"Happy Tails" Adoption Stories:

We love to hear about the animals you've adopted from us. It's why we do what we do. Please share your stories by emailing us. Your story may even be featured in our next newsletter. Please include the city and state you live in as well as your pets name. Here are just a few of the dozens of successful adoption stories that we receive each year:

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Dear SafeHaven,

My husband and I adopted Princess (now named Aeris) last August. She’s become such a wonderful member of our family and we love her a lot. Her and the youngest of our two cats are practically inseparable. We ended up enrolling her in Obedience classes practically the day we got her, to help us become better owners and to help make her transition into the family easier. Well, we’re happy to share that she recently graduated advanced obedience class and has passed the Canine Good Citizen Test! My husband and I are both teachers, and my school allows her to come with me on a regular basis. The staff and the students, who come from all over the world, absolutely love her. She makes them feel a little less homesick and they love to keep her entertained. She absolutely loves car rides, hiking/running, and playing with the cats. Thanks so much SafeHaven for helping us find her! I’ve included a few pictures of Aeris with this letter.

 

Leslie & Miguel from Keizer



 

Hi Cindy/SafeHaven – I was cleaning out my inbox and came across this email from a few months ago.    Thought I’d share an update on their well being.  Vern, the younger one, is not very confident and has many fear issues that come out behaviorally.  We are working through them and hopefully he will become more confident over time.  They are adjusting well to their new life and home.

I thought I’d take a moment to send some pictures of the boys and let you know that they are doing very well now!  I think they are very happy in their new home and are starting to realize that I won’t be leaving them!

Take care,
Chris

 

My family and i want to thank you so much for Josie. She is a perfect addition to our family and has settled in quite nicely.
She has met her life time veterinarian Dr. Goldthorpe at Willamette Veterinary Hospital and are good friends now. Since so little was knowing about Jossie I thought i would let you know she loves her cats, her kids, her baths, my brothers two Aussies and really loves her life time home.
Attached is a picture of her on her first day in her new and final home
Thank you again so much for loving animals enough to give them every chance to find a good loving home.
 
Sincerely the Blucher family

Hello,

"Nomad" has settled in very quickly. He had a stressfull ride home and soiled himself in many ways. We gave him a bath as soon as we got him inside the house. I'm sure he really didn't want to start his new life this way, but we thought he would be more misserable if we hadn't cleaned him. He handled the bath like a charm. Once we toweled him off he came to us and thanked us with his notorious head butts. He took to his food and litter box within 2 hours after the bath.

We have all bonded with him as well. We have renamed him to Alex and hope that he likes it. He is a fast learner, he started to scratch the recliner and we put a scratch pad in front of it and showed him and now he scratches that instead. We also noticed he liked countertops so we bought him a place for him to get up higher to see outside instead of the countertops.

We are so happy we made the decision to get an older cat that seems to be very easy going. Alex has a little fun left inside of him. Alex has taken to playing with a pencil of all things. One happened to find its way to the floor and he seems to like to play with it after he exits the litter box. It's like he has an extra bit of spunk after using "the room of rest". He doesn't play for long, just 15 second intervals and then its back to head butting everyone that will give him attention.

We have attached a couple of photos of Bradley and Alex together at home.

Thank you again for taking him in so we could find him.

Melissa, Sam and Bradley

It has been a full 3 months now since I came to live with my new Mommy and Daddy and as much as I miss all of my friends at Safehaven I sure do love my new home! The best part is I have all of my hair even on my tummy it’s getting really long now and I think it looks really pretty and shiny. I’m not scratching or itching and I haven’t had a benadryl in over month! I don’t have to have a bath every week anymore but I do still get one every two weeks instead and I only get my Promeris 1 a month! I have to go back to the vet again soon and see if all the mites are still gone, but my Mommy said she’s not worried that she won’t ever let them come back and I believe her! Plus, they keep my nails trimmed and my Mom even paints them pink for me.
I have made lots of new friends! I have a brother buddy and a couple neighbor friends named Roci, Ricki and Payton that like to play with me. My Mommy and Daddy must really love me a lot because I have lots of squeaky toys all to myself, (My brother Buddy doesn’t like them) they are in a great big basket for me to get anytime I want. I have my very own fluffy bed and I don’t even play tug of war with it and I have had it for 3 months, I don’t want to ruin it, it’s really pretty.
I have sent you a couple of pictures so you can see me now mom says she has some newer ones she will send you when she gets them off the camera. In those you can really see how long my hair is.

Cass-A-Frass

In February of this year we found and adopted three treasures at once. Although we were told that it would probably be better to do one pet at a time, we went ahead with our decision. It was the best thing we ever did. What an addition to our family. Our dog, we renamed Sigma and he is so incredibly intelligent and loyal. And our two cats, renamed Ruger and Lola, have turned my dog loving husband into a cat lover. All of the pets are wonderful with our two boys.

Our "other kids" are a huge part of our lives and we can't ever imagine better pets than ours.

P.S. when we adopted Sigma, he was very overweight. He is looking very healthy now that he's exercised and on good eating regimen.

Sincerely,

Will & Tracy

 

HI, Hope is doing great, she is happy relaxed with her new home. She is getting along very well with our other 3 dogs, exploring her fenced back yard and sleeping in her new bed.
Thank you all for taking such good care of her until we could find her and give her a good home.

Tom and Gae

Thanks for the phone call last week to check on our adoption of Aurora, formerly known as Rose. Her coat has become full and beautiful, she's gained a few pounds and the tail between the legs is something we don't see any more.

She wags her whole butt and gives a toothy smile when she's excited. She gets one or two long walks daily, she's a good wilderness trail dog, she is great on and off a leash and she's just the best dog in the world!

Attached are recent photos.

Thanks so much!
Tom

I just adopted shadow (tyko) he has made our home complete. He loves kids especially the girl I babysit her name is Savari thats who is in the picture with him. He also loves our other dog keeja they sleep in the car together and love playing outside. He is such a goof and might be a little behind but you were very right he doesnt let it stop him at all!
thank you so much,
Lynn

 

I have been meaning to send photos of our two dogs for some time now. Both were adopted from SafeHaven more than 5 years ago (6 or 8 yrs maybe). We are happy to have both of them as family members and take them on frequent hikes in the forest.

Leo – Cairn terrier (just like Toto in the Wizard of Oz). He’s perched on a large tree fungus sometimes referred to as a Shelf Mushroom or Artist's Conk. Leo kind of "marches to a different drummer" and will do anything for food!

* One weekend while we were camping at Green Peter reservoir Leo ate a dead dried rough-skinned newt (kind of like newt jerky) and became very ill. We contemplated taking him down to an emergency animal clinic but after about 6 hours he was doing much better so we just kept a close eye on him in the campsite. The next day he went down by the water and ate another one! The affects of this one wasn’t quite as severe as the first and he recovered in only about 3 hours. We think he learned his lesson with the second one.

Sara – With her origin unknown, over the years we have had many people speculate on her breed but after having her as a family member for more than 5 years I am quite certain she is a Soft-coated Hyperdoodle. In this photo she’s the happiest dog in the world.

Nancy & Steve

 

I took the attached picture of my granddaughter today, napping with the Yorkie we adopted this week from your shelter. He is a wonderful dog and our entire family is thrilled to have him as our newest family member! He is so well mannered and behaved. We have had absolutely no issues at all. Not even an accident in the house which I was expecting.  I think it speaks highly of the wonderful foster care he recieved from your shelter volunteers. 
Thank you for all you do on behalf of animals!
 
Lisa




I've been meaning to write for such a long time about the wonderful "little" boy Charley that I originally adopted for my son but he has become such an incredible blessing for us all, both my parents, myself and my youngest son as well. Charley selected us at SafeHaven  in March of 2004 as a 9 month old skinny, funny boy who loved to chew on anything he could get his mouth on and would dart out after kitties like a cross between a deer and a cheetah he was so fast! Now he is so loving, obedient still funny, has gained about 30 lbs, is happy, healthy and just a wonderful boy in our family who constantly makes us smile. Give him his frisbee, a tennis ball, blow him some bubbles to chase or just give him lots of love and attention and he's such a happy boy. I'm sending a few pictures for you all to enjoy.

Sincerely, Mittaline, Charley and family

Hi!
This is Tracy again. I'm attaching a couple more pictures of
Dweezer, and sorry, but I've actually renamed him Helo.
He's doing really well, he is very sweet and playful when he gets
comfortable, and he just won't stop purring!
Tracy

 

Hi there,
My mom adopted the most wonderful cats.. Kitson and Kelandry around December 2007. They are the best of friends and doing incredibly well. We renamed them Leo and Lily. Lily is a very sweet little girl who is very shy and Leo is the biggest love bug. Just thought I should send you a quick email and a few pictures of them to show you how they are doing. Thank you so much for such wonderful pets!! (I could send a million pictures.. we have plenty.) And thanks so much to the wonderful foster home they were in.. Leo was playing with a toy they sent home with him.
Hope you have a wonderful day,
Lindsay

P.S. I am hoping to adopt a furry friend of my own soon. I expect I'll be coming to visit soon! :)

 

Hello,
Here is a photo of Katie & Karmel. They are having lots of fun
together and we are loving having Katie as our dog. She is a pure
delight. She will have many things to learn about our life style, but
seems happy to do so. The Vet gave us a free exam and discounted the
rabies shot too as incentive to adopt, so they are good people too.
We feel very lucky to have found Katie and she will have a good home
with us for as long as she lives.

Thank you
Walter & Gloria
 

 

You may not remember me.  My name when I was there was Mabel (ouch!) and my family renamed me Maggie.  I was 4 months old when brought there and I was really scared. 

My Mom and Dad were looking for a Beagle when they happened by and FOUND ME!!!

I love my new home and parents.  They take me everywhere they go and I get lots of attention because I'm so darned cute!  I like it when I get to go to work with them cause there's lot's of people there that love me, too, and ask about me when I have to stay home.  I LOVE going to the doggy park out at Waterloo.  There is so much to smell that my nose is tired when I get home.  Mom and Dad have a motorhome so I get to travel and see lots of new places.

I have a great big toy box at home with lots of goodies in it but my favorite toy is my rock.  It's just the right size for me so I can't swallow it (my parents are real careful about those kinda things) and my Daddy plays hide the rock with me every day.  He also throws my ball and gives me lots of praise when I catch it.  He says I'm a "good catcher". 

Mom likes to read and when she does I get to lay in her chair with her and she rocks and rocks and rocks.  It makes me feel comfy and loved.  I also like to sit behind her when she's working in her office, but when she's working really hard she pulls up Daddy's chair and has me sit next to her instead.

They have given me my own bed next to theirs and they cover me up every night, give me a kiss and tell me what a good girl I am.

I've heard them talk about maybe getting me my own friend to play with someday and I can hardly wait!!!  Oh Boy  Oh Boy   Oh Boy

Ahhhh, I love my life.