until she was about 11½ and Buddy until she was about 12½. After Buddy had to be put to sleep, it was the first time in about 13 years that we didn't have a dog. Our home just wasn't the same. Within a couple of months we couldn't stand it and that's when Ali came into our lives.

Ali (a lab mix) and all of her brothers and sisters, there were 7 of them, were taken to the humane society when they were only 4 weeks old. They were too small to be at the shelter and were put into foster care. As we understand it, the owner of Ali's mom made it a regular habit of dropping off unwanted puppies at the shelter. It makes no sense why she didn't just get her dog spayed. In Ali's case she ended up in a good home and is well cared for but who knows what happened to the rest of her litter or other litters that her mom had.

Keep in mind that when we adopted Ali, we hadn't had a dog in the house for a couple of months and we hadn't had a puppy for about 13 years! We had kind of forgotten all the fun (and not so fun) things that puppies can do. But she really was a sweet heart from the moment we got her. She does have her moments though and sometimes we joke that Ali is Goldie reincarnated because she kind of has Goldie's attitude and some of the same mannerisms. Goldie and Ali are our only "children" that we actually went out looking for. All of the others just happened into our lives.

When I went to pick Ali up from the vet's office after being spayed, they told me they had a German Shepherd that needed a home. They knew how close I had been to Buddy and thought I might be a good candidate as a parent! Then they went on to tell me that they had this dog and Ali playing together and they got along fine. What could I say? Within a few days we had another family member, Pauli.

If you could spend some time with Pauli and see what a loving, devoted dog she is; you would question as I have so many times over the years; how could anyone just abandon this dog. When she was around 2 years old she was just left at a boarding kennel and her owners never came back to pick her up. From a legal standpoint I don't know what the kennel had to do before they could let someone else take her, but I know she was stuck there for a while and pretty much a physical and psychological mess when the girl at our vet's office was able to rescue her. She kind of got her back into shape but even by the time we got Pauli, she was not great psychologically. She was sweet but it was like she really didn't care about anything at that point. It didn't take her too long to come around and now she the biggest "wiggle butt" in our family. She's always SO happy!

The worst thing about Pauli, besides giving you bruises from her wagging tail hitting you, is that she has a tendency to be dog aggressive. She and Ali have always had a great relationship and are nearly inseparable, but we don't totally trust her with other dogs. So when a friend of ours said she found a couple of puppies and one still needed a home we just weren't sure how Pauli would react. She brought the puppy over and we introduced them. Pauli actually liked him! It was Ali who wasn't so sure about the whole thing. Pauli was so gentle with Tommy and let him jump all over her and chew on her. It was totally amazing. Pauli was almost 7 years old when we got Tommy and even though she hadn't really been acting like an old lady, it's amazing to see how much more active she became having this little puppy around. It took Ali a while to come around but she's decided this new puppy wasn't quite as bad as she originally thought.

When we first got Tommy, Pauli would try to get him to chase her the same way he would try to get Ali to. But Tommy just didn't get it at first and would run away and try to hide. It didn't take him too long though to figure out that Pauli wanted him to play. It's so funny now to see the different ways that Tommy tries to entice the older dogs to play with him. It's like he knows that Pauli and Ali are different and he reacts to the two of them differently. It's all quite entertaining.

So why did I want to tell you all of these things? Because I have been the proud parent of 5 "unwanted" dogs. Are my dogs perfect? No. Do they annoy me sometimes? Yes, but so does my wife! My dogs aren't perfect but I could have bought a purebred dog and it wouldn't be perfect either. So the point is, if you are considering bringing a pet into your home why not give an "unwanted" pet a second chance? Our dogs bring so much joy into my and my wife's lives that I can't express the emotions that come to mind. No matter what they do, how can you not love those little faces that just want some love and attention?

Pictures of Goldie and Buddy
Pictures of Ali, Pauli and Tommy