Our road to WTCARES was not a direct route. But the point is, we (finally) did unite with WTCARES — and it was a wonderful match.

 We have had doggies our entire married life and along the way, three were rescues. Our most recent K-9 companions were a smooth hair female Fox Terrier and a (rescue) male Wire Hair Fox Terrier. After living under our care for 12 ½ years, our little wire buddy died in early December (2013). Eight days later, our precious smooth hair female that we had cared for 13 ½ years, grieved herself to death. She waited until we got in from work that day just to see us one last time and say goodbye, then dropped and died in our arms.

 To say the least, we were devastated by our losses but quickly made the decision to find another furball companion as soon as possible. Although we had discussed Welsh Terriers, we initially began looking for another Wire Hair Fox Terrier — and I must tell you that was a miserable experience, to say the least. Two different Fox Terrier rescue agencies in two different parts of the country both lead to the most discouraging experience either of us ever had. But through it all, we were able to make contact with a compassionate and caring lady who put us in contact with Paula (in the Tulsa, OK area), who put us in contact with Lyn (in Camden, TN) which lead to conversations with Carolyn (in the Atlanta area) and Kathi (in the Dallas area). By now we had reached a mutual decision to search for a young adult female Welsh Terrier and very soon we hoped we might be a match for a female that was coming through the Atlanta area rescue. However, Emmylou had other ideas when we learned she had been adopted by her foster family.

 So now, having ruled out Fox Terriers, we kept looking for Welshies and finally decided to at least consider available young adult males. Be assured, this was one of the best decisions we ever made since that road mated us with 3 year-old, all male and all terrier, Tristan, in the Dallas area. In the weeks ahead, numerous telephone calls, e-mails and text messages were in our future while volunteers with WTCARES did their due diligence to verify Cindy and I were who we said we were while we continued to get to know Tristan long distance. All parties – except Tristan – agreed it looked like a match although the final decision would be left up to him. The day we were all finally able to meet, April 12^th, Kathi graciously agreed to bring Tristan and meet us half-way between Dallas and Tulsa. When we rendezvoused late that morning, it was evident to everyone that Tristan felt all was well. Since then, he has accepted us unconditionally and we have done the same with him. He immediately became an integral part of our lives and that bond the three of us share continues to grow on a daily basis.

Thank you to the many volunteers in the WTCARES network for the selfless work each of you do in identifying Welsh Terrier rescues, identifying their specific nuisances’ while finding them caring, temporary foster homes and all-the-while trying to place each rescue with an absolute match both for the doggie as well as the new caregiver.