Buddy
Tomorrow I will be losing my best friend. I will be lost without him. Every morning for 15 1/2 years he has greeted me with a silly grin and a wagging tail. Every evening he has said "Good Night' to me with a loving gaze that says "I Love You" and I will be here for you in the morning. He has been my rescue side kick, the official greeter for any rescue dog that came to live with us. He always tried to make them feel safe and happy. I am releasing my Dear Friend so that he will feel no more pain......so that he can once again stand on his own and walk by himself. I have promised that I will be with him again when I make that journey to The Rainbow Bridge to be reunited with all of my beloved friends that have gone on before me. Tomorrow will surely be one of the saddest days of my life. Please keep us in your prayers. Bandit AKA Mr. Happy July 16th 1998-December 6th, 2013

Buddy
In 2003, my husband and I had been on a trip and when we came home, we found a little beagle sitting on our picnic table. Good thing he chose our home , because beagles are our favorite breed. We brought him in and kept him to see if anyone stepped up to claim him...figured not...we live in a very rural area and it is not too unusual to see dogs running loose. No one claimed him , so at the time we were fosters for our local SPCA. We asked if we could put him in their adoption program and we named him Pumpkin, because it was around Thanksgiving when we found him and that name seemed appropriate for him. We found a wonderful home for him with an older gentleman that was looking for a companion to keep him company. We kept in touch with the gentleman's family for several years. Pumpkin's new Daddy renamed him Buddy. Last year I got an email from another beagle lover about a beagle that needed a new home because his Daddy was going to a nursing home. The beagles name was Buddy. I really didn't pay much attention to the email but for some reason , I kept going back to it, and started thinking ....was that our beagle Pumpkin that we had fostered back in 2003?? I contacted the person that sent the email and asked if this dog had been adopted from the SPCA and got a response ..".No..someone had given the dog to the older gentleman"....so I said," it must not be the same dog". A week or so later, I got an email from the person that sent the email and she said.."Was the dog that you fostered named Pumpkin??" I said "YES". And sure enough this was the same dog. The family had lost the paperwork from the adoption and really could not remember how the older gentleman had acquired the dog. So....Buddy had been living alone in the home after his Daddy was put into a nursing home and the family had been going over to take care of him. I said.."BRING HIM TO ME!" When we got him, it took awhile for him to get acclimated to a new home, but he soon came to be a part of our family, 2 legged and 4 legged. A few months after we got him, he started acting like he didn't feel well. We took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with a tumor on his spleen. Because of his age(he was 11) we opted not to put him through surgery. We chose to do palliative care and we had him for another year. He was happy during this year. We took him on a family vacation and he had a blast! We had to let him go this past week, the cancer was taking over his little body. We will miss him..but are thankful that we had time to spend with him before he passed. Marsha Rogers The Missing Link.. From Shelter To Rescue www.missinglinktorescue.org

Buddy the Golden
Today Golden Buddy, the sweetest, most gentle, loving old soul left this world in body. His memory will live on forever in all of the hearts that he touched....especially mine. Thank you to RORR for giving Buddy a few good months of love and good health.

Buster
Sad news fellow rescuers. Our Buster decided yesterday that it was his turn to visit the Rainbow Bridge. It was quite sudden and unexpected. I had him to see Dr. Sauble on Wednesday for an updated evaluation on his arthritis with the notion of seeing the holistic vet in Romney for acupuncture. His heart and lungs seemed sound at that visit. He seemed pretty good all the way around. Rodney said that he ate a good breakfast yesterday and seemed his normal self when he left at noon. Upon his return at 3:30 Buster was just lying in his kennel and was gone. I had always fearer having to make a 'dreaded decision' one day due to his advancing arthritis but Buster went on his own schedule and saved me from that. I am deeply sad about this loss. This dog taught me more than any dog in my life. How to be happy in your circumstances. Be grateful for what you have. Success has many definitions. A successful rescue doesn't always end with a dog beside the fireplace with a family. Sometimes it is just sheltering a homeless dog and providing the best possible environment for him to live out his days. Thank you Karol Kennedy for helping him overcome his many anxieties. He was a much happier dog after you came along. Forever grateful to the Bishops. Without them Buster would have been truly homeless, and I wouldn't have had the opportunity to know two of the best people in the world. And thanks RORR, for providing financial and emotional support, always cheering for our boy. The Bishops have generously agreed to allow me to scatter Buster's ashes in Angel Field, a section of pasture on their farm where all of their animals have gone to rest and where the Bishops themselves will also be one day. Buster was with us for 1,723 days. It is clear that he had a life of uncertainty and sadness before that. His last four and a half years were years of contentment and peace.... And barking at the barn cats :)

Butchie

Poor Butchie waited and waited for a forever home.. then he started losing weight, not doing well and finally for his own comfort he left us. We all share this loss with the wonderful shelter people who worked so hard for him...Bill and Cathy from Tucker Co WV