the birds at our assisted living residence found us! first, about six years ago, one of our housekeeper's dogs found  a cockatiel in her yard. then, about a year ago, we had a beautiful periwinkle parakeet show up on our patio. The residents love them (except when they raise a ruckus during bingo!)

Ms Charlie, Gilligan is beautiful...so good to have saved at least one.  I cannot begin to imagine how anyone could do something so horrible.....

Done.

Thanks for sharing your touching story.

Can someone PLEASE re-size this pic for me...PLEASE.

I would like you all to meet Gilligan. Gilligan and I first met under very bad circumstances. I was out Kayaking with a gaggle of my girl friends having a ball paddling down a local river here in B.C. We had pulled in for lunch and I noticed this green garbage bag floating right where we pulled in to tie up our Kayaks. The bag seemed to be moving. To make a very long story short, I opened the bag to find a dead litter of kitties and their Mommy, and one very much alive Kittie.

Meet Gilligan the only survivor. I found him on that Island so I named him Gilligan after the TV show. I have had him now since 2000. He's the love of my life.

He's been here now since May 2004.

Meaghan-I love Scotty's especially when they are babies :D You really need to find those pictures I bet he was adorable.

Gerda- Zulu is gorgeous I have seen the pic in the pets section of him and he looks wonderful. How long ago was it that you found him?

Tabs- Rusty is really stubborn it sounds like lol. I had a puppy named tonka ( after a tonka truck because he was huge) awhile ago that had a lot of different breeds in him and one was pit bull so he could lock his jaw. He would always find ways to break out and go through all of the neighbors garbage :roll: When we found him he would lock his jaw and not allow us to retrieve the food. He was only 5 months old when he passed away from an airborne virus that was going around killing all the dogs in our neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods :(

I have a lot of pets - some of which were aquired because thier owners could no longer look after them, for one reason or another, and the local pet shop referred them to us because we are well known for adopting animals.

However, Rusty is another matter entirely!

My son and his fiancee decided that they would like to buy a dog for my husband for his 60th Birthday. My son, his fiancee, my youger son and I went to a rehoming centre to try to find the 'perfect' dog for him, without much hope of finding the right dog....

After viewing all of the dogs on offer we phoned my hubby and asked him to come to meet us (giving him only the postcode and the name of the road) for 'lunch'

When he arrived we took him into the 'meeting your dog' area and the kennel staff brought out the scruffiest, dishevelled, stroppy - and interesting dog - that we had picked out as being the perfect match for my hubby! We could not believe our luck in finding this dog at the centre.

Rusty is a cross between a Cairn and a.n.other terrier and, as hubby already had a Cairn, we thought that he would be the ideal companion for Cato, and for my hubby.......

At first my hubby was shocked at the condition of this poor waif, who had been picked up as a stray in Ireland and had been sent to the Dog's Trust in London in the hope that someone would love him.

'Rusty' immediately settled himself under the garden bench that hubby was sitting on - and licked hubby's hands and shoes...... and hubby fell totally and completely in love with him - and, after he (the dog, not hubby) had been sent to the local dog parlour for a bath and trim, he cleaned up very nicely.

Rusty is, in fact, a complete PIA - and always will be - but he has such unique characteristics that no-one can help but to love him - though I doubt that the local cats, foxes - and our gardener - would agree

His favourite 'games' are taking our clothes (especially our socks and underwear) or his and our other dog's blankets into the garden, stealing food from the table when we are not looking - and terrorising the gardener or any other people or animals that dare to enter his territory.

His other favourite game is to go into the densest vegetation that he can find, when I take him for walks in the park, and refuse to come back to me until the point when I am ready to leave him there, all night if neccessary, because I have spent an hour or more, in pouring rain, trying to entice him out.... by which time I am so peed-off with him that I would happily abandon him there!
However - he seems to sense when that time has arrived and 'miraculously' reappears in the nick of time!

Rusty drives me to despair at times - but I would not swap him for any other animal because he is so entertaining, and so loveable, in spite of his aggravating characteristics!

Thanks for sharing your stories. It's interesting how it's often the pets who choose us and not us who choose the pets.

Zulu "found me" in May 2004.
I saw him walking around on the parking of the hotel (where I work) a few days in a row, he was limping and hungry.
I gave him some food and later that night when I finished my shift he followed me back home, that's about 100m ;-)

the following day when I went outside he was sitting there waiting for me, he stole my heart and I took him inside.
He immediately felt at home and he has never left since that day.

He had an open wound at his front leg and I took him to the vet. He got 2 stitches and recovered quickly.
The vet thought he was about 1.5 years old.

After a few days, I put his picture up in 3 local shops and an advert in the local newspaper to see if people were looking for him but I never got any reply so I decided that he was mine :-)

and we are living happily ever after.

Zulu a few weeks after I found him, you can still see how his leg got shaved at the vet :

and Zulu now :