Dear L.E.A.R.N.,

We received our newest issue of The Retriever Newsletter and were we surprised to see our Lady on the second page! We adopted Lady in the beginning of 2008 when she was one years old. She’s come a long way in the past 2 years. So our family thought we would give an update on how she’s doing.

When we visited Lady for the first time, we were warned that she was very shy of men. However, she responded positively to my husband right away. Her foster mom said he was the first man she was comfortable with this quickly. From that point she knew we were meant to be her forever family. As the article said, Lady was a sick pregnant girl when she was rescued, we knew she would need a lot of love and time before she felt safe. The first few weeks she had to be kept quiet as she finished healing from heart worm. But once she was healthy to be active again the true puppy came out of her. Although there where lots of challenges with her (almost 6 months before I could leave the room without her following behind) it was so rewarding to watch her become the silly, playful girl she is today.

She is almost 3 years old now and she loves to play at the dog park with her sister Sadie, a 6 year old yellow lab. Sadie loves to fetch a ball and Lady loves to chase her. Our family will joke about how Sadie is training Lady. All kidding aside it’s probably true. If Sadie is interested in it, Lady will be right behind her! They love to wrestle and play tug o war with each other. When we see the sassy face they make at each other, we know it’s game on!

Lady is a joy to be around and we want to say thank you to her foster parents for seeing her potential and L.E.A.R.N. for taking her in. We are so glad she is part of our family! We have attached a few pictures – enjoy!

Sincerely,

Joni and Michael Chmiel