We adopted Pudding August 27th. Steve renamed her that day: Princess. We’ve called her Princess ever since and she knows her name. She’s a GREAT PUPPY and will be a WONDERFUL DOG! Kathy Cangello is Princess’s trainer and dog sitter. We have a 1&1/2 year old male cat named Tuffy. Princess is 5 months old. In an effort to help them become “family” with us & each other, we recently took them both to the coast for a vacation for a few days. 

After three days of sharing a room in a motel, and going on adventures every day, we came home ONE TRIBE. It worked! I recommend that approach to help critters get along better.

We really love our Princess. My best friend, Dee Dee, is her godmother. And our wonderful neighbor, Joe, is her godfather. They regularly give her love & affection and she gives them plenty back. And I can’t say enough about Kathy & Gary Cangello, of Small Dog Rescue. 

Since Day #1, they have given us expert advice and helped set us up for success with our sweet puppy.

Josh, their new owner says, “Paige and Dash are settling in and becoming more comfortable in their new home everyday! I was so happy the first time I saw them really play…It seemed to click for Paige that she could run around however she likes and get Dash to play chase, who was so happy too! Paige has also started playing fetch with me, it just took a little while to figure out the bring-it-back part; Dash isn’t interested in that part. He’s happy to get the ball, but then wander off with it, so I’m still trying to figure out what games he likes.

We are proud to see both Paige and Dash go to their new forever home, and would like to thank their new adopters! Thanks for giving these two underdogs a success story of their own!

Leti (aka Callie) is a sweet, fun, and terrific addition to our household!  We had said goodbye to a wonderful Dalmatian just a couple weeks before we picked up Leti and were unsure how she would measure up. But now, we feel so lucky to have found her!

She is full of life, very social. She loves to show her belly and chase balls in the yard.  She also runs 10 miles a week and goes wild when we come home from work. We have taken her to the ocean which she seemed to find fascinating, although she got car-sick, but that’s something we’re working on.

We do not have kids or other pets, so the adjustment has gone smoothly.  She is gaining weight and her coat is improving!  We had a DNA test done, the results were: 50% border collie and 50% golden retriever but we question those results 🙂

We started training classes last week and the first day went well! We are confident she will be a fast learner. We thought the adoption process through Butte Humane was seamless and easy. Thank you for your hard work!

Early in January, I was struggling with a deep depression and crushing loneliness. I went from being incredibly busy and surrounded by people all the time, to having pretty much all of my time to myself, by myself. (I’m still in this transitionary phase, although it is not nearly as debilitating as it was earlier this year). Because of these dark emotions that I was dealing with, we decided it would be best for me to have a companion animal sooner rather than later. (Our cats are great, and I love them, but they’re cats and they don’t reciprocate much).

We knew we couldn’t just take in any dog. We’ve never had a dog before as adults. We needed a dog that would fit into our life without causing more anxiety than I already was dealing with. I began checking the BHS website every day, knowing that the perfect dog would show up. We had cast our intentions and from there it was only a matter of patience. After a few days of checking constantly, a new face popped up on the available page. It was so sweet and so cute and the description provided by the behavior specialist sounded exactly like what we were looking for.

Korben came home with us and started changing our lives January 24th. My background working with preschool children transferred over surprisingly well to training a dog  The biggest difference being that I can’t explain to a dog the way I would explain things to a child. His presence alone, his bright nature, is so healing to me. More than anything, he teaches me how to be in the moment. He doesn’t know why I might be angry, or sad, or frustrated, or irritated, or any other emotion really. He only understands how I make him feel. If I get into a bad space, he thinks it’s his fault, and I can see it all over his face. This innocent assumption reminds me to be present, to not allow my memories to dominate the present moment, and to actively demonstrate the love I have for him and the life we’re living.

When my mind would consume me, Korben licks my face and brings me back to my body, to where I am right now, right where I’m supposed to be. I’m so grateful for him and he can’t read this post, all I can do is show him by showing up in every moment.