Dear Fellow Dog Lovers,

Happy end-of-January adoptions! We had some wonderful new family bonds formed during the past week. Here are the Blog Dogs who have found their new homes, some for the second time.

Notice anyone whom I have been featuring over and over in recent weeks? Yep, that’s Mary! I was at the shelter when Mary met her new family and they have been wonderful about letting me share in her first days in her new home. I will have an update about her at the end of this post.

Play group participants were quite talkative on Sunday, as you’ll see below.

Mary was extra happy. It was almost as if she knew something we didn’t…

Bandit is a newbie who was a little shy at first and chose to hang out with the people for awhile before playing with the other dogs. He made an instant connection with Kim.

Meanwhile, Daisy and Minerva, also new arrivals, played chase with each other.

Trying to get them to pose with Tom was a lost cause. It almost seemed they were purposely avoiding looking at me!

Bandit ventured out to visit with Linda on the platform.

Little Benton, another newbie, was a little overwhelmed by the idea of play group and decided that the place he wanted to be was in Sarah’s lap.

After play group, Sarah and I started our “photo shoots” of new dogs. That was when we happened to see a family visiting with Mary. The little girl had fallen instantly in love with Mary. The whole family seemed smitten, and so I snapped a few pictures in case they decided to adopt her. Stay tuned for the Rest of the Story!

Looking for a partner? I could fill that job!

Another one of the new dogs is Shadow. He had a grand time in play group and was very happy to pose for his pictures later. Shadow is a ten-month-old Pit Bull Terrier mix who is a happy young dog hoping for an active family to have adventures with. Here he was on Sunday with Sarah.

I love to be with my person. Would you be my person?

Sarah was anxious to get to know Bandit better, and so was I. He is such a delightful young dog. Bandit is a two-year-old Alaskan Husky mix who walks well on leash, has a gentle demeanor and wants to be with his person more than anything. In fact, his only fault is that he is an escape artist if left alone in the back yard. Did I mention he wants more than anything to be WITH people? Many volunteers and staff have fallen in love with this boy. BJ, our Volunteer Manager says this about him: “I am surprised he isn’t home already–sweetest dog, with the kindest soul. His kennel presentation will melt your heart as he leans up to you with his head and shoulders against the door so you can pet him. Doesn’t move until you stop petting him, and then he looks up with that sweet face, holds your gaze and gives a little whine…he should write a dog’s handbook about how to connect with humans.”

I’m back. I need an understanding and experienced person to help me become the dog I know I can be!

Yes, Rockstar has been returned. He needs to work on his house training. He’s spent so much time in shelters that he is a little behind in what is expected in a house dog. Rockstar is a ten-month-old Lab/American Staffordshire Terrier mix who is such a bundle of energy and love. He has never met a dog or person he hasn’t liked! Here he was today with Kathy, looking a little embarrassed that he’s back at the shelter.

Later in the afternoon after everyone had been walked, Bethany and I took Rockstar and Volunteer Manager BJ’s dog, Zoe, out for a romp. It was very good for both of them to burn off some energy.

I’ve been here a long time. Would you be the person I’ve been waiting for?

Today Kada took Bella out for her afternoon walk. Bella is a START dog who arrived in early December. She is about a year old and is a Shepherd mix. She has a lot of energy, so will need an active family willing to work on training and giving her play time. She would do best as an only dog. Bella is very treat-motivated, so training will be fairly easy for this eager girl.

This is my favorite picture of Bella, better showing her personality.

Looking for someone to play fetch with? I’m your boy!

Today Bethany fell in love with Tank, a three-year-old Lab mix who will make some family a wonderful addition. It will need to be a family that has a sense of humor and lots of energy to go on adventures with this happy guy. Tank already knows several commands and loves treats, so will be easy to continue training. He loves to play with both other dogs and people.

Update: Obie!

If you’re a long-term reader of my posts, you may remember Obie, a very happy Jack Russell Terrier who was adopted in July of 2011. Here is a picture I took of him when he was at WHS.

Every so often, Martha and Sherree, his family, send me an update on his exciting activities. Here is the latest. “Obie turned 3 at Christmas. He earned his AKC ‘Earth Dog Master’ title, after successfully completing ‘Junior’ and ‘Senior’ Earth Dog competitions. He also excelled at a ‘Barn Hunt,’ a new event in which dogs use their nose to seek rats hidden among hay bales and other objects. His big sister, Abby, an 11-year-old Labrador, also passed all three levels of the Barn Hunt. Obie is training hard in flyball and is getting better every week. He also is participating with his sister dogs, Scout and Gwen, in a class called ‘Lights! Camera! Action!’ in which they are learning to perform in TV and print commercials. Obie likes to sleep under the covers and welcomes every guest to our home by jumping onto their lap and snuggling. He is a daily delight and a wonderful addition to our ‘pack.’ We remain grateful to the Willamette Humane Society for rescuing this little marvel and helping him move from a skinny stray to a muscular, competitive athlete and valued member of our household.”
Wow! We may be seeing Obie on TV in the future! From shelter dog to TV star! And here are Obie’s professional portfolio shots!

Update: Mary, the Rest of the Story!

As promised, Mary’s new owner, Heather, sent along an update and some home pictures. It is always so gratifying to hear about our dogs in their new happy forever homes. And since Mary was one of my favorites, it makes me especially happy.

Our sweet Mary!

I first noticed Mary one day when I came across her post from the Willamette Humane Society. Immediately I fell in love her cute face and wanted to adopt her. It had been about a week since I first noticed the ad and continually I would go onto the humane society website and check that she was still there. I have Tuesdays off so I decided to stop by with my daughter so we could visit her, but we were very sad when we got there and they were closed. That night I mentioned to my husband this beautiful dog that I saw online that we just had to rescue and showed him her pictures. At first he was unsure that he wanted us to get a dog but on Sunday after church I convinced him to take us to “look” at her. When we got there we saw her and he and my daughter Kaiya fed her treats through her kennel, they both fell in love with her the way I had when I saw her picture. He decided he wanted to meet her, but when he asked we were told that because our daughter is only 2½ they feared Mary might accidentally “overpower her.” We explained that we have experience with her breed and are very comfortable with our daughter being around her and wanted Mary to be a part of our family as we had already fallen in love with her, so they let us visit with her.

 In the visitation room she did great with Kaiya, they seemed to hit it off right away. I was shocked when my husband said that we would put a hold on her. When we left, Kaiya was so devastated that we weren’t bringing “her Mary” home with us that an hour later we decided to come back and get her. Since we have had Mary she has really started to get comfortable and come out of her shell. She loves her little girl Kaiya and follows us around everywhere. I work from home so she makes a great companion to hang out with during the day and she loves to go on runs with me during my lunch break. She sleeps every night in the bed and is completely spoiled. She definitely watches and is curious of people around her little girl, she continually glances at us to make sure they are OK to be around her. She is such an amazing dog and we love her very much. She has definitely become a part of our family from day one and we are so happy that she has finally found us and can be confident that we will never leave her. She will start doggie training school in April and I am so excited to see the progress that she continues to make. We are truly thankful to have found our Mary and appreciate how well the humane society and the volunteers took care of her while she was with them.

How I love to end my posts with beautiful and happily ending stories! Sleep well tonight, sweet Mary. You have a wonderful life ahead of you!

That’s it for this week!

Remember, if you would like an email alert whenever I have published a new post, please sign up on the right side of this entry.

Also, if you see a dog on my blog whom you are interested in meeting, try to make arrangements to get to the Willamette Humane Society soon. Some dogs are adopted more quickly than you might think.