Happy Tails

9/7/2009

"Don't buy a dog when you can adopt one from the shelter," Amanda Burke told her mother, who had just seen some Dachshund puppies for sale at a flea market. Amanda's mom's dog had died a month earlier, and she was ready to bring a new pet into the family.

8/31/2009

The tiny kitten had been abandoned by his mother and hand fed until he was seven weeks old. Now he was getting a second chance. Lisa Driscoll, Virginia Beach, Va., saw the kitten on Petfinder.com, the largest online database of homeless pets, and contacted the rescue group, Pet Guardian, also in Virginia Beach, which had listed him on the site. She arranged to meet the kitty at his foster home.

8/24/2009

Shortly after Ann Marie Gonzales of Espanola, N.M., moved to the country, her two dogs got out of her walled yard while she was at work. "One of my dogs was a Pitty/Bulldog mix...the most beautiful, loving, loyal animal you could ever meet," she says.

8/17/2009

Michael and Alicia Stiteler of La Verne, Calif., wanted to adopt a puppy and they found just the one, an Australia Shepherd mix, on Petfinder.com, listed by Chihuahua Haven Rescue. It was their dream come true, but it ended abruptly when they got him home.

8/10/2009

Hunter lost his mom, who had mammary cancer and heartworms, while he was still a puppy. The mom and pups had been removed from an abusive situation in Florida and transported to New York for adoption. The mom's weakened condition left Hunter weighing only one pound at four weeks old. He and his sister and brother were riddled with intestinal parasites, and his sister succumbed to them. The two male pups, by some miracle, made it.

8/3/2009

Allie Oop, an 11-month-old boxer, had already been through four families in her young life. Her first pet parents relinquished her to the animal shelter because she had separation anxiety when they left her alone and worked it out by digging. In her second home, she jumped the fence when left alone, so back to the shelter she went. Family three didn't like the way she jumped on people, but instead of a little training, they gave her up. Her fourth family had her for three months, and then decided not to take her along when they moved.

7/28/2009

When Oreo was seven, she was relinquished to Lil' Tykes Rescue & Adoption in Daleville, Ala. For three years she waited for someone to adopt her, but with each passing day, week and month, her chance of finding a forever home plummeted. Who would want an old dog?

7/20/2009

For four days, Samantha the Cat sat by the door through which her friend, Roosevelt, had departed with his new pet parent, and she cried. The two domestic shorthairs had been nursed through an upper respiratory illness in the arms of their foster mom and had thoroughly bonded as they recovered. Now Roosevelt was gone.

7/13/2009

Usually a magnificent breed, the Chow Chow facing Julie Bunim and her fiancé, Jeff, looked pitiful.

"Her eyes were crusted shut, she had just been shaved, and she refused to budge when we tried to walk her," says Julie. The couple had become "smitten" with the dog on Petfinder.com and had traveled to Sean Casey Animal Rescue in Brooklyn to meet her.

7/6/2009

Shortly after Colleen Vetter of Mahwah, N.J., adopted Abby Rose from Ramapo -Bergen Animal Refuge in New Jersey, Colleen's mother became terminally ill. It hardly seemed an auspicious time to have a new member of the family. Life was hectic. Decisions had to be made by Colleen and her siblings, who spent many hours on the phone. Abby Rose stood by as a beacon of reassurance during the crisis.