Raven's story

Dear SPOT,

It's been a little more than a year now since my parents found me at the Mount Vernon PETCO and brought me home. I wanted to send you a note to say thanks for giving me the chance to live such a charmed life with my new family.

When you rescued me, I was an unwed teenage mother known as "Dixie" living with lots of other cats in a home out in the county somewhere. You took me to your shelter, cleaned me up and renamed me "Raven."

My new parents met me on March 13, 2010. They weren't really looking for a cat, and I wasn't feeling super sociable. My mom told me that when she first saw me, I was laying in my litter box swatting at the cats in the cages next to me. She liked my spunk, and my dad liked how I purred when he picked me up. It must have been fate, because the next thing I knew, I walked out of my cardboard kitty box into my new home.

The first few weeks were interesting. My two doggy siblings weren't quite prepared for a cat to take over their house. Fortunately, they learned that I wasn't a squeaky toy – and I learned that they're actually pretty fun to spend time with (when they're not trying to sniff my butt, that is).

My new house is great. My parents are growing me catnip in the backyard, and I have tons of fun rattly toys to swat around in the house. I have lots of windows to sit in and two cuddly fleece beds to curl up in. When I get bored, I like to attack the big stuffed dog toys – and sometimes the dogs. I like to chase them up and down the stairs and around the house. I've even found new foods to enjoy – like cantaloupe, yellow pepper and tortilla chips.

When I'm not pestering my parents to try new foods, I have a pretty easy life. In the mornings, I make sure to jump on the bed to wake up my mom so she isn't late for work. Then I head downstairs to make sure she feeds my doggy brother and sister. She gives me a couple kibbles so I don't steal the dogs' food when they're not looking. I greet my dad when he gets home, then spend most of my day napping, either in my bed or with my dad in his bed. He works at night, so I have an excuse to spend most of the day sleeping. Of course, I make sure that I wake him up in time for work, too.

When my mom gets home from work, my brother and sister and I greet her at the door. We all get lots of hugs, and then we have dinner together. At night, after mom goes to sleep, I play with my toys for a while until I get tired – then I head upstairs to snuggle in my parents' bed.

I don't know what my life would have been like if you hadn't rescued me, but I can't imagine what life would be like without my great family. Thank you for giving me a second chance.

Love, Raven

King of the Castle

We adopted Jack last summer. We fell in love with him after we first met him. We knew he'd fit right in. He is the new king...in training, as Junior (14yrs) is working to relinquish his crown.
Thank you SPOT for our little spitfire of little guy!

Bud

Hello,

My husband and I adopted Jackson about about 2 months ago who know goes by BUD, I thought you might want to find out how he is.

We adoped him only 4 days after he was at a foster home with SPOT, we went into petco with Cooper, our other dog. We just were there to look at getting Cooper some more toys, when there was bud, this beautiful dog, Cooper who was kind of quiet walked right up to his crate sat down and started barking, totally out of his character. I told my husband, oh Cooper picked his brother, well we decided to leave and talk about it, so we went to costco and then decided that if he was still there when we went back we would get him, well, there he was.

Bud, is a sweet, loving,funny, full of life dog. Cooper and Bud truely are best friends. He does so good on walks, he still pulls some but we are working on that, he has never shown any dog or human aggression at all, the day that we brought him home cooper and him were eating out of their own bowls. It did take him a bit of time to settle in but, he knows now that we are his people and this is his home. He now sits by the door before we take him out, waits in the car with the back open until we tell him ok. He is responding to sit, stay and come really well, he loves his treats which makes it easy to train him. He is crated during the day while we are at work, but gets a lunch break, I get to come home during lunch and let them out for a little run, then they have rome of the house when are home, we all go on hikes and walks everyday.
He really has added so much to our life and we are so happy to have him. I attached some recent pictures of bud and his brother cooper.
Thanks so much
Melissa & Bart Tracy
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Thank you SPOT!

We adopted Mr. Deke (Aussie Shepard mix) on March 5th and he fit right into our family and routines. While we were working with him that day, we realized that Mr. Deke just didn't suite him so my son sat on the floor and started saying different german town names and low and behold, Mr. Deke went right to him when he said the name Bergen.

We are so pleased with Bergen in how smart he is and quickly picking up commands and how he has such great house manners. While we were a little concerned introducing him (since he is so much puppy still) to our almost 15 year old Husky but they get along wonderfully and she actually enjoys having him with her.

He is doing much better on leash now and goes for a walk twice daily. We have enrolled him in obedience training classes and have no doubt he'll pick up the commands quickly. Although we have been trying to keep him off the bed, he is very attached to our son and actually goes to bed with him and once our son is asleep, he jumps down and sleeps on the floor in the hallway just outside his door.

Thank you again SPOT for introducing him to us and allowing us to adopt him! We absolutely LOVE him!!

"Tia" Richardson

I just want to thank SPOT for giving us the gift of our new family member Tia.
She is close to all of us but especially to our 5 year old. He introduces her to people as his sister.
She is such a cuddle bug sometimes I think she is little lap dog. She has sure made our house feel like a home
Although people take one look at her and think she is a tough dog once they come close to her they see she
Has such a warm heart and all she wants to do is lick your face.

Love
The Richardsons

LUlu

Thanks so much for my new baby LuLu. She has become such a wonderful new member of Our family that I can't tell you how much she means to us. She has her quirks but they are so over overcome that they are a non issue. She loves us non judgementally it's a non issue. Too bad the world can't see it the same way. She doesn't care who we are nor who we would like to be. She just loves us. Damn that feels good, just non judged love.

A Tail Wagging Thanks

Dear SPOT,

Just wanted to give you an update on the little female Pit Bull our family adopted from you back in October, Hope (now named Nina, pronounced Nee-Nah).

She adapted to her new life here with us fast and is a VERY valued, loved and amazing family member! Her and our 21 month old toddler Connor are inseparable and can normally be found either playing around the house or cuddling together on the couch. At 4 months now she knows her basics of sit, lay down, stay, out of the kitchen (lol!), no jumping, fetch, is completely potty trained and more! She's great with all people and dogs and will be getting into her puppy training classes soon for more socialization. I can confidently say she is our Pit Bull Ambassadog as everyone she meets loves her, and she loves them. And boy does she have the looks! She's overall just a perfect dog: healthy, beautiful and smart. (I always get compliments from the vet!)

That being said we wanted to sincerely thank you for rescuing her and giving us the opportunity to adopt her. This is her forever home.

Sincerely,
Misty, Grant and Connor

(P.S. Huge thanks to Michelle for taking such good care of her before she came home to us. We will also send more pics as she grows!)