My wife Stacey and I are the adoptive parents of Lisa Marie (known now as Ellie as she looks like my grandmother). We just read her story and saw her photos in your July 2012 newsletter (the Howler). We both got choked up.
Your mission and Robin’s impacts not only these helpless and blameless dogs, but it also adds greatly to the lives of their adoptive families and their other dog(s).
Ellie came to us on a Saturday after a long ride to New Hampshire. The indescribable timidity with which she left the truck soon faded as she fell asleep in my arms during the ride home.
For the first two days, her two-year old siblings (Clyde and Clementine, also rescues) played, but were ready for her to go “home” each night. By day three they were inseparable.
Ellie is perfectly healthy (due to the great care given her by Robin). My wife is a vet tech, so she will be well cared for during the rest of her life. Ellie now has two homes; her primary residence in Massachusetts with a three acre yard with a five to six foot fence, plenty of hilly terrain to play “queen of the mountain”, a pool and two dog doors (the house is surrounded by fencing). She sleeps in our bed, often so interwoven with her sleeping siblings that you cannot tell which parts belong to whom. Two to three days per week, she spends four to five hours at “play group”, where she, her siblings and over 40 dogs have almost 50 acres of fenced in fields and cover, if needed (with supervision).
Ellie also has a log cabin on a lake in Maine, fenced in with a dog door. We all simply play, eat and sleep in Maine. I’ll be teaching her how to kayak by the end of the summer; and this fall, Ellie will not miss a single New England Patriots game. Ellie is as affectionate and content a dog as one could ever ask for. Rest assured that Ellie will be loved and well cared for in every respect, for the rest of her life. She seems to know that already.
Please accept our most heartfelt thank you for connecting us with Ellie. No doubt – your and Robin’s work must be taxing and I am sure, heartbreaking, at times. Obviously, it’s the good that you do that enables you to continue your mission.
Immensely grateful,
Steve and Stacey Lander
