About the same time my marriage went south, I rescued a beautiful female Boxer pup off the streets. I took her home and made her a regular member of the household. Shortly after that, I rescued a 1 and a half year old Australian Shepherd from a family that didn't appreciate him. I was first going to just steal him (they wouldn't have noticed, anyway), but I decided to just ask if they would sell him to me. Fortunately, they did and that increased the household by one more. In the meantime, my 'Ex' was presented with a similar situation of rescuing a beautiful Siberian Husky pup out of the middle of the street near where she was then living. Not being able to keep the dog in an apartment, she brought her to me . . . making a third new member. Shortly after that, a co-worker of hers ask if she would take their dog as they were moving and couldn't (probably didn't WANT to keep her) take her. She said yes, as she knew she had a source of refuge for unwanted animals (too bad she didn't know of a source of refuge for "Unwanted Men"!) Long story short, and because two of the doggies were hers, we (both of us, for a change) decided that it would benefit the doggies if she moved back in (separate space(s) in everything, of course), thus giving them the benefit of two loving 'Parents' (also benefits human puppies as well- sorry Parents, particularly women, don't realize that). Some time later we were coming back from the Lake with the four babies and almost ran over this ball of gold fluff that scurried across the road immediately in front of the car. It ran to the oncoming side of the road, so I pulled off on that same side. I got out to see if I could 'capture' him, but he ran under the car. Fortunately, the car was an SUV with higher than normal ground clearance, so he wasn't burned, but he would NOT come out. Then, the strangest thing happened: I reached under the car, intending to grab him by the 'scruff' of the neck, and he grabbed my hand with his mouth (think 'bite'). But it wasn't a bite; he just gently held on while I slowly pulled my hand back- coming out with my hand still in his mouth. I picked him up (could then see he was a beautiful Golden Retriever puppy about a month old and half starved) and told my 'EX' to fasten her seat belt and I put the pup in her lap, closed her door, walked around the rear of the car, got in, closed my door, fastened my seat belt, started the engine, put it into drive, and . . . just before I started driving, looked at my 'EX' who said, "He's snoring"! I named him "Lucky"; can anyone guess why?
So that is my story of how I (then, we) acquired 5 beautiful 'children'. Here are some photos of them. Oh, BTW: while the last three lived pretty normal lives, the first two lived abnormally long lives. The Boxer developed a brain tumor and had to be put down; but SHE WAS ALREADY 18 YEARS OLD! The Australian Shepherd died in my arms about 4 months short of being 21 YEARS OLD! Don't bother telling me that LOVE won't increase one's life!