Sylvie

One day late last year I went to the Paulding county shelter to pull a couple of kittens for AARF's adoption program. My husband and I have fostered for AARF before, but with full-time jobs and graduate school about to start, we weren't really planning on taking on any more foster pets at the moment. That is, of course, until I saw Sylvie in the cat adoption room. There was something really special about her that I just couldn't put my finger on. I took her out of her cage and held her as I waited on paperwork, and she fell asleep on my chest. Somehow I left the shelter that day without her, although for the rest of the week I just couldn't stop thinking about her. My husband and I decided that we would give her a couple of weeks to see if she would get adopted and, if not, we would go back and get her and foster her. A couple of weeks went by and Sylvie was still there, which meant she didn't have much more time left to find a home before she would become a statistic.
We couldn't let that happen, so we went to the shelter and brought her home to foster her. It only took a month for us to realize that she was meant to be ours forever. She is the most outgoing, loving cat we have ever met. She loves to play just as much as she loves to cuddle. She quickly adjusted to our dogs, and now she is often seen cuddling with them when our laps aren't available. She also did the impossible and won over our other cat, Taylor, within just a couple of weeks of living with us. Taylor has never accepted any other cat we've brought into the house. However, he and Sylvie are now best friends. They play all night and sleep all day, and share a great love of canned food, catnip, and toy wands. While we weren't looking to add another furry member to the family at the time, we are so glad we did. We couldn't imagine life without our little Sylvie.
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Mimi

In fall 2008 my husband and I had just moved to a new house in Smyrna with our two dogs, Fred and Sid. I was feeling outnumbered by the boys, so we searched around for a third, hopefully a girl. Since Fred and Sid are both rescues, we knew for sure we wanted a rescue, and were interested in an AARF dog named Luna. We went out to meet her, and she was wonderful, but I was drawn to her mother, Mimi. She was a little roly-poly dog with a sweet face who was absolutely terrified of everyone and all the action of the adoption day. Julie, her foster mom, brought her out to our house, and she was one nervous little dog. Julie explained to us that she had come from the streets of a rough neighborhood where she had cared for her two puppies, exposed to the elements and foraging for food.

I had a feeling that we should give her a chance, and so we adopted little miss Mimi. At first, we wondered if we had picked the wrong one. She didn't seem to be relaxing or getting comfortable with us, although we tried our best to help her out.

Today I am so grateful that we stuck it out, because Mimi is a treasure. She's like a completely different dog--loving, affectionate (she always has to be right by my side), and even confident with strangers. Her favorite thing in the world is a long walk, so we try to get her outside as much as we can. She still bears the marks, both physical and psychological, of her early struggles, but we are so happy to have been able to give her the life she deserves. She is my little princess!

Bunkin & Flea

It was about 3 months after my childhood dog had passed away when we saw Bunkin at Petco in Tallahassee. He was being showcased for adoption with several other dogs from a nearby shelter. Bunkin is a Heinz 57 mix who weighs about 20 pounds. I wasn't planning to get another dog yet, but my husband absolutely fell in love with Bunkin. He couldn't stop talking about him, so I felt compelled to go visit the shelter to get better acquainted with Bunkin. I made 3 trips to visit Bunkin at the shelter about 30 minutes away from my house and by then I knew I had fallen in love with him too. He was very timid, but so sweet and gentle. Once we had adopted Bunkin, it took several months for him to really let his guard down and become relaxed around us. I have no knowledge of his past whatsoever, but I do know that he is the most loving sweethearted creature I have ever met. He likes to play with most other dogs, but mainly he just adores people. He is just as content as can be to cuddle up on the couch with us and watch a movie. He also loves the outdoors and a good hiking adventure every now and then. Bunkin has brought so much love into our home; I can't imagine how he ended up at the shelter, but the important thing is that he now has a family to love him forever & for him to love in return.

2 years after adopting Bunkin, I came home from work one day to find that my husband had brought in a stray. He was out walking Bunkin around our apartment complex when a little Chihuahua mix apparently came out of the woods and followed Bunkin and my husband home. He was not friendly toward my husband, but he was very interested in Bunkin. He wasn't friendly toward me when I walked through the door, either. We decided to keep him after holding onto him for about a week. I named him Flea, not because he had any, but because I thought it was appropriate since he had clearly been living outside for a while. We had known we would eventually get a second dog, but our main impetus behind adopting Flea was that we knew he would have a very slim chance of getting adopted if we turned him in to the pound because of his poor behavior toward people. I don't know what Flea has been through in the past, but he sure did come with a whole lot of baggage. 9 months later, he is still very much a work in progress, but just like Bunkin he has worked his way into our little family. When we first found Flea, he wouldn't let either of us approach him without growling and snapping at us. These days, Flea is happy to snuggle up with us in bed and give lots and lots of kisses each morning. He even lets visitors pet him, which is a more recent development. To top it off, I have never seen such a Momma's Boy in my life. He's ridiculous. Flea has cost us much blood, sweat, and tears since we took him in, but he also gives us constant entertainment and affection. I had a friend ask me once if I had ever considered "getting rid" of Flea because he was so difficult. I told her that to me, dogs are permanent family members, not disposable commodities. I wouldn't trade Flea for anything in the world.

I had never had a rescue dog before Bunkin. After have one very easy rescue experience (Bunkin) and one very difficult rescue (Flea), I am able to say that anything is possible with love and patience. My heart belongs to homeless pets because they taught me this priceless lesson.

The Tater Tot

I was a foster mom for AARF until I fell in love with Tate aka Tater Tot. For several months I felt the pangs of puppy fever but I resisted. My forever dog, Truth, started to get a little more picky about the fosters she would allow in "her house" so I wasn't even sure if she would accept a puppy. Then I got the call from Susan, AARF's Director. She told me a puppy had been found up in North Georgia and it was at Buckhead Animal Clinic if I was interested. I decided I'd meet the little guy and maybe take him on as a foster dog first so Truth would have a little time to accept him...or not.

When I met Tate, who they were calling Opie at the time, he was 6 weeks old, weighed 5 lbs and was a little bit of a mystery. His beagle markings were muddled together with what looked like basset hound legs. In other words, Tate was ridiculously cute. I changed his name from Opie to Tate and immediately the staff at Buckhead Animal Clinic took to calling him "Tater Tot" and it stuck.

I brought Tate home to meet his new sister. Truth approached, sniffed him and from that point on her maternal instincts took over. She became very playful with and protective of him. A few weeks later, I adopted Tate officially and have fallen in love with him more and more as time goes by. Tate is goofy to Truth's serious but together they are simply hilarious.

Now a little over a year later, Tate weighs 55 lbs and carries it in a short, stocky, sausage shaped body. He can't jump per se but when he gets excited he'll hurl his full weight onto you to let you know he is pretty happy to see you. He likes kissing ears and eating socks. Every so often I catch him eating crunchy leaves off the porth or scaring himself with his own farts and I think to myself "God, I love that dog". Adopting Tate was one of the best things I've ever done. I think Truth would thank me if she could for giving her the best little brother a dog could want.

Our Two Boys!