Well, 12 of the babies flew the coop this past weekend, and I couldn't be any happier -- !!

I met with 12 wonderful families who took these loves in -- during the home visits, we shared meals, talked about dogs, tractors, houses, kids -- and, most importantly, their NEWEST ADDITIONS -- !!

These families are great -- they range from fire-fighters, to software engineers, to flight instructors, to marriage and family counselors, to physical therapists, to hair salon owners -- but one thing is true with all of them, first they had the patience to go through my lengthy adoption process, sifting through my emails back and forth to them, and then patiently awaiting their pups through surgeries, AND secondly, they proved exceptional at the home visits -- !!

All homes had crates for their pups, books on puppy rearing, puppy toys, premium foods, and lots of love to give -- now who could ask for more??!!

Oddly enough, I even had a group of gals try and tell me that rescuing these puppies was somehow improper for a rescue to do, and that real rescues focus more on adults -- they even got heady and philosophical trying to prioritize an adult dog's life over a puppy's in the hierarchy of "who needs help" --

-- needless to say, I took another drink of coffee, kept my mouth shut, and forged on to the next home for these babies, knowing they're just as deserving as any pup in the survival game -- !!

And we got fan mail, which we love -- Ann writes --

"eric... Caro is fitting right in -- she has found her favorite spot on the end of the couch under daddy's feet...i took her on her first walk and she loved it ... she did very well on her leash.. .as soon as we download some pictures we will send you some.. I just want to say thank you for making our home busy again... you do a wonderful thing for these dogs...........ann"

And little Camille writes --

"Hi Eric! Chloe is the best dog in the world from what I have experienced. She pooped in the house once and peed in the house uncountable amounts, but she's a puppy and she's not trained not to do that. Every time I see her when my mom is holding her and I come over her tail starts wagging. She can't sleep in her crate yet, so I have to sleep with her in my round chair, but we are working on it. She loves the rest of the family too, like my dad mostly feeds her, so she loves him for that, my mom cuddles with her when she reads, and I play and cuddle with her at night. Speeking of cuddleing, she is on my lap snoring! She snores when she sleeps! Isn't that so cute!? Well she is waking up so I should go take her potty right now.                       Camille

PS:Thank you for calling us "The perfects", we used to call our selves the "Stupids", but now we can call our selves "Perfects". And mostly thank you for our new baby (The perfect baby) and making our lives change for hopefully many more years to come!"

Thank you everyone for getting these loves off to a great start -- and thank you, most importantly, to those like Sharon and Terri, for getting them out of their dead-end situations before they came to rescue --

-- these are the things that matter in life, and I am very proud to be a part of them!