I moved into a cul-de-sac neighborhood 4 years ago. One of our neighbors eventually moved out and abandoned their cat. What's worse- when the house was sold the new owners did a lot of demolition. The poor terrified cat had been hanging out from backyard to backyard to get away from the construction noise. My yard, being the furthest, became her secret hiding place. I didn't find her until I moved some plants and saw her hiding. I thought I’d try feeding her. She ate some wet cat food, and the next morning she was meowing at my door! I decided to stock up on cat food. I grew up with cats but became allergic to them. But I'm taking chances with this beautiful creature. Slowly she became more comfortable with my presence, and within two weeks time, she became attached to me. I'm glad to be her guardian, especially now that I've seen physical improvements; she was malnourished and probably abused. Attached is a picture of her at play time.

– Ed S.

In 2000 I wanted a Border Collie. The breeder strongly advised my wife and I to take Nero since he did not show the characteristics of a "working" Border Collie. When our Nero was almost one year old, however, he started to herd our cat AND my wife non-stop from 4 a.m. until 7 p.m.! Whenever possible, we play with him outside our house. Nero loves walking and playing in the snow. We take him with us places; he loves traveling by car, watching oncoming traffic, and above all noisy trucks. Did I tell you that he watches Animal Planet ™? When there are animals of any sort running around on the show, he huffs and pants with excitement and jumps around the TV set. Both my wife and I love him, and we feel that, by far, he is the most intelligent and funniest dog we’ve ever had.

– Claudio O.

My husband, our dogs, and I volunteer with Chesapeake Bay Retriever Relief & Rescue. We foster abandoned, unwanted, abused, or neglected dogs until they find a forever home. Our most recent foster dogs were Ike & Tina, two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers who were picked up by animal control in southern Maryland. Ike had Lyme disease, and Tina had both Lyme and heartworm disease. Both dogs were successfully treated and brought back to health. We chronicled their stay in foster care in a series of YouTube videos. They were adopted and went to their forever home last week leaving Craig and me with our original two dogs Molly & Hendrix. We plan to take our two very tolerant pack members to the beach in October.

– User 6