THE HAPPIEST OF THANKSGIVINGS TO EVERYONE

Things we are thankful for this year:

The BTRNC volunteers who pull dogs from shelters that should never have been there in the first place; open their homes and hearts to dogs until their forever homes find them; attend fundraisers, provide support and guidance to other members; drive transports; counsel new forever families; create calendars, jewelry, and other items for sale to benefit the rescue; post e-mail updates, maintain our books; and the list goes on and on.

Our BTRNC dogs who bring us joy and unconditional love every day.

Our forever families who choose to rescue rather than buy and who have give one or more of our dogs what they want most of all - a home.

Our supporters who donate their money, time, and resources to our rescue.

The boarding facilities who work with us to allow our dogs to stay with them out of harms way until a foster home opens up.

The trainers who work with our dogs who need extra help with behavior or fear issues.

And everyone else who has contributed to the success and reputation of BTRNC.

A VERY HAPPY FOREVER AFTER

I live in the southwestern part of VA, close to both the Tennessee and NC borders and not too close to Richmond or Northern VA. There are a whole lot of small and medium towns between here and those places. Sometimes we need to do home visits in one of those towns.

I had what turned out to be the absolute pleasure of taking a road trip to a town right out of the backdrop to a lot of country songs a few months ago. I did the home visit for the incredibly sweet and enthusiastic future parents of Miss Sophie. As soon as you turned off the main road, you felt transported in time before pollution, mega malls and super stores. Everyone who lives on the long road knows everyone or are in some way related and they all waved at me as I drove by. I must be welcome or I would not be on that road! Most of the houses have large side and back yards too. When I pulled into the correct driveway, I could picture a lucky pup sunning on the back porch.

Mandy came right out to meet me and welcomed me in to their warm and comforting home.

The four legged family member in residence is Panda, a beautiful black and white cat. Seems like I'm not the only one into the whole black and white color scheme. It was very important that their new boston would at least be cat friendly and at most like cats.

Of course the home visit was fully approved and they had their eye on our Sophie already. A week later, they made the road trip so we didn't have to arrange transport and brought Sophie home.

So, how did everything turn out? See for yourself!

We are so happy for Sophie, Panda and their wonderful family. Now if I could just get over my desire to live on that road instead of the city!

BUT I REALLY AM A GOOD BOY - HONEST!

So, I'm not even a year old yet, but so far I've been dumped at a dumpster (guess they threw me away too), had a bad case of mange (of which I am all better now), was rescued by a really nice person who nursed me back to health, was turned into BTRNC because my rescuer had to move away, got adopted, got a new adopted brother, then got returned to BTRNC but my bother got to stay. Since I will never forget what it was like at that dumpster, I stay pretty happy most of the time. Good thing I don't know how to feel sorry for myself, but geezeee....

I get so excited when I have another dog to play with, I seem a little crazy, but I really am only having a good time. I can be over whelming to some humans watching me run, jump and play. The good news is that if you are not up for my level of excitement with other dogs but you think I am handome and cute, I can be very quiet and calm as an only dog. Another BTRNC volunteer has a boy like me and she takes him to day care once a week so he can run wild and she doesn't have to watch! That is just an idea, you don't have to do that, I'll just be happy to be home with you. Honest.

I don't like being separated from my people so much. It was lonely outside and sometimes I get afraid that my people will leave me again or won't come back. I am working on that though. As long as I am in the room with you, I am really good at throwing toys for myself and catching them - I am a good self entertainer so don't worry if you have other stuff to do besides play with me.

Oh, and as you can see, cats even like me. I hope that someone soon will give me another chance. My foster Mom says I am really adorable which I think is a good thing so maybe I could be adorable for you! Thanks for listening! Archie!