So thankful we Gotcha!

Stanzie was born on Dec. 3rd and we made the 5 1/2 hour journey to bring her home in late February 2002.

When we first saw our new pup, she was cuddled up in a bean bag chair, with her litter mates.

The puppies were watching the 2002 winter Olympics.

She has been a fan of winter sports ever since.

Leo, our 5 year old Airedale, came along to see the puppies.

We did not choose Stanzie. Stanzie chose us, (actually she chose Leo).

She ran up to Leo,  the big brother, she had always dreamed of!

 
She loved Leo so much, and would give up anything for him....food, toys, her bed.
 
She rode all 5 1/2 hours home, in my lap. If we tried to put her in the crate, she howled something fierce and Leo would join in the song.
6 years later, our dear sweet 'Leo', was diagnosed with cancer and crossed the rainbow bridge in March 2008.
Stanzie missed her brother and we were all devastated. That is when I started looking at dog blogs, as a way to cheer myself up. The first blog I started reading was, 'Bogart Handsome Devil' and 'Oscar' the Airedale, in the UK. I silently followed Bogart, through California and then on to his new home in Oregon and mourned the loss of Bogart's Dad. I spent hours reading the blogs and crying my way through Airedale rescue websites. At one point, we applied with NW Airedale Rescue for a dog. We got excited and waited and waited and e-mailed and waited some more. But they did not reply and we felt that we must have failed the application...(turns out, that there are just so many people on the waiting list, we were contacted about 1 year later) .....but in the mean time... 
Wyatt was born,  August 23rd, 2008. He was born at the Rock'n A Kennel, in Washington State. He came home to live with us around Halloween. His first leash said "trick or treat". Our first meeting with Wyatt was a little rocky. He was actually frightened of us.

Well. that lasted for about 2 minutes. 

Here is a picture of his first Thanksgiving.

Gobble till you wooble....then pass out!

 
So thankful we Gotcha!
And so thankful for all of our great blog pals too!
Wyatt's Mom and Dad