Each time BMD pulls a dog from a shelter, a life is saved. Each time one of our dogs is fostered or adopted, we have the opportunity to rescue another one from the shelter. In this issue it is our pleasure to present three very happy adoption stories from this past year. Please meet Piglet, Alfie, and Bindi, and the wonderful humans who opened their homes to these dogs.

Piglet was one of the first dogs to be part of FosterSLA, the joint project of BMD, A Purposeful Rescue, and South LA shelter volunteers. [see our summer series spotlighting FosterSLA, archived on the BMD website, bluemandog.org] Kim, someone with lots of past experience fostering and owning dogs, reached out to foster, but was out of area for to be approved by Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS). BMD decided to pull this lanky big boy, as he would be perfect for Kim to foster. He’d been in the shelter for ten months but maintained a sunny and sweet disposition. He went from “a four foot concrete cell to a 60 acre ranch.” Pictured below is Piglet, now Tigger, gratefully leaving the shelter, and surveying his new life on the ranch.

Kim calls Tigger, a “bouncy goofball” who’s a “wonderful dog with a beautiful soul.” He loves car rides, trucks, and the ranch ATV. He likes to hike, and is happy jumping around “like a deer.” Kim also dog-sits at her place, so the dog she brought home had to get along with all dogs. Tigger has become great friends with Oliver, one of the dogs who is often at the ranch.
After about a month, a call came saying that someone was interested in adopting Tigger. Kim was considering adopting him herself, but wanted to make sure of the bond they were developing. As it happened, the adoption didn’t materialize; instead, Kim adopted Tigger. “It was meant to be. I didn’t just rescue him, he rescued me.”

Alfie was in urgent need of rescue due to a badly broken leg that had healed incorrectly and was in ned of amputation. On top of that, he's a dog who has extreme fear of people. With a solid foster offer, we decided to rescue him and take care of his medical needs. He was fostered for quite a while but still hadn't conquered his shyness meeting new people, though he does bond with a few he got to know. It was a challenge to find an adoptive family for this Shepherd tripod! Happily for Alfie, the Duke family was up for the challenge. Alfie, now Ace, gained a human family of four, plus a canine sister, Violet, and three cat siblings. Jimmy Duke reports that Ace is doing great. They’ve worked really hard to lessen his anxiety and integrate him into family life. They've patiently worked with Ace, making sure he has consistency in his life. He's also meeting people outside the family, and making slow but steady progress.

According to Jimmy, Ace "loves the family and I'm so proud of him. He's such a good boy. With patience, consistency, training, and love, Ace has come a long way. 

Bindi came to BMD in April. She’s a gorgeous, high energy, high drive Malinois who loves people, but had an aggressive play style with dogs so was difficult to integrate with BMD dogs. Eventually Mia had her with her personal dogs all day long and Bindi adapted to pack life. She’s no ordinary dog, and needed a home with very experienced dog people with a super active lifestyle. With great good fortune, such a family applied to adopt Bindi, and she went home in September. Mia said she couldn’t have dreamed up a better fit, “it’s a match made in heaven.”

Dave and Paula Guild are trainers of mainly high energy working dogs. Dave also has decades of experience training police dogs. They had recently said goodbye to their last Malinois, and found one to possibly adopt – until the dog bit Dave at the meeting. Paula said, “no more dogs, especially Mals.” Except that…one of their training clients knew Mia had a Mal ready to be adopted, and sent an email to Dave, “in case Paula changes her mind.” Dave applied to adopt Bindi as Paula questioned him, “what are you doing?” They went to meet her the next day; it went great. Here was Paula’s reaction: “can we take her now?!”

Bindi is now Althea, known informally as Aly. From the moment she became part of the Guild family she was put on a schedule with tons of activity, exercise, play, all kinds of outings, and simple obedience training. She was immediately introduced to her canine brother, 12 year old Dikran, a rescue Gampr (an indigenous Armenian breed). Dave and Paula continuously evaluate what Aly needs as they observe her growth in training. She is always engaged, and their goal is to have her reliant and focused on humans. “Aly is firing on all cylinders,” commented Dave. Paula agreed, “she’s everything we could have asked for.”

The BMD team recently took a “field trip” to watch Dave and Paula, and a couple of their clients put some dogs through their paces. The extra special treat was watching Aly. Her focus was excellent, but she did break from training when she heard and smelled her BMD friends. We had a joyful reunion with this great girl, and could not be happier about her good luck in being adopted by Dave and Paula.

These are just three happy adoption stories from 2024. There are more, of course! With your support, we can continue our vital work: saving lives by rescuing and finding foster and forever homes for as many dogs as we can. We look forward to sharing more joyful stories with you in the coming year.