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It's always sad when we have to take in animals from bad situations but we know it's worth it when we get emails from our adopters to say how wonderful their new pet is.

Hi Everyone at PAR!

I have attached some photos of our Brandy Brandy. (She so big, you have to
say it twice!) We adopted her from PAR in February of 2000 and as you can
see in the photos, she is one happy camper! She loves to hang out with her
buddy Barney and our cat, Pee Wee and her favorite thing is to run along the
fence line chasing people walking by or riding their bikes. She thinks
she's tough...as long as she is behind the fence, that is! Her favorite
person is my husband Eric. She was supposed to be my dog, but that changed
inside of a month. She just loves her daddy!

Thank you for rescuing her so she could be with us and thank you for all the
wonderful work you do in Pickens County. I have reading about some of the
problems going on there, but your group is one of the brightest spots on the
Pickens map.

God Bless all of you!

Mary Jo Kelly Bragg
Brunswick, GA
12/19/2007

Biscuit is doing well and loves her new bed. She has warmed up to our other dog. The cats are still having a difficult time with her. Hopefully in a few weeks they will have adjusted to each other. I was a little surprised by that since we used to have a boxer. Our previous dog passed away from old age. The cats were accustomed to large dogs.

We have also decided to call Biscuit...Bell. She seems to like the name and comes to it when called! She has a great personality and follows me everywhere in the house. Bell is short for Jingle Bells since we got her in December and she hops around like a bell hop when she is excited.

Thanks and we will keep in touch.

Eleanor
12/6/2007

Dear Rhonda,

I just wanted to let you know what a joy Hershey

is! She did just
fabulous on our cross-country move to Tacoma, WA. She has done great
with potty training and is learning how to sit, lay down, give etc.

We figured out that she has some food allergies, which is what caused
the bare patches on her sides. Once we changed her food, that patch
filled in and she seems much happier!

She is convinced that she is a lap dog and loves to snuggle...she even
gives hugs! We are completely in love with her and are so happy that she
was rescued by your organization. I am attaching a picture of her for
you to post in your "Happy Tails" section of the web page.

Hi Rhonda,
Just wanted to let you know that Simone, who we have now renamed "Sammy,"
is doing great.  She is just the sweetest girl.  She's adapted so well, it's
like she's been here forever.  She and Bella are the best of friends.  In
fact, I actually have to stop them from playing sometimes if they wake up in
the middle of the night!  She comes when I call her, is very polite, and has
only had a couple of accidents in the house-both times when I was busy and
didn't get her out in time.  She now loves the doggie door and got the hang
of the pet boundary in one day!  She's also met all the neighborhood dogs
and gets along well with everyone.  We couldn't be happier.  Thanks again
for rescuing her so she could find her way to our family.
Best regards,
Susan Foster

I just wanted to send you an update on our beautiful Boxer mix Koko. She is doing wonderfully! We have enrolled her in Doggie Day care. She gets to go and play all day three days a week. She is getting close to full grow and weighed in at 92lbs last week!! Since we got her we have also adopted a small terrier mix we named Loki. This brings our grand total up to four K-9 children! Loki and Koko are the best of friends. It is hilarious to watch them play. Loki only weighs 18lbs, but you would never know it to watch them. We just wanted to thank you again for giving us the opportunity to take this wonderful girl into our home. She has truly enriched our lives!

I have included a picture of when we first got her (August 12^th 2006) just for a comparison.

Well it is day two with Cedar. Joy just could not live with Crash or Dummy ,she said he deserves better than that <G> ) She walked him and said he was strong like the "cedars of Lebanon" and he is Cedar in color - I guess it sounds like CD to him as he answer to it just fine. Anyway the fact that she wanted to rename him and talked so much about it said to me she had really bought into the dog. <G>

He sleeps on our lower level in the craft room which is about 25 by 15 and it is where Joy sews and does her crafts - Its just like the rest of the house except it has vinyl flooring and not hardwood like the rest of the house. He has a large padded bed, a radio, air conditioning and a view of the creeks.

He seems to sneeze a lot and then cough but other than that he eats like a horse and really behaviors great - so far he just walks around the cats which makes Joy ecstatic G<> She walked him 1/4 mile down our road by herself and has had him in the kitchen with her all afternoon . He did fine on his own last night and while we went to church. We have been grooming him a lot and we got a lot of under coat out so he really shines. We have an appointment with our vet tomorrow afternoon so he will get the works.

So far it really appears that God found us or Joy the perfect dog. We appreciate your help and admire the work you do. We will send pictures as we acclimate him to the cats, Ranger and the family. Again thanks for your role in all of this.

Thanks so much for checking on us.  R.J. is doing wonderful!  He definitely knows he is my boy and sticks by my side when at all possible.  We are crating him at night and giving him numerous potty breaks through the day.
He currently understands no and sit, and has already picked up on going to the kitchen door and sitting for a treat when he takes care of his business outside.  He loves the resident 10 year old hound dog (Ginger), which would
never admit it, but is starting to grow fond of him too!  Ginger greatly enjoys it when he licks inside her ears; and because of his potty training, she is getting to go outside every couple of hours ~ which she loves.  His
favorite toy is a small rubber ball and favorite puppy treat are those with bacon favor.  The most humorous thing is when Ginger curls up on his bed and he tries to play with her when she sleeps.  She growls at him but the whole time she is wagging her tail and giving him a doggy smile.

I am working out scheduling for some puppy and new owner training and plan to get that started in the next month.

Needless to say I am greatly enjoying R.J and I believe he is pretty happy too.

Blessings to you!
Sherry
4/25/2007

Good to get your Email, Rhonda. I'm sending along a few shots, so you can see how much Biscuit/Cotton has changed. Also one of him saying good-bye to his wonderful foster mommy and auntie - will send separately, b/c have to format it differently. He was sure one lucky puppy to have been rescued by such loving and caring folks. When I think about his scary start in life, I just am amazed at how far he's come. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

He "graduated" last week from Puppy Kindergarten, where we had a wonderful class with only 4 puppies, all about the same age. You had given him a good start with learning to sit. He now lies down, walks well on a leash, stays on command fairly well, He is SO SMART, but can be feisty at times, true to his terrier roots! Every evening for about an hour, he goes a little manic, racing through the house, sliding around the corners on the wood floors, grabbing one toy, dashing into his crate, dropping it, picking up another, and taking off again. He can be SO FUNNY! But at times he has reminded me of why women in their 60s don't have babies! Thankfully, he was able to be house-trained very quickly (although at the time it didn't seem very fast!). We had been home about 2 weeks and over the course of about 2 days he began coming to me and making cute little noises that were almost like talking to me that meant he needed to go out ... and that's his signal, which he ONLY uses for that purpose. After that, there have been NO accidents, except one time when I didn't pay attention to him, thinking it was too soon after the last time ... he knew better than I did!

He's gained a good amount of weight ... at the one-month vet's checkup, he had gone from 16 lb (his weight on the 1st visit the day after we got home) to 22 lb. I think it's all in his nose (MUCH longer), legs (MUCH, MUCH longer), and EARS (MUCH, MUCH, MUCH longer). In fact, I'm considering changing his name yet once again ... to Dumbo!! Part of it is that they no longer flop down at the tips the way they did when he was a little puppy. Most of the time they stick straight up, and give him a very comical look. Combined w/ the long, gangly legs, he is sort of like a gawky adolescent. I have to laugh. But I frequently get compliments from strangers: "What a pretty dog." "Nice dog ... what kind is he?" Of course, their guess is as good as mine. Book jacket of the book written by Oprah Winfrey's dog trainer, Tamar Geller, has a picture of the author and her two dogs.... one of them is what I think is the spittin' image of what Biscuit will look like as an adult dog. I have to see if I can find out if it is a "breed" or a mutt. Picture of that dog is attached.

He has slept through the night since the very first night. I got a borrowed crate to have upstairs near me in the bedroom ... I no longer shut the door on the crate... he just curls up in there. He sleeps on blanket from you in there. He often curls up during the day in his crate down in my study, where I spend a fair amount of time. Got the "large" sized crate, instead of a medium, and glad I did ... when he stretches out, he goes end to end. He likes coming w/ me in the car MUCH better than having to stay home in the crate... then he howls in protest, but is always quietly lying down when I get back. I just can't trust him w/ the run of the house yet (worried about chewing more than eliminating).

He loves exploring with his nose to the ground (the terrier in him!) everywhere we go. My backyard is full of all sorts of animal smells ... I have frogs in the pond, raccoons, a fox that comes through occasionally, skunks, rabbits, of course squirrels ... the usual array. When we go out on the leash, I try to keep him calm and be proactive about NOT thinking small animals are things to chase! My ex-husband used to encourage that behavior in our dogs (mostly labs), and I think it made them more aggressive.

Belle had an interesting night Saturday with about 12 of our closest friends and was pretty shy most of Sunday. She had a total change of attitude Sunday evening which was quite curious. If you remember we had really wanted her to like our two boys (ages 3 and 6), well when they came through the doors from Grandma's house, Belle's tail immediately started to wag and the 4 of them (Christian, Aaron, Belle and FoxE) all played tennis ball in the back yard and had an incredible time. She has really come around though still a little shy around me (Mike) she is quite fond of Heather and the boys and her and FoxE are starting to really make friends. Thank you so much for helping us make a great choice on a new family friend. Here are a couple of pics from this weekend and we have some short videos of everyone playing if you have high speed access :)

Mike and Heather

Hi, I just wanted to give you a quick update on Jena, but we call her Maggie now. She's doing great and has adjusted very well. She's very loving and playful and most of all extremely smart. She's even figured out how to step on the garbage can peddle and open the lid to get a few extra treats. Her and her sister Molly get along well and look for one another when the other isn't around. We're so happy that she is part of our family. I've attached a few pictures so you can see how well she's doing and also there are a couple of pictures of Molly. Thanks for letting us adopt such a great dog.

We adopted Molly (formerly known as Brittney) from your rescue ranch in the end of February. Well, I just

wanted to tell you how happy we are with her, as she has made a great addition to our family. The first few weeks were pretty hard, although she has always been a complete sweetheart. But now I cant imagine life without her. We get stopped everywhere we go by passer by's who want to pet her and ask what kind of dog she is. Then you have your coonhound lovers who spot her right away and feel compelled to tell us about their coonhound stories. Lots of people think we bought her from a breeder, and lots of people think that I spent a fortune on training her. I tell them that we rescued her and that she's just calm by nature. When I'm at the park, I let little girls walk her around because she is so calm. Her favorite thing to do is go for car rides and let the wind flap around her big ears and lips. It's quite a site.

We've named the puppy Layla and she is just adorable. She's been great, she's only had two accidents and it really was our fault. She whines and goes to the door when she needs to go out; her foster mom did a great job with her. We have already done her second round of shots and set up pet vet wellness for her at the Banfield clinic. Her check up turned out very good and the vet told us that she's very healthy girl. We are crate training her and she already goes into the crate by herself. She's so smart, I feel like a new mom bragging at how smart their kid is but the truth she's awesome. We really couldn't ask for a better puppy. We are very excited with our new addition!!!.

Tere Coll-Harris