New Stories Coming Soon!  If you have adopted a dog from us and have a success story, please submit it to us.  Some of the pictures below may get larger by clicking on them.

October 2004

Greetings from San Antonio!

It’s me, Hailey, the Golden formerly known as Willow. I thought I’d drop a line to all my friends at GRR and let you know how I was doing. It’s been almost 2 years since I moved in with my forever family and things are great! So much has happened, I hardly know where to start. I knew things were looking up the minute my new mom, dad, and sister came to visit me at my foster home in Austin. My dad sat down on the sofa and Zowie, I knew he was the one so I jumped up in his lap and put my paws around his neck! I think it was love at first sight for him too because he told my mom right away that he really liked me and wanted to take me home. So I said goodbye to my foster sister Frances and the rest of my wonderful foster family and I was headed back to San Antonio where it all began.

You may remember that when I came to GRR from the San Antonio shelter I was about a year old, but weighed only 29 pounds and was very sick. A lot of people didn’t think I would make it, but after Kelly bailed me out of the shelter, I showed everyone that I was a spunky girl with a big heart (and appetite)! I had just about every kind of worm you can imagine including heartworms, but since it was a low positive, the smart vets at Century South wanted to me to try six months on heartworm preventative before I underwent the full treatment. Great news—it worked and I have tested negative for over a year! These days I am a healthy, active Golden girl, though I did have to have surgery on my knee earlier this year. I was racing through the backyard after a squirrel and I tore my ACL trying to take the back steps two at a time, but I’ve made a full recovery. My mom says it’s a miracle that’s all I’ve injured since I’m quite the wild child, but I think it just comes with being so athletic! As for my weight, well, I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but my vet actually put me on a diet to lose 5 pounds because at 64 pounds and being so petite, I was starting to lose my hourglass figure!

In other exciting news, I also got a Golden brother a little over a year ago. My mom and dad had fostered a few Goldens for GRR and each time they left to go to their forever homes, I would feel a little sad and lonely and mope around for a while. (You see, our cat Snowball has resisted all my attempts to play with him!) My mom promised that she would get me a forever friend. Sure enough, we all fell in love with Spikey, the next foster Golden that came to our house, the minute he got out of Martha’s car. (I sort of pretended to be aloof at first since I didn’t want him to think that he could be the boss!) Turns out that he is the best brother in the world. He’s 7 now and totally laid back. He lets me be the princess and I can steal his toys and sniff his food and he never gets mad. He even lets me be top dog and get my pets and treats first. My mom says he’s all love! Spikey’s old family gave him up after having kept him in the backyard for 4 years and he had some pretty bad skin allergies and alopecia (that means his hair was falling out). After a few months of good food and living indoors, he was cured. Now that he has a gorgeous golden coat and healthy skin, he has no interest in going outside with us unless it’s to swim in the pool. Then he thinks he’s Mark Spitz! Such a show-off! ! Me, I’m not much into swimming, but I like to go out with my dad when he works in the yard and chase squirrels and birds and look for lizards. Spikey and I play a lot of inside games together though including one my mom calls “King of the Mountain” where one of us stands on the sofa and tries to keep the other one from getting up there using a number of techniques from “bitey-head.” It’s pretty fun and we usually ending up rolling around on the ground in one big flash of fur!

I tell you, it’s a great life and we owe it all to GRR! Here we get two square meals a day and lots of yummy treats plus we go for walks and my mom and dad let us sleep in the bed with them every night. My mom says me and Spikey are the best dogs ever! I don’t think I remember much about my life on the streets of San Antonio, but I’ll never forget the kindness of all my friends at GRR, so many thanks to Maura, Teresa, Susan, Kathy, Beth, Kelly, Martha, and all the other wonderful people who gave me and Spikey a second chance!

Lots of Golden kisses,

Hailey

Willow/Hailey's original story when she was up for adoption

Its hard to believe that its almost been two months since I brought Ziggy home! He now goes by Dudley (Duddles)...and oh I cant tell you how much I love that little guy. Its hard to believe that I'm fortunate enough to have him!

He's been quite the advocate for the GRR- everywhere we go he's a show stopper. I cant tell you how many people have stopped to tell me how handsome he is- and when they find out he's adopted they go nuts. He's doing a great job teaching Austin about GRR..... and being the little flirt that he is, he loves to give everyone his paw.

Every week I can see a difference in his personality- he's relaxed and a complete love machine. He's definitely "all boy" but he's trying hard to follow the rules. It's been fun to watch him develop and explore new things, Sunday AM he decided that my shower looked like fun and he jumped in with me!

I can not thank you and the team for making this adoption possible!

Julie

Shelby came to us from a family who really loved her, but found that they just didn’t have enough time to give her all the attention she needed. When she came to our home, she was a bit scared about the change and wasn’t sure of this new house and the three active kiddos we have. Her former owner had told us she was an escape artist, and sure enough, as soon as she went into the backyard she scoped out all of the potential escape routes! At that time, we also had Jed, another GRR dog -- a 10-year-old boy with severe allergies and, as we later found out, a brain tumor.  Jed had been pretty lethargic and the vet was not giving us a very bright outlook for him at the time.  Once Shelby showed up, old Jed took on new life!  He was acting like a real young buck (even though he had been neutered years ago and Shelby was spayed the day after intake).  At first, Shelby didn’t like his undivided attention and did not want anything to do with poor old Jed—but Jed was persistent, and Shelby finally warmed up to him after about two weeks.  At the end of three weeks, they were inseparable!  She would pick on him and that would lead to a “follow the Shelby” chase through the house and end with them rolling around on the floor playing.  This also would happen when they went outside together.  Shelby would tear around the yard at lightning speed and Jed would try to catch her.  Since Jed was slower than she was, she would turn and cut back close to Jed so that he had a shot of catching her..LOL!  Jed's activity level more than doubled, and they really loved each other.

Now on the other side of all of this, our 5-year-old girl decided that Shelby was her new best friend and would take her out in the backyard for hours, playing in the sandbox and chasing anything that flew by (birds, butterflies, wasps, bubbles).

At this point Shelby had also warmed mine and Donna’s hearts (even more than the usual foster dogs) and we pretty well knew that we could never let her go.

Now she plays nerf football with our two boys and is a regular at soccer practice (although dogs are not allowed at the games).  She goes on walks and is a healthy, happy dog.   She has a quirky little habit when you get out treats: she will instantly sit and then will raise one or both paws and almost wave at you.  It is sooo cute.

Jed passed on in September of this year. He was like a furry child to us and a constant companion for Donna (a stay-home mom).  We really miss watching Jed and Shelby play, but we are so happy and grateful that we have Shelby to help ease the pain and bring that Golden spirit to our home! 

Update  from adoptive family 10/28/2004:

Rusty is the best companion we could have wished for! We brought Rusty home a little over five months ago from the Gundy’s foster care and we can’t remember life before him. Rusty is almost four years old but has the energy of a young pup. He is doing very well now. He had a slight limp and several bald patches when we brought him home but he has just flourished on his good diet (the Gundy’s started him on a great food which we have continued), a great oil supplement (Halo’s Dream Coat), daily vegetables and other whole foods, daily brushings and twice daily walks. Now when we’re out we constantly get comments on how beautiful he is and how happy he looks. He still has several pounds to lose but he’s making progress.

He is the quintessential retriever; if he can’t find a ball he’ll bring us anything from a rock (outside) to a sock he’s found on the bedroom floor. Sometimes at the dog park he’ll bring us a fallen tree branch which can be over 5 feet long. Nothing is too large or too small for him to play with. Rusty does better with the tough toys like his kongs. We’ve spoiled him with every toy that Kong makes and then some. He had a great time at the Oom Pup Paws last weekend retrieving his water kong from the pond. That was the first time he’s really been interested in the water.

We recently completed a basic obedience class with him and he won the basic command competitions in class. Rusty plays a little rough sometimes, grabbing his toys away, but we’re going to continue to work on that. We’re going to enroll in a canine good citizen class next spring and see if Rusty can bring some of his enthusiasm and love to some people who need it, maybe a retirement home or children’s hospital.

I think Rusty would like to have a sister to be his playmate in the near future so we may be adding another golden love sponge to the family. For now we couldn’t be happier with our little Rusty (sometimes known as Rustard). Thanks to GRR and Tracy Gundy for making this great match possible.

From his adoptive home 10/28/2004:

Shiloh (now renamed Seamus!) is soooooo wonderful. We love him and he loves us, especially our kids- they are best friends, as you can see from the photo. After a couple of months of living in his new home, he really relaxed and his personality got livelier, and now he is so playful and happy (in addition to being sweet, which he always was). We cannot imagine life without him now. Here are a couple of recent pictures!