TJ (formerly Koda) and Taylor Sue

Hi fellow RRUS adoptees, this is my first post on my first blog so bare with me or bear with me, whatever. The RR with the headache is TJ and the comforter in back is Taylor-Sue.

We lost our RR-Corgi mix July '06 and were totally devastated. We spent hours, days, months enjoying the RRUS website and looking at the wonderful rescues and reading their stories. We did not have a backyard (so we knew we were limited for full sized RRs) and lived in a townhome in Pagosa Springs, CO when we saw a picture of Taylor on an obscure website and 3 days after moving to Colorado we hit the road for Alabama and got dear scared Taylor.

We continued to enjoy the RRUS website and told ourselves that after a major medical crisis (the life and death kind) that we'd better quit thinking about RRs. Then we saw Koda (TJ) and the emails to Terri began. She was so patient with us as we were floundering around trying to decide if we could provide a good home (if accepted) for him. I think we probably drove her nuts with our indecisiveness, but she was so patient - the T in TJ is for Terri (masculine though as Terry). When we saw his picture on the website, my heart literally started pounding. He looked so like our 'Trey' - the dog we lost. Today TJ and Taylor play all day long, share our beds, our couch and our hearts and lives. We feel so blessed. TJ won't be big, which is a great help. We have been educating our retirement community about the ridge on a ridgeback and they are fascinated - instead of scared that it is 'raised hackles'. TJ passed Snake Aversion training really well - a great nose. TJ wants to play with our rabbit (as Taylor is allowed to) but don't trust him yet as he still guts all new toys. He is all Ridgeback, and it is a mystery to us why he is so small. Maybe because we needed small. He is so much fun, so smart, so kind, so loving and essentially no baggage. By the way his trip to AZ from Indiana did not harm him - highly recommend We Move Pets for pet transport - they are the real thing - true animal lovers. He is so mellow, but last night at 4am he went ballistic and jumped on our observation table by the front window and barked like crazy - we have bobcats around here and had our windows open. We love hearing how the other adoptees are doing as we followed so many rescues and hope some day to have room for more (we'd need a farm, I think). I think all the foster parents in RRUS are just the best and provide such an opportunity for folks like us.

All the best to all the adoptees and their parent (s)

Jackie