Rio's Story

I adopted Rio from a rural animal shelter in NE Georgia, Elbert County Animal Shelter. The folks who run it are super nice, but get so frustrated because so many discarded animals get turned in and since they are a rural shelter, they don't get much traffic coming through to adopt animals.

My beloved chow mix, Sheila had been put to sleep the previous October because of inoperable cancer. The quality of her life had so degraded that we made the hard but right decision to put her to sleep. I created a Rainbow bridge memorial website for her. By the summer of 2005, I was still missing her terribly and it was the first time in my life, since I was 5 years old that I did not have a dog in my life. I asked (ok, begged) my husband to let me foster 3 black lab mix puppies I had just gotten a rescue email about that were due to be put to sleep in the next few days. He reluctantly agreed. All the arrangements were made for me to pick up the three 8 week old pups that Saturday. The shelter asked if I could possibly take another puppy who they were pretty sure was a 16 week old PB black lab puppy. Hubby said no to that one.

That Saturday, I got to the shelter to pick up my fosters and the staff excitedly told me that one of the three had been adopted, so there was only two now. Could I possibly take that 16 week old lab puppy, named Vegas? I decided on the fly, that since hubby had agreed for us to foster 3 puppies, and now there were just two, it would be ok. At least that was my line of reasoning at the time. I just couldn't bear for her to be put to sleep.

So I loaded all 3 up in the crew cab of my then little yellow truck and off we went. I got home and took all 3 puppies of the truck and then just like in movies, hubby and Vegas saw each other. They ran toward each other (in slow motion--at least that's how I remember it). It was love at first sight. Ok--so that was foster failure #1. Hey, at least it wasn't MY fault. Vegas became my husband's dog.

So I made up fliers for the two 8 week old black lab mix puppies. I ended up finding a great home for one of the puppies, renamed by her new family as Roxy. They had a smooth coat collie and 2 cats already. Roxy ended up making their family complete.



I continued seeking the perfect home for Rio as well, with not much luck. One family wanted her as an outside only dog who would live by herself in their fenced yard (NOT). Another call I got was from a 10 year old wanting to adopt her (where were the kid's parents?). Finally a dear friend wanted to adopt her. Everything was all set, but at the last minute, her landlord changed his mind and said she could not get a dog. I didn't know what to do except to keep trying. More fliers and more ads.

Then, my dear, sweet hubby said,
"why don't we just go ahead and keep her?" I was flabbergasted (over joyed but flabbergasted nonetheless). I jumped all over that. I had become attached to the little thing but was quite prepared to live up to my word to hubby about us fostering--not keeping. It was such a surprise when he suggested we keep her. We knew we were going to get a second dog eventually anyway. He reasoned that Rio and Vegas got along great. Hey, who was I to argue? I was thrilled.


With his decree, the wheels were set in motion. Rio officially joined the family. She has become the most incredible dog. Vegas is awesome too, but we expected that from her. Rio was just this little blob of black fur, who quite honestly at the time didn't appear to be all that bright. Yet, she has turned out to be a very smart, engaging, problem solving, athletic dog--with a few quirks and phobias, but nonetheless, she has exceeded our expectations.

Vegas and Rio both went on to earn their CGC certification before they were a year old. Vegas passed with flying colors at 10 1/2 month olds. Rio eeked by her test at 9 months old. We were quite proud of both of them. I would have to say though, that Rio is my heart dog. You know, that special dog that comes into your life and touches it in such a way that you will never be the same again.

Next installment: Blaze's story

Finally Doing It

Looks like there's going to be lots of changes in our lives. What better way that to begin than by starting a blog!

So I'm finally starting one to capture the journeys of Team Rio and Team Blaze--my 2 incredible dogs.

Rio and I already compete (ok, we attempt to compete) in dog agility. We went through Basic, Intermediate and Advance obedience when she was a youngster. She wasn't interested in Rally Obedience (a.k.a Rally-O), which worked out ok because she's a mixed breed and cannot compete in AKC events. AKC seems to be about the only organization, locally holding Rally trials.

So we decided to try dog agility. She seems to like that much better although, competing is not her cup of tea. She LOVES going to a trial to see all her people and dog friends. She usually enjoys the first couple of classes (events) but by the end of the day, she has clearly had enough and just wants to go home.

Since I really enjoy agility (although, I suck as a handler still), enter Blaze. He's my greyhound puppy picked especially with the intent of competing in agility and probably rally-o.




They are the sunshines of my life. More on them later. This was just to get things started.