Love at first sight feeling

Saw this posted elsewhere and loved it

What were your very first emotions the first time you ever laid eyes on your dog(s) I'm sure you can remember that monumentous moment?

When we got our first dog we did not have a breed in mind, we went to the dogs home with an open mind to see what caught our eye. We were looking and had not really seen anything and then went to another section where they kept OAP's and Puppies and in there we caught sight of a little staffie girl who was a bag of bones. As soon as saw her I knew she had to be mine that huge head on a skinny body was crying out for a home.
However at the time you needed a letter from your vet and the dogs home would not reserve her so we did a 40 mile round trip to our vets in about 10 minutes lol and home she came.
She was so underweight that the vets would not give her any innoculations until she has built some strength up (this was nealy 20 years ago and our first introduction to staffies. Tara was a stray so we were not sure on age etc and she did not have a name at this point

Jack - I was unsure about Jack, he was extremely nervous and did not respond to us talking or touching him. He had been in kennels for a while and was very distressed. Hubby knew he was the one for him and home he came and he completely changed within a couple of days

Chloe - I missed her in the Dogs home and the staff had to show her to me. We had been ringing day after day to see if they had any females in at mcr dogs home and the day they said yes they had one in we flew down there, this time armed with a letter from the vets. She was in a kennel with 4 other dogs hence how I missed her. I fell in love with her straight away, she again was so scrawny and they told us she had an eating disorder and struggled to put weight on (they forgot to omit all her other ailments lol). I was more concerned about the introductions with Jack at that point but they got on great. Shame after we got her home we realised she was pretty aggressive with any other dog than Jack, yet she was in a kennel with so many others

Reuben - We only went to see him to see how Chloe got on with a youngster. We had tried her with a rescue 11month old male and it was a disaster. To get a younger dog we looked on Gum tree (yes I know!!!) and we saw his pic. I fell in love with his pic but did not let on to hubby and he thought we were just using this dog as a test. The minute we walked into his home we both fell in love and luckily Chloe tolerated him before finally letting her defences down some time later

Next one - Who knows? Def be a rescue again

Well the husband feel in love with Quattro as soon as he saw him (he always wanted a blue staffie) & i thought he looked like trouble...how right i was but I feel for his brother patch (think I've put puppy pics of him up before) for weeks we thought maybe we could have them both but deep down new it wouldn't work, we helped look after them both for a few weeks & were both hart broken when patch went o his new home.

My family dogs (all rescues in one way or another) have been love at first sight but my dad would just bring them home & we would all just love them, kids being kids

I agreed to take in Sammy before i had even seen a picture of him, the first time i was was literally when he was at my front door.

We were only meant to look after him temporarily (his owner wanted him gone that night or he'd have him PTS, whether he would or not have i don't know, but it's not a risk i wanted to take) when i first laid eyes on this big white thing i knew instantly he'd be a part of the family.

Buster - we only went to look at buster, when we got to the womans house he was being chaotic as he is now lol but despite everything bad thing he did nothing put me of, thankfully Chris felt the same as i did, our meeting of collecting Buster was a tense one as i think we were both muddled up between being happy and excited over having Buster and being a bit apprehensive over how Sammy would react with another dog.

We got our 1st staffy Jake (as we named him) back in 96, i got a call from a friend of mine darren who lived in middleton (manchester) saying he had taken a red sbt off some tinkers over the road from him , now the story they told him was they had picked him up on a motorway slip road in the morning , now it had been a baking hot day that day & the kids had been chasing him about all day without so much a bowl of water , now he,d seen many a dog come & go from this house so decided he wasnt to keen on leaving this boy over there so had a word & they agreed to let him take the stray ,
anyway thats where i came into it ,one call later & me & sonya went & collected him , at the time i was living at home with my mam & dad having just bought a house & just waiting for the move i date to come ,
my mum wasnt keen at first but within the week jake the dog had won her well over

we had jake till we think he was around 14 so we had around 13 great years with him , fantastic lad

ok so we waited 6 months & looked down the rescue route , home checked & passed , we landed a 3 year old red boy , very nice temperment , like all dogs cats , hamster , now he had very poor manners & shocking recall so was going to be a be of a trail thing going on , i was not happy after the 1st month really , struggling to bond really i think , plus he was mental around the house as he,d live outside for 2 years we were told so wasnt keen on being in the house at night which was real hard work ,

Anyway after a very hard 2 months we had to come to the decission he wasnt for us sadly ( trust me we were gutted to let this lad down but we tired soooooo hard to make it work out )

after the 8 weeks they came & collected him to take off to another couple who were willing to try with him which made it just slightly easier to do ,

anyway we left it another 4/5 month or so well i did & id take the odd trip over to manchester dogs home looking for a small staffy girl , i went over about 4 times in total & on the last time i spotted a tiny brindle girl named roxy , she was lovely but a little nervous which i put down to the kennels , i thought should i go for it or not , i spent a good hour back & forward looking at the other kennels just thinking what should i do ,i thought ill drive away & think about it over night & let sonya know were id been going the past 4 sats & maybe go back on sunday
i told her i spotted this wee girl looking for a home & she said right lets go for it , she rang the straight way & to my disbelief she had been pick out & they were just doing the paper work with a family to release her , gutted wasnt the word ,

anyway from that point my search started i came across a red /white pied male who,s family were going to canada to live & had 3 sbt but were only allowed to take 2 into the country , i contacted them ,we spoke a few times as the had a few couples interested but sadly it wasnt to be again as they wanted somebody at home all day with the dog & had found a family who fitted the bill 100% which was fair enough ,

then i said thats it im buying a brand new one (a pup ) we spotted a white & red girl who was 6 months in briddlington (amarbull terriers) amanda suzie ts friend but after driving over to see her i realised she wasnt for me



after all that searching sonya spotted an ad on champdogs for pups & as soon as i seen the picture he had to be mine , we contacted the breeds did our home work questions ect , pics of perents which they had too a date was set for son & abbie to go & collect him from cumbria asap as i didnt want to lose this boy
anyway she drove him straight to me at work & i was nearly in tears looking at the handsome boy , & i have to say this was one of the best choices iv made in my life

sorry its so long but i got there in the end ...

Some lovely stories and some sad stories there Martin. We had a rescue GSD that we had to return after a period of time when we had Tara, he had been abused by men and could not settle with Ian and he had to go back after he bit Ian for the second time

It's so hard isn't it but you tried. The good thing is knowing they move onto another family rather than into kennels. When we took Ted back he went to live on a farm with another family, it was a lady who worked at the shelter so we knew he was in good hands

I grew up with GSDs + when we got married + decided we were having a dawgie, I assumed it would be a GSD. But hubby wanted a SBT so I scoured freeads paper (we didn't have internet then lol) + found this boy in Faversham. We went to see him on Tuesday + went to pick him up on Saturday. Completely fell in love at first sight. That was in November 1996, + I've been smitten ever since

We lost our gorgeous boy on Boxing day 2008, was the saddest day of my life apart from losing my parents, my hubby cried like a baby + that cracked me up

He didn't want another straight away, but because he worked mainly nights, I persuaded him that we should have another to make me feel secure, so the next day we drove all the way to Margate + brought home Boris.

I never in a million years thought hubby would let me have another but summer 2009 he said we could have a friend for Boris. Tilly was born 15 Dec 2009 + we brought her home early Feb 2010

Tuggs was a rescue pup, I was broody + wanted another but being sensible knew we'd struggle with another stafflet, saw Tugga on Last Chance rescue site, dashed over there + picked him up a week later

How did I feel?

Boris - definitely a reflex buy, but he's so gorgeous I'd do it again tomorrow, knew he was coming home with us that night

Tilly-we had our names down for a girl, the waiting was f'n horrendous, I almost fainted when we knew we could have a girl although we didn't have first pick, TBH I'd never do that again. First sight she looked like a guinea pig lol look at this





I fell in love with Tuggs as soon as I saw his ickle face





Knew I had to have him, no resistance from hubby was a bonus