Holly was the second dog to join our family.
She was born January 27, 1989 and came home with us when she was 8 weeks old. She was so cute and grew up to be a beautiful girl.
Her AKC name was "Kisha's Buddy Holly" and she & Kisha became the best of buddies and had a great 10 1/2 years together.
This is one of our favorite pictures of our girls together.

Holly was a bundle of energy and was always making us laugh. She adopted Kisha as her big 'sister' the moment she saw her. Kisha was her mentor and helped Holly grow into a great Keeshond. They were always together, going for walks, playing tug or tag and mooching food whenever they could.

Holly loved to play ball and was the best! She was fast and would run and jump into the air to grab the ball. And she loved squeaky balls and would drive Kisha nuts with the squeak, squeak, squeak ! But her passion was ... FOOD and there were plenty of trips to fast food places and ice cream shops in the summer.

The years flew by so quickly. The girls were growing old gracefully together and they had been healthy all their lives. Then one day, shortly after her 10th birthday, Holly started acting different, like she wasn't feeling well.
It was stomach cancer and 7 weeks later (July 5, 1999) we lost her.
Kisha looked for Holly for weeks afterwards.

We first heard about JoJo when a local animal shelter call us about a senior Keeshond they could not place. His owner had gone to a nursing home and he could not go. He was surrendered to the shelter with the hopes of finding him a good home. When the shelter called, we said we would come evaluate him, and see if he was a a suitable candidate for Keeshond Rescue.

During the evaluation, we determined his only issues were medical: you could smell his breath across the room, he had partial facial paralysis, he had a ruptured ear drum and was deaf in one ear, and his back was so matted it was shaved down. With these issues, we knew it was very unlikely he would ever be adopted. But he had his way with us, and we decided we would be his forever home.

As soon as we got home, we made an appointment with our vet to give him a general checkup, and to remove the bad teeth which were the cause of his bad breath. After having 9 teeth removed, he came back to us obviously happy is mouth was no longer hurting him.

Next to his food bowl, Jojo's favorite places to be is laying next to his favorite person... Dad.

And right behind that is his own comfy bed.

More recently, his life has had a series of ups and downs. In October 2007, he was diagnosed with a mass is his stomach. After a number of tests, nothing came back conclusive, but evetything pointed to a slow growing form of cancer. Proving to be tough, he is still enjoying life 19 months later.

He was also thrown for another loop in July 2008 and April 2009 when he appeared to have suffered minor strokse. Again showing how tough he is, 2 months after his latest stroke, the head tilt is all but gone, and he is much more stable on his feet.

And best of all, he enjoying all the wonderful food and attention he is getting being the senior pack member.

April 29, 2010 was a sad day for us. It was when we had to let JoJo go to the Rainbow Bridge. While he was still a fighter, in the end his body just wore out. Now he is at peace and whole again.

Until we meet again, our little 'Jojo-bean'.

Keesha was a rescue girl we got from Pittsburgh PA. She was 12 1/2 years old and had severe arthritis and was supposed to be euthanized. Her elderly owners were ill, could no longer care for her and were having no luck finding her a new home. They thought no one would want a senior dog but some friends posted Keesha's plight to the rescue site. I called them and said we would take her.

Keesha's owners had her flown to the Manchester NH airport on Dec. 30, 1999 and when I picked her up, it as love at first sight (for both of us).

She was a doll ... bright, lively, full of mischief. You would never know how bad her arthritis was because she was a real trooper. She bonded to us instantly and became one of the 'golden' girls since at that time, we only had two other senior dogs (Kisha & Tasha).

Unfortunately, we were only blessed with Keesha's spirit for a short four months ... but it was a grand four months with lots of love, walks and good food. She developed cancer that spread quickly. Keesha did get to celebrate her 13th birthday on April 28th with her new family and friends, with roasted chicken for dinner and some cake for dessert.
We lost her on May 1, 2000.

For those of you who are concerned about adopting an older dog because you may not have many years together ... I can only tell you that they are truly a 'gift'. Senior dogs are wonderful and grateful for the love and home you give them.
It is an honor to know and love them.

Kyser was 13 months old when we got him as "Free to a good home". His former family had not provided a good start in life for him: he was un-neutered, unsocialized, untrained, had behavorial problems, and had suffered verbal abuse along with some physical abuse. When they tired of him, they wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible. They didn't really care who took him or what would happen to him in his life after he was gone.

Kyser is now 4 years old (April 3, 2003) and has lived with us for almost three years, Kyser is a different dog. He has completed numerous Good Manners obedience courses, agility courses from beginner to intermediate, as well as several advanced workshops, (2) weekend tracking workshops and a Canine Good Citizenship course, where he earned his first title of CGC.

Kyser is no longer afraid of life, he is more confident in himself and he knows we will always be there to help him. He best buddies are Player, our Belgian and Smokey our youngest Keeshond. Together we call them the "Wacky Boys" for all their rough and tumble play. In January of 2002 Kyser (and Player) began to compete in novice agility. They are both doing well and always have fun. Kyser now has (4) novice CPE agility titles and you can read more about their adventures on our Agility page.

It is often said that 'things happen for a reason' and for Kyser that changed his life. For the dog that no one wanted, Kyser is truly one-of-a-kind. He is safe and loved and happy ... and we would not trade him for anything in this world!

Peanut was an 9-month old spayed feemale Keeshond when she was surrendered by her family. Peanut is extremely active, even for a puppy. This, combined with a loud household and four active children, never really allowed her any down time. The only down time was when she was sleeping, and then it was full on when she woke up the next day.

In addition to all the chaos, normal with a household with children, she did not really have a buddy. This all changed when she came to our house.

Peanut was not the name she originally had, but because she is a small Keeshond, about 25 pounds and less than 13 inches at her withers, the name Peanut seemed to fit. This was reinforced because she didn't really respond to her original name, but when I called her a "little peanut" she immediately turned her head to look at me. So we kept the name.

Although almost 8, Peanut found a buddy in our Samoyed, Frosty. They play very well, with the only problem being Frosty tires out before Peanut wants to stop playing.

Since Peanut has been at our house, she has started learning to enjoy the quiet times we have here. She gets to take nice walks with our other dogs, but she also gets to enjoy some time just hanging out and napping as we work around the house or sit around reading a book.

Almost every dog we have fostered, or that has stayed with us, has been through some training. Usually either some basic obedience (or good manners) or agility classes. This is true even for the senior dogs we have adopted. Peanut has proved to be just about fearless with the agility equipment. We are taking it slow with her because she is so young, and has not finished growing.

Smokey was an 11-month old neutered male Keeshond when he was surrendered by his family to us. The family was having problems and did not have enough time for this young dog. He was not really socialized (only taken out for walks to go potty) and he was fearful of new people and dogs. He was also spending most of his days tied out in the yard ... alone.

Smokey was a friendly dog, he just did not know how to interact with new people and situations. So, we started to work with him to socialize and prepare him for his new 'forever' family. Our intent was to place him (as we already had 4 dogs) and we had a very nice Massachusetts family interested in him. About two weeks after his arrival, we placed Smokey in a new home. Unfortuntately the family suddenly had a major illness to deal with and we took Smokey back.

It was during this time that we discovered Smokey had a few more issues to deal with. He had sound sensitivity to certain noises and this greatly impacted his training. If he was scared by something, he would jump and leave the area ... he was very unsure of what to do. It was at that point, that we knew Smokey would be staying with us.

Now, a year later, Smokey has settled in very nicely with our family. He celebrated his 2nd birthday on February 3, 2003 and is a cute little "Schmoo". He is bright and a bit mischieveous, with that twinkle in his eye that lets you know he is up to something playful. He is the youngest of our 'wacky boys' and always enjoys a rousing game of chase with Player and Kyser.

Smokey has now completed three Good Manners obedience classes and two agility classes, as well as a weekend long tracking seminar. We continue to work on building his confidence level and he is making progress. Of our three younger male dogs, he is the best tracker, exhibiting a natural scenting talent.

Little did we know, when Smokey came to us on that day in January 2002, that he was finally in his forever home. Love works in mysterious ways sometimes ... and we are so very glad it does.

Just to prove he was not all good looks, Smokey passed the testing done by Therapy Dog Internalional needed to become a therapy dog. Smokey also passed the testing done to become a Delta Therapy dog. (The Delta Society has become Pet Partners.)

Spending a day out walking in the woods with your buddies has got to be one of the best things in the world. Lots of things to sniff everywhere.

But then again, it is hard to beat running around with your favorite ball in your mouth.

This is my kind of weather. Who needs a coat.

One of the things Smokey really loved to to was to make snow angels in the fresh snow. When he wasn't running around in the snow, you could often catch him rolling around making angels.

Several years later, Smokey is still out walking in the woods with his buddies Kyser and Cheyenne. We didn't know it at the time, but this was to be his last walk in the woods.

While Smokey had started to slow down as he approached 14 years old, it was in his last six months age really started to catch up with him. He found it harder and harder to get around because of the loss of muscle in his back end as well as neurological issues affecting his back end. But even with his growing disability, he loved going out for short walks, taking naps, and getting lots of good food (and treats) to eat.

Sadly, on July 6, 2015, we had to let him go the the Rainbow Bridge where he will forever be pain free and with all his buddies.

Until we meet again, our little Schmoo.

Tasha had to be spayed as soon as possible, because she was ill with Open Pyometra. She had a high temp and had stopped eating. This illness can be life threatening, so we had her pre-op work done and into surgery. She recovered very well from her surgery and started to feel better within days. Her appetite came back and we began to see her true personality ... sweet, smart and a chow-hound!