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.

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!

My husband and I connected with Homeward Trails through Craig's List--we had been thinking about adopting an older dog and offered to foster a dog that was set to be euthanized shortly. Turned out that the dog we inquired about was safe, but we learned that there were so many more that needed our help. Our Homeward Trails contact (and now friend, Lisa Milot) worked with us to find two great pups. We adopted Kelly and Sally, an older pair of bonded, large, mostly black dogs with some health issues. Kelly and Sally were originally adopted into a loving home in Georgia as puppies, but their owner had to go into assisted living.

After our previous Homeward Trails dog passed away, we came back to ask for help in finding another dog for our family. The biggest obstacle we faced was that the dog needed to be cat friendly, or to be more precise; it had to be tolerant of our very in-charge cat Dunkles. After the initial meeting, Dunkles seemed to approve of him, so Freckles joined our family.

Freckles is the nicest, calmest dog we’ve ever owned. At eight, he’s an older dog, but because of that we have benefited in so many ways. He was already housetrained, past the puppy crazies and is a total gentleman. Our nieces just adore him and he is gentle enough that they are able to take him on walks. He travels with us when we go to visit family and gets along with all the dogs and cats there.