Happy Tails

I just wanted to send an e-mail with a photo to show you how happy my dog Bessie and I are. I adopted “Aussie” in March this past year and changed her name to Bessie. She and the cat get along just fine and she loves her daily walk in the park. She also likes hikes in the Dupont State Forest and she even went on vacation to the Outer Banks this summer. She is sweet and healthy. Thanks again for my friend Bessie. – Andrea McGuire, Hendersonville

One rainy afternoon last January, a miracle happened. My parents suggested that we go to AHS but said we were only going to look at the dogs. We all piled into the van and drove to the shelter. I was so excited that it seemed to take forever to get there. When we got inside I noticed that volunteers were taking care of all the dogs. After a few minutes, my mom pointed out one of the dogs. He was a small puppy with glossy black fur and big, sad looking eyes. We had him taken out of his cage so we could meet him. We were able to play with the puppy, who was four months old and named Balto, in a small visiting area. We all fell in love with him. However, my parents reminded us that we were only there to look. My dad said maybe we would come back another time and he would still be there. It was 4:30 and the shelter was going to close in thirty minutes. We gave Balto back and slowly walked to the car. Once we were in the car, my mother called a family meeting. We all agreed that Balto should be part of our family and we quickly ran back inside to adopt him. The shelter staff was very happy and stayed open late so we could do the paperwork for the adoption. I couldn’t believe that in such a short time, there was another member of the Lang family. Today, we have two dogs because a few months after we adopted Balto, we wanted him to have a friend. In September, we took another trip to Asheville Humane Society and found Daisy, a chocolate lab. Balto and Daisy have lots of fun together and we love them very much. – Kelly Lang, age 10