Did you fall in love with your rescue before or after the adoption?

[Jax08]

The minute I saw her!

I was going down to the shelter to meet a 5 year old male GSD. The ladies were concerned about our adopting him because we had other dogs. They were worried our dogs wouldn't accept him (a valid concern). So when I got there, the woman said "we have a puppy that is supposed to be part Border Collie but I don't see it". The let this little monster out and she can tearing ass around the corner in hot pursuit of a cat.

She hasn't changed much in 3 years.

[Pepper311]

Hi I am new here and this thread made me join. I loved everyone's stories. My first dog I got when I was about 14yr old and lost her feb of this year. She was pepper my border collie mix. I worked all summer to earn my dog. My mom is not a dog person so I really had to work for it.

We went to a few pounds looking for dogs. We found this big fury shepherd mix. We all liked him the first time we met him. When we went back to see him he was not so nice and we moved on.

We went to our local shelter and there were only 5 dogs there. One pretty fluffy spitz thing we were really liking. The cage next to her was pepper. This year old black bouncy crazy dog. Pepper made sure we saw her. I went over and looked at her. She had so much energy and love for life. We took her out. She greeted us all kindly with lots of energy. Then went right to sniffing every thing. She dragged me around checking everything out. Once calmed down she listened a little better letting me pet her.

We went home and as a family talked it over. The next day we got her. None of us could forget her. She saw us and got so excited she knew. I will never forget that day it was great. She lived with me for 15 more years. She was the perfect dog for me. She really did pick me.

Now we are adopting a german shep mix pup that my husband and I found online. I showed him the photo my husbsnd fell for her face and write up. We met her and the Forster guy. She was everything and more. She quickly learned not to jump on my 3 year old. She got a long perfect with our 2 dogs. When we were getting ready to go home she tried so hard to get in the car with us. She too seemed to pick us. She was ready to go. We will pick her up in a few weeks and then we will see how it goes.

There is something very special about rescuing a dog.

[NewbieShepherdGirl]

Our Story:
In October of 2010 I had dropped out of school and moved home to take care of my dad, who was dying from cancer. He passed away in December of 2010. So for my mom and my brother life resumed as normally as it possibly could given the circumstances: my mom continued working, and my brother continued high school. However, I was left home, with nothing to do but think about how much I missed my dad. I'm not good at grieving. I grew up viewing crying as a weakness, and besides that I'd already cried enough in the past two months to last me a lifetime. I am one of those people who need something to do when they are upset. I need a job, and as long as I'm being productive, I feel better. So I decided to get a dog.

I started doing research and decided that I wanted an Australian Shepherd. They're smart, beautiful, and I figured the fact that they weren't huge would help my case for my mom letting me get one. So I came to her with the information I had found and the answer was a very clear, "I don't want a dog." However, I was not deterred. I continued bringing it up for a few weeks and one day instead of the "I don't want a dog" speech I got a different answer: "I don't want an Australian Shepherd." My heart soared; I had won. "Ok, what kind of dog would it be ok for me to get?" I asked. I love all dogs, and so I figured that really as long as it wasn't a little yappy dog or a sporting breed (both of which I knew my mom would never get anyway) I would be game. "There is only one kind of dog. A German Shepherd." My heart dropped. My mom had had a GSD when she was about my age. He had been a surprise birthday present from her fiance and he was crazy smart. He was also very mean. He had been a guard dog at a warehouse, had been beaten, starved, shot, had heart worms, and all kinds of problems when my mom got him. Worst of all he didn't like kids. He was afraid of them and had actually bitten one (which almost got him put down. My mom was full on ready to do it when the kid's dad talked her out of it, because the kid had been told to stay away from him <<the kid was like 13>> but had done it anyway, so he got to live). I couldn't do that. I couldn't handle an aggressive dog. I'm a good leader but I have too many kids in my life to take that kind of gamble. No...it looked like I just wasn't going to get a dog.

However, I started to do some research and the more I researched the more convinced I became that you could get one that liked kids and didn't try to eat every stranger that came to the door. Ok, maybe this would work. So I looked in the classifieds (I know, I know, I didn't know any better at the time.) Yeah there was a litter of GSD puppies that would be ready as soon as I wanted to pick one up. However, I still wanted to do some research so I actually stumbled across this forum. When I did, someone mentioned rescuing one to me, and something just clicked; I would rescue a GSD puppy.

So I found a rescue in MO and started looking at all the dogs they had on there. I printed off the profile of about 20 dogs that I thought might fit in with out family. I laid them all out on our table and told my mom and my brother to initial their top 3 and to circle their initial on their favorite one, and then if there were any matches, those dogs would be considered first. So we all went through and picked our favorites, and there was only one dog that had gotten more than one vote: a dog named Portia. She was my brother's top pick, and my mom had liked her too. No one had liked any of the dogs I had picked out, and in fact my top pick was the least favorite of my brother and my mom didn't like her because she was mixed and didn't look shepherdy enough. *sigh* ok, well...Portia does look like she'd be a good match. Ok, we'll go with her.

So I applied for her, went through the whole interview process, and a few weeks later brought home Sasha, formally known as Portia. At first, of course, I was overwhelmed by her beauty and thought, "Oh man it's love at first sight" and well...while I did love her, because I love all dogs, she didn't feel like she was mine yet. In fact, here I was with this fully grown dog, and we really didn't know anything about each other. I found myself saying things like, "So....what's up." It was like an awkward first date: you want to like each other, but it's too soon. However, it didn't take long before she was mine and I was hers, and now here we are 6, almost 7, months later, and I can't imagine my life without my beautiful, naughty, squeaky, girl. She has been everything I wanted her to be and so much more.

[Daisy&Lucky's Mom]

Lucky is my boy but was it love at first sight?Not sure. I got a call one day from a trainer who worked at the prison i worked at in our dog program. she said want a shepherd? I said no not now she mentioned she had all ready done some temperment testing and he was much more laid back then Daisy. I agrreed to meet lucky. Then they said how about a two week trial visit. Dodger our older 12 year old did not like him (Lucky) and I was going to return him but he was mine.If i went downstairs he went ,If I went outside he went.loved ridingin the car (OK he still pukes) and he was grea on leash. First time he tried to go downstairs to th basement he jumped from the second step over the side to the floor. He was active but not the crazy I'm on steroids way Daisy and Dodger were.I decided to keep him andmove Dodger downstairs to the living area my husband's buddy lived in and try to work it out. I took Lucky to the vet and first they said no heartworm and then the call came he had it. The breeders who had rescued him out of their own pocket couldn't afford to pay for the treatment so I made the decision that Lucky was mine.