Calling Home

Every once in awhile, I get a call or a post from a family who has adopted a dog from me. Sometimes they are letting me know the dog has passed away after a long life - yes, sad, but knowing that dog had a wonderful family who cared warms my heart....even if tears are rolling down my face.

Mostly they are folks who are sending me funny photos or telling me how wonderful their pets are and are thanking me....Well, it's ME who is thanking THEM! I can only give the dog it's start in life. It's them that take it from there and make fabulous things happen.

I got one of those posts today and I'm going to share it with you.

Greetings from Florida,
We adopted Gunner from you on 10/29/2005. As we are coming up on his 4^th birthday I wanted to take a moment and let you know he has exceeded all our expectations…as a dog, as a family member, as my only child !

He was one of your pet quality pups as he has a short ridge, but that doesn’t make him any less a Ridgeback! He truly is a family member and goes almost everywhere we do. He has a wonderful, lovey personality and his only downfall is that he’s a bedhog, thus his nickname of Snugglebug.

Gunner has excellent manners and has been a therapy dog visiting our local nursing home and especially brightening the days of my mother who has some physical disabilities. Most recently he passed the AKC Canine Good Citizenship test, which we took mostly for fun, as all the requirements have long been second nature for him. His picture was just selected to be the month of May dog for a 2010 calendar for a local organization here and I couldn’t be prouder. I joke that if I had a nickel for every time someone told me how handsome he is, we could have retired by now.

I remember the day you brought him out and said, here’s your dog and he went directly to Mark. Now I know why you are such a good breeder and selector of dog parents, you gave us exactly the best dog for us! From the bottom of my heart, thank you for Gunner and all the joy and happiness he brings us every day.

Sincerely,Michelle McNally and Mark Knowles