We adopted Lily in early July 1010. We were looking for a new companion for our 5 year old orange and white tabby, Rusty.  Rusty's sister had passed away several months before and he was lonely when we were not at home, but quite happy being the center of attention when we were at home.  My husband Ken, as well as Rusty, were not sure about whether Rusty would accept another cat.

In December 2007 one of our tenants moved out and left Barney, a boxer mastiff mix, tied up outside in the cold with no food and water so we took him home with us. We advertised everywhere we could to find someone to adopt him, but he was so hyperactive that no one wanted him. Our older two dogs would not play with him and Barney had lots of behavioral problems. After seeing how well-behaved he was when he had someone to play with at the dog park, we decided that adopting a 4th dog was our solution. In December 2008, we contacted Homeward Trails after picking out a black and tan coonhound puppy on petfinder.com. We didn't know at…

We had a wonderful chocolate lab, Casey.  Sadly, she passed away, and we were all upset about it.  A few months went by, and we were throwing around the idea of getting a new dog, but no one wanted to "replace her".  One day in March 2009 my dad was at Starbucks, and he saw that there was an adoption event at Bark.  He went, just to see the dogs, and Hayley caught his eye.  We requested to adopt her.  Luckily, we were chosen to be the family to adopt her.  She is so happy here!  She loves to go on walks, play, go to the dog park, etc. Hayley is such a wonderful addition to our family, and we…

As soon as we bought our house we started looking for a four-legged friend. I found Sampson (formerly Cotton) on Petfinder and instantly was interested. He was handsome, active and loving. At our first meet and greet Sampson was aloof because he was completely loyal to his foster family. In spite of this, we adopted him and he has become my shadow! Sam follows me everywhere and is always at my side.

Our Daisy (formerly Miss Muffet) adopted us January 25, 2006. She came to us on a home visit and never left. Although my husband was in favor of the adoption, he wasn't sure he really wanted a beagle. No one told Daisy that. She walked in, looked around, sniffed a little and promptly peed on my husband's favorite rug! He burst out laughing and she's been with us ever since.

In September, 2008 we adopted Joy as a companion for our aging American Eskimo. She was shy and skittish, but since he was so calm, she soon learned to be more easy going. When we lost him in February, we soon knew we needed to fill the hole in all our lives. Enter Eli, a fun and lovable beagle!

We've had Jorgie (formerly Mavis) for almost 3 weeks now and we couldn't be happier! I found out that not only is she a puggle, but a puggle and boston terrier mix. She is so full of love and kisses (TONS of kisses!). She has so much energy and loves to play outside with her "big sister" Puggle.

While in the process of adopting Bella (formerly Kinsey), I found out she might be a Pit Bull mix. It made me hesitate. We have a puggle at home and the thought of a potentially aggressive dog coming into our home was a little frightening. Since then, Bella has taught me so much about dogs and dog breeds. She is the sweetest dog I have ever met. All she wants to do is sit on the couch and get love all day.

My name is Nelly. I was adopted a year ago and I thought it would be a good time to take stock of the situation. I include a few pictures, one where I don't look my best and another which I like much better. This is what happened between. I was dumped in a rural shelter by a lady who lived in a domestic violence situation. I was already 9 by then, and was not too hopeful about any improvements in my life. But Homeward Trails changed everything! They picked me up, brought me back to DC, cleaned me up, spayed me and pulled 9 rotten teeth out of my mouth!

We adopted Linus (formerly Lightnin) when he was a few months old in the summer of 2008, after his previous owners gave him up for the serious offense of busting their blow-up kid's pool. After doing the paperwork and everything for the adoption, we brought him home to our apartment in Laurel, MD! The next step was 4 baths to bring his tail back to the famous beagle dipstick tail as opposed to its urine stained yellow. Skip ahead two years later, after several bras, sunglasses, hats, omelets, flip flops, exercise balls, tupperware, etc. have been eaten...After drawers, cabinets, doors, baby gates, 8 ft. privacy fences have been successfully defeated...We love him as much as the day we adopted him,…

When we moved back to Arlington in August 2008, we knew we were finally settled enough to adopt the cats we'd been wanting for a long time. It was sheer luck that we stumbled across Homeward Trails. We knew we wanted a bonded pair, and we wanted at least one of the cats to be black because we know black cats have a harder time being adopted. We quickly narrowed the available cats to two pairs, but when we met them, we knew Trouble and Pax (previously Spark and Toby, respectively) were the right cats for us. They were living at PetMAC at the time, and Trouble (a slightly petite, all black cat) met us at the door and let…

We lost our almost 19 year old poodle in May 2008. When we were finally ready to get another dog, we decided to adopt a rescue dog. We scoured Petfinder and found Milo and Otis and instantly fell in love. We applied to adopt them, then met them and their foster Mom. She told us they were found in Baltimore in July, and that when they were picked up, they were very dirty and very skinny. When we met them in September, they were no longer dirty and they were no longer skinny.

After losing our American Eskimo earlier this year, we finally decided it was time to start looking for a companion for us and for our dog, Joy, who had come from Homeward Trails in 2008. After contacting HT again, Sue Bell told us about Eli. We met him at the Pet Fiesta and fell in love. But someone else was looking at him and we had to wait through the weekend - a couple of the longest days we've had!

I lost two cats within 7 months in 2008-2009. My remaining cat, Brox, and I, were having a tough time coping. After losing two so close together, and spending a small fortune on vet bills, I was going to wait a while to adopt another cat. But Brox was lonely, depressed, and anxious. He started over grooming his belly, licking himself bald. I half-heartedly started browsing Homeward Trails' petfinder page. Then BAM! There she was. Skunk: a fluffy beautiful little black and white sweetheart. I was 99% sure after seeing her picture that she belonged with us, and after reading her description, I was 100% sure.

Walter came to us as a foster when a Homeward Trails plea for help went out and we agreed to foster a kitty-friendly dog. We went to pick him up and Walter was standing apart from the other dogs, terribly overweight and a bit sad looking. He had been adopted previously, but his owner didn't understand that beagles must follow their noses and he kept wandering off, so she gave him back to Homeward Trails. She also named him Nutmeg, a name to which he flat out refused to answer. He sauntered into our house, sniffed the cats and hopped up on the sofa, where he has been ever since. Unless he is out sniffing around in the park.