Rescuing Sprite was given to me as a Christmas gift by my wife. It was a great read and wonderful to learn that others are looking to their local shelters to find new companions.

My wife and I adopted our first dog together a little over a year ago. She is a beautiful German Wirehaired Pointer/Terrier cross with the rare wirehaired colouring. Because of my love for the classics, we named her Athena. My wife fell in love with Athena from the start.

Some nine months after adopting Athena, it was evident that our busy lives were not good for having a lone dog. So we began the search for a companion for Athena. That is when we found Eros.

Eros is a Wirehaired Griffon crossed with what I suspect is black lab. When we got Eros, he was in bad shape. He was twenty pounds underweight, he had a tick, kennel cough and influenza. It was also evident that he had been abused in the past as he was quite hand shy.

After taking him to our local vet for a look over, we also learned that he had had Parvo virus as a pup and survived! As a result, some of his teeth are deformed and his top front teeth had to be pulled.

Even after all of this, Eros surprised me in his demeanor. In the six months we have had him, never once has he nipped in anger, displayed aggression, or woke up grumpy. Matter of fact, he tends to decide that I need to be up by 7am every morning just so I can play with him! Oh, and he figures that his 50 pound frame is a suitable size for being a lap dog (amazingly, he can curl himself into a smaller ball than Athena).

Athena, being true to her German bloodline, tends to be aloof and grumpy at times. Eros, however, lets his sister’s grumpiness roll off his shoulders and is willing to greet any visitors Athena decides she does not like (to the point of giving away the house).

These two have been wonderful additions to our family and I hope to have many years with them.

Thank you for writing your story, Mark.

Travis from CA