Love Across the Rainbow Bridge

To my dear little Shadow,

It still feels like just yesterday when I first saw you - so handsome, your eyes full of hope. There was no doubt about it, I would not be leaving the shelter without you. When we left, you jumped right in the car and sat straight up in the middle of the back seat, so excited about all the wonderful days to come. It was the best Valentine's Day I ever had and I had found you - the little, furry love of my life. You didn't have a name, at least for the first couple of days. Not that we didn't try, but nothing seemed to suit you. I wanted to give you a name like Jack or Max but you had better ideas. So you mimicked my every move, following just inches from me everywhere I went. You knew your name was Shadow, you tried to tell me but I wasn't listening closely enough. So you patiently waited until you made sure I finally understood what you were trying to say. The minute the name left my lips there was no doubt, you were my little Shadow and you wagged your tail like crazy, congratulating me on finally figuring it out.
You taught me what it was to love and care for someone other than myself and I showed you that most humans are very nice even though the person you had been with before had hurt you very much. You became our little warrior, so proud and protective - telling everyone and everything that this was your family and you better have good intentions or you'll have to deal with me. You developed such a sense of humor and relished in clowning around with dad who seemed to love to put things on your head. You would just smile the biggest smile and wag that fluffy tail, asking "did I make you smile, did I?" Looking back now, it is almost like you knew you had to live a lifetime in just a few short years. You never ever wanted to leave our sides always pushing your head up under our hands and looking at us with those soulful eyes. Man, you sure knew how to play us! You would run with pure joy and abandon through the woods and streams, diving through bushes and leaping from rocks. You knew what it was to be truly free. And you relished in being a brother. Never leaving Sage's side, melting his grumpy facade and becoming his bonded buddy.
There are still days that this just doesn't seem real. There is no possible way you could be gone from us. But the real truth is that you are still here, we feel your spirit with us everywhere and someday we'll all be together again. You will always and forever be our little Shadow and not a day will go by when we won't think about you. I want to say thank you for all the incredible joy you brought to our lives and though I could fill a thousand books and still never be close to finishing, here are a few of my favorites.

Thank you for always doing your little cookie dance (ok, let's be honest, you did it for any kind of food or walks or car rides or pretty much anything), but it was so full of pure joy and excitement and delighted us every time.
Thank you for showing us true love.
Thank you for being so silly.
Thank you for being our protector.
Thank you for teaching Max how to be like you (he absolutely idolized you) and letting a small, overeager pup tag along with you on your adventures in the woods.
Thank you for taking care of Sage.
Thank you teaching us all your wisdom about life.
Thank you for still watching out for the pups - I know that's you! They suddenly get all attentive to an empty corner with their tails going like mad.
Thank you for letting us be a part of your life. We are the luckiest family in the world.

I miss you so much every day little one and love you with every ounce of my heart!

Love, Momma

Wanted: A Forever Family

I want to start off this week’s installment of Wanted: A Forever Family with great news about one of our featured dogs from last week. Geisha, the Pet Pardons dog from the Orange County Animal Services in Orlando, FL was adopted! Congratulations to Geisha and her new family!

Geisha being lazy in her new forever home.

Hopefully we can get many more success stories starting with the four little ones that are featured today.

The first doggie today, is Charlie. Charlie is a 10 year old, black and tan dapple smooth haired dachshund who was found wandering the streets of a Florida city. With a sweet personality, but with horrible teeth that needed attention, FLDR (Florida Dachshund Rescue) was notified about this poor guy. Once in the care of FLDR, Charlie had a much needed dental and only lost a few teeth, so is feeling a whole lot better and has wonderful breath now too! It’s hard to believe this guy was turned out to the streets to fend for himself. Charlie is an absolutely wonderful dog! He likes people and gets attached to a primary caregiver quickly. He wants to know where his foster mom is at all times, following her around the house. He gets along very well with all the other dogs in the household, although would do very well as an only dog as he does not really play with them. Charlie loves to go for walks on a leash around the neighborhood and also travels well in the car, curling up and going to sleep or lying quietly on his bed. He sleeps in the big bed at night snuggled up beside his foster mom or makes a nest at the foot of the bed—-he sleeps quietly all night.
Charlie is 100% housetrained if taken outside on a regular basis. Because he has had no accidents in the house, he is not crated during the day when his foster parents are out and they don’t feel he would like being crated at all. Charlie’s ideal home would be with someone who is home most of the time as he likes his humans and will bark when left alone. He would be an ideal traveler and great companion to someone looking for a wonderful, people oriented dog. He is waiting patiently for his new forever home…..could it be you???

If you are interested in adding Charlie to your family, please follow this link.
http://fldr.org/2011/03/24/charlie/

Corvin is a beautiful and sweet boy! He is a young adult looking for his forever home. Corvin is an Am Staff/Pit mix but he is a medium size boy - about 40 lbs. He has passed the Pitbull Ambassador testing with flying colors and is a very friendly guy. If you are looking for a great dog, don’t miss Corvin! He is waiting to hear from you.

To learn more about Corvin, click here.

http://www.floridabigdogrescue.com/cgi-bin/search_fbdr.cgi?page_num=4&gender=&age=&shcas=

How can you resist this face? Meet sweet TAWNEY....this pretty little beagle/dachshund mix was born 10/10/10 and finds herself in need of a new home.  Tawney is such a cutie with her short legs and long torso!  She is very cuddly in your arms and full of 'zip' when on the ground....typical puppy.  She loves her toys and other dogs but people are the way to her heart.  Tawney is almost deaf and will need a doggie friend to be her ears for her and a fenced yard to keep her safe.  Tawney is spayed, current on all shots, on heartworm preventive and microchipped.

If you would like to be Tawney’s new family, click here for all the information.

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/19401638

Levi is a 7-month-old Sheltie/Whippet mix. He is one sweet, gentle boy. He is timid and needs socialization and affection. Levi spent the last 4 months of his life, before we got him, in a backyard with little to no socialization. He is learning to trust new people and did amazingly well at his first adoption event. We believe this shows that the more he is taken out and about the better he will be. If you would like to meet Levi, please fill out an adoption application.

 If you can’t get enough of Levi’s amazing smile, please follow this link to fill out an adoption application and see more pictures.

http://www.smileydogrescue.org/blueweb/dogs_for_adoption/dogs_for_adoption_details.asp?id=4379

For those of you anxiously awaiting my dog transporter information I will have a post next week dedicated solely to this topic as there is A LOT to share. Have a great Friday everyone!

Wanted: A Forever Family

Every Friday Sit. Stay. Speak Up! will feature some wonderful little ones who are in search of their forever families. These dogs will be from around the country and come from rescues, shelters and animal control facilities. This also means that some of these animals unfortunately are up against a clock. Most of us don't like to think about this, but just over 5,500 dogs are put down EVERY DAY in the United States so every extra opportunity of exposure can help save a dog's life. All dogs will be listed with their picture and a link to the site where all their information is. If those puppy dog eyes draw you in and you would like to adopt but are hesitant about them being in another state, please do not let this detract you from adopting. Transportation is actually extremely easy and in some cases (such as on Pet Pardons) there are people willing to donate towards transportation and adoption fees. I am working on putting together a list of groups, volunteers and companies that assist in pet transportation and I will post that next Friday. If anyone has worked with any groups or has recommendations, please let me know so that I can make sure they get on the list.

Without further ado, here are the lovable adoptables for this week.

This is Libby, a 2 year and 3 month old lab mix, available for adoption from the Black Dog Animal Rescue. She is absolutely brimming full of love and energy. Her story and adoption information can be found here: http://bdar.org/adoptable_animals.html

This is Trucker (named this after being thrown from a semi-truck at a truck stop) and he is a 1 year old lab mix. He is very friendly and loves everyone. He can be found on Karma's Black Dog Rescue page at this link:
http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/17820219

Geisha is our Pet Pardons featured dog. At this time her PTS (put to sleep) date is unknown but it could be at any time). She is a 2 year old lab mix with one blue eye (so beautiful!) and all her information can be found here: http://apps.facebook.com/petpardons/pet-view/id/2920

Our final featured dog is Kira who is a 9 year old pure bred husky. She has had a hard past which consisted of spending her entire life up until now chained outside in the woods in New York state. She is very laid back and just enjoys watching everyone while snuggled in her bed. She is also a huge fan of anything remotely connected to bones. If you are interested in learning more about Kira, please follow this link:
http://www.blackdogsecondchance.org/animals/detail?AnimalID=3003785#animalOtherPictures

Thank you for taking the time to look at these little ones. If you have any friends or family that you know are looking for a new family member, please share these guys with them and always suggest that they adopt instead of buy.

If you know of any dogs that you would like to see featured, please send a picture, brief description and/or web link to bringhearttotheworld@gmail.com.