My 3 rescued dogs, and brief stories of how they came here... Rocco, Betsy and Jasper...
Rocco, last fall...
Betsy Beagle
Jasper Jax, his handsome self
The 3 dogs in a field near Temple, PA last spring...
Jasper Jax we found from a rescue, Save A Lab, in Georgia early in March 2011, after the death from cancer of our Doberman/Great Dane Cory at age 11...Jasper has a very long back story that can be found on his facebook page, Jasper Jax-a rescued dog.
My wife, Meryl, was very ill, often hospitalized, and died of liver disease on November 11, 2011. Jasper and I helped each other get through all this, which involved more long stories, which are my own...but here is the handsome Lab/Rottweiler , Jasper himself...He is now nearly 6 years old.
In April, 2013, I found another dog who really appealed to me even over the internet...another rescue from Georgia, this guy a stray who seemed to have had a bad time in his earlier life...he looked as though he had been chained up outside for a long time, with little attention or medical treatment...he had chronic ear infections, and was later found to have thyroid problems and a urinary tract infection. I decided Jasper and I should get him and I decided to call him Rocco, after the Italian patron saint of stray dogs...here's Rocco a month ago, a happy old guy - he's 9 now...
In June of 2013, I saw a story online about an old lady Beagle named Betsy, whose life long humans were gone...one died, the other had to live in a home - and she was in a local shelter. She had been in a weekend long "gray muzzle" adoption event, and was the ONLY dog not adopted...So I called, the t guys and I went to meet her, and we took her home. She is now 11 years old...
These guys are my family now, and although we all at times get on each other's nerves-especially the two guy dogs-we manage...and we are having a good time becoming a pack. We generally go for rides/walks and shopping trips early in the morning to beat the heat. We did that this morning, and had a great time, and we will ALL sleep well tonight.
This is not how I had imagined spending my retirement, but I can't imaging doing without them.
They are my friends and my pleasure.