I moved to North Carolina in May of 2009, with my Significant Other, dog Wilson, and Kitten the cat. Wilson was and still is the love of my life, I miss him terribly. He ran away 28 days after we moved, never have I felt such a loss. I searched for him for 3 weeks, sometimes getting up in the very early morning hours and driving around looking for my little guy. I did everything humanly possible including calling and paying two pet Physics. Wilson was not meant to be mine. I looked at our local shelter's website everyday, hoping someone found him and turned him in. One day while on the site there was a dirty little dog that possibly could be Wilson. My friend Larice said she would drive me to the shelter to see if it was him. I walked down aisle between the pens and when I got to "the One" my heart sank, it was not Wilson. I started to cry and the little dog started crying and carrying on. I walked away to look at the rest of the dogs and "the One" kept his little noisey self going. I walked back to him stuck my hand through the cage and he had me. I went back to work, finished out the day and could not get "the One" out of my mind. I went home that night and talked with my Partner, telling him about the little guy in the shelter. He agreed to go see him over the weekend. We were one of the first people thru the door that Saturday morning. The Volunteer got Sam(we decided that would be his name) and let us spend some time with him. Sam only had one thing on his he wanted out!!! He didn't seem the least bit interested in me at all. I was kind of heartbroken. But we filled out the paperwork and were told we had to come back the next day because they coould not let him go till Sunday. Up early Sunday morning and back in line(first this time), we picked Sam up and home we went. Now Sam is a poodle mix, his fur was horribly matted, he had been neutered and there was a slight problem, the operation ended up being a bit more complicated, so he was quite sore. Sam smelled so bad my Partner could not get close to him due to his asthma. Sam was also very sick. He had a respiratory infection that required a night's stay at the Vet hospital. About nine days later I took Sam for his first grooming. I asked that they shave him right down and they did. When I picked Sam up I cried, he was so thin but he already was on his way to getting healthy again. The shelter told me that Sam had been abandoned and left in an apartment, he had separation anxiety for quite some time. I found that by leaving the door open on a small crate next to his bed he would use it as his safe place. Sam has been with us 4 years now and we could not be happier, he is my joy. Everynight his place is on my lap. He loves to cuddle, show off, and make you smile. Everyday when I come home from work he is at the door, his little nub of a tail wiggling back and forth. He has helped me deal with the loss of Wilson and because of Sam we adopted another dog. Her name is Lucy a German Shepherd mix who has about 90 pounds on Sam. She is his "little" sister and they play tug of war all the time. A stray kitten has also made her way into our hearts, she was living in the crawl space of an empty house when we found her. Her name is Grace and she won the heart of Kitten which really surprised me because I still could not get near Kitten. My heart has room for more but my house and pocketbook don't. We are content with out little Brood and the hours of love and joy they give us. I do think Rescues choose you and I am very lucky to have been chosen by Sam.