My family and I have rescued 4 dogs (we have 5 total). But since we live on a horse ranch, we’ve got plenty of room for our dogs. In the past 3 years, we’ve rescued a Chihuahua-mix, a pure-bread “tea-cup: Chihuahua, a registered Border Collie and a registered German Shepherd. The two smallest dogs were “found” during the dead of Winter as puppies. Basically, they were left on the road to die (and wouldn’t have lasted more than minutes had we not seen them quickly). The only dog we “paid for” was our 10 year old Golden Retriever. And yes, the horses and dogs get along fine (most of the time). Picture in your mind horseback riding on the Northern Plains with riders carrying a “tea-cup” Chihuahua and 4 other dogs trailing behind; that’s us! Here’s a picture of a couple of our dogs, Charlie and Stanley. Stan is the “tea-cup” Chihuahua.

David from ND

My story is about 3 dogs:  Butters, Star and Pepper.  Butters was an adorable friendly mixed breed we found on a Thanksgiving Day.  He lived with us until May 29, 2007 where he died when our house caught on fire.  Star, was our Shetland Sheepdog.  Star survived the fire.  We got her when she was just a puppy.  She had a black star on her head amongst a white stripe.  She died June 1, 2009.  She was my baby girl.  We don\’t really know why she died, but we think the fumes from the burning plastic eventually gave her cancer.  She had lost a lot of weight and wouldn\’t eat the last 2 weeks of her life.  She was born November 25, 2000–she was 8 years old.  Pepper was a stray we rescued off the street.  She\’s very active and just adores kids.  She\’ll just plain lick you to death given the chance.  As it is she\’ll jump all over overly excited.  We have her tamed some except when company comes over she goes into overdrive.

Now another story–due to all the hardships we\’ve had to endure since Hurricane Katrina, they are on the verge of losing their home.  Star and Butters graves are in the back yard.  I\’ll never be able to see my babies again and I miss them terribly.  I might add we bought our home the right way, now through problems using up all our savings our home is scheduled for foreclosure sale next month.

Our dogs are our children.  We have left, Bandit, Scruffy and Pepper.  All three of them are rescued off the street.  (more…)