It was a stormy night with flooding and thunderstorms in Las Vegas. I was driving a big truck on the highway in the right lane with traffic beside me. Power was out in the city so I could only see directly in front of me with hard rain making it difficult. I suddenly heard two thumps. The person riding with me said "don't look back" because they had looked back and saw it was an animal I had run over. The dog dodged the vehicle beside me trying to cross the highway and ended up under me before I even saw it. I pulled over & we went to see if it was still alive and it was. Luckily it was in shock so it let us wrap a towel around it and I sat in the rain in the back of the truck holding the dog until we got to an emergency clinic. The vet said it was in bad shape, but not because he was run over. He said being run over may have saved him as he was malunurished, deydrated, in very bad shape & must have been on his own for a long time. He didn't have any broken bones or internal injuries,but had a torn ligament in his front arm & a lot of missing skin from road rash. He had to wear a splint & bandages & needed a lot of care. We advertised the found dog & no one claimed it. It cost over $1500.00 to heal him. Since he wasn't ours we could put down for less. I chose to pay and I nursed him to health. It was like having a baby. He was my first pet & ended up being a beautiful, gentle golden retriever I named Buddy.

My fourteen year old minature Schnauzer died on Jan. 5 and I grieved for weeks and weeks. Knowing that Ashes was not going to live much longer, I adopted a beautiful Skye Terrier just so there would be a dog in the house when Ashes was gone. Bella was just a god-send. She is definitely not a lap dog, but she was such a comfort for my broken heart. I love her so much that I adopted Sassy, a Shih Tzu, just so I'd have a lap dog. Both adoptions came from the Knoxville, TN area so I had two 14 hour trips to pick my new little angels up. They are worth every mile I had to drive, if for no other reason than they got me through the grieving in less time than if I'd not had a dog at all. Thank you Precious Paws Asian and Small Breed Dog Rescue for the wonderful work you do. Losing my Ashes was like losing a child, and you helped me deal with it.

One day HoneyBoy showed up in front of my house, no hair except for his tail, sweet as his name. Of course, we took him in. A few days later Alfie, a feral, appeared on the window sill calling and calling his friend who was inside. We tried and tried to coax him in and finally very reluctantly, he came in. He was terrified for weeks, but HoneyBoy managed to calm him. Now they are part of our 7 cat family and we adore them.

Mr. Peabody wandered into a biker party this past Labor Day, along with his sibling.

One of the fellows grabbed the other kitten for his wife. A friend who was at the party telephoned me immediately, knowing that I'd just lost my companion of 21 years, Tequila, and told me he had a new baby for me.

Mr. Peabody arrived shortly afterward in the saddle bag of the friend's motorcycle. (He has no fear!)

He's won my heart and the hearts of my other cats who were all grieving over the loss of Tequila.

I innocently telephoned about a "free to good home" ad for Daisy and the down & out owner said she'd have her at our home in 30 minutes. HUH ?? I was just inquiring, WHOA, my husband isn't even home!

30 minutes later 6 month old Daisy was delivered with no questions asked of us and we have loved her every minute since. Our lives revolve around this little 8 lb Shiht-Zu and life has never been better. As the song says, "Daisy, we're half crazy all for the love of you!"

My husband and I went to our local animal shelter where we found Roxxorz. She was our perfect match! We brought her to her first vet visit, where we found out she had a severe gum infection and was on her way to starving herself. After 2 mouth surgeries and lots of food and love, she's a happy healthy cat.

Lucy wandered into our courtyard during the sizzling heat of an Arizona summer. Our German Shepherd mix had lured her in though the narrow bars of our front gate. We felt very lucky that she went unclaimed as she has become an irreplaceable member of our family. Nowadays, you can find her cuddling and playing with her big sister Sasha (a rescue herself), curled up in one of her humans' laps, or sunning in the flowers.

One morning I had left for work and my wife thought she heard something at the front door. She opened the door and this cute black kitten came into the house, went to each and every corner, chair, couch, even the bedrooms sniffing as if to look for something she might have lost. Then she jumped up on the couch, laid down with her tail flipping back and forth, and looked at my wife as if to say, "this will do me just fine". Fourteen years later, Isabelle has been a real blessing to our family.

Roadrash was brought into my vet's office at the same time as I was bringing in my diabetic cat for his glucose check. The girl who brought him in was crying hysterically...she had watched this little guy get thrown from a moving car on the interstate and stopped to pick him up and took him straight to the vet. He had lost half his left ear, had a broken jaw, and his right eye was damaged so badly that we thought he would have to have it removed.

I brought him home a week later. My 17 year-old diabetic cat died 2 days after that. I believe Roadrash was meant to be with me, and that Kawie knew I would be looked after...

And we have saved his eye.

This is TJ (left) and Kita. TJ is a rescue from our local shelter, he has been with us since June 2006 when he was about 10 weeks old. At first the folks at the shelter thought he was rotti/shepherd mix but now they say he looks more mastiff than rotti. Kita is a shepherd and is 10 years old. We rescued her late October 2008 when her former owners were talking about putting her down because they could not find a home for her. Both dogs are a huge part of our family and we could not imagine our home without them. They share our home myself and my husband and two cats, Tippy Toes and Roo.