Loving reading this thread
When husband and I first got married we lived my dad who had an evil black chow named Arashi and no one could get close to her but my dad & husband. I love dogs and felt very left out by this. So I decided I would buy husband a dog for our first Christmas together. I checked out tons of breeders and bought him the most beautiful AKC German Rottwieler puppy, we named him Kaiser. He was 20lbs at 8 weeks old and 190lbs when he passed away at 6 years old. He was struck by lightening. We still refer to him as our son, we have his ashes, & husband & I will still tear up recounting stories of him. He was an awesome dog, loved the kids (they used to ride him), other dogs and even cats. He was DHs constant companion, even went to the bar with him LoL. He is most remembered for removing parts from ppls cars who parked to close to his chain length, seriously, he pulled off a bumper, wheel well trim etc, he also once stopped the riding lawnmower while my dad was mowing by grabbing the back of it and planting his feet in the ground.
About a year after getting Kaiser it was evident that he was DHs dog not mine, so I decided I still needed a dog. We had many friends with pitbulls & I just loved them so husband went out and bout a registered black & white pit puppy for me. She was the chubbiest laziest puppy ever and we named her KoKo. After falling in love with KoKo & doing tons more research on pits we started doing foster & rescue for pits & rotts. Over the last 10 years KoKo has seen nearly 30 rescue dogs come and go & has done fabulous with all of them, they were almost all pits, rotts or some mix of those breeds. She is the matriarch of our family & the smartest most awesome dog ever. She can also spell 'food', 'out', 'treat', 'go', 'kitty' & 'ride'. All of which we started spelling years ago to keep her from getting over excited, now we have to find ways to 'sign' to each other LoL. Nowadays she mostly sleeps on the couch all day. She is highly allergic to grass, other plants, fleas, certain dog foods etc & is well known for her 'baboon butt' (a phrase we coined to describe her bare irritated hiney after she chews off all the hair). She thinks she is a lap dog, and licks incessantly, we tell new guests who are afraid of pits that she wont do anything but lick your face off. She is also a nanny dog, she sleeps with us most nights but has to get up and check on the girls, if one of them is sick or upset she sleeps with them.
The next oldest (5yrs) is our first chihuahua "Corona" & the first small dog husband or I have ever owned. Originally she was C's birthday present, because C insisted she couldn't really play with the pits because they got too hyper and she wanted a little dog & insisted on a chihuahua. husband & I both immediately said "No way are we owning a chihuahua". Well C is too smart for that, even at 7 she was great at surfing the internet and she discovered Petfinder and printed us out list after list of poor little Chis who had no home. Finally I caved and we went to check out a chi rescue. husband was so against it on the way there insisting they're mean & yappy etc. Well, we got there and the lady had these playpens all over the place and the dogs were all barking, it was insane, I wanted to run away. husband spotted this one little blonde chihuahua who was standing there quietly all alone & picked her up. The lady told us she was a 'breeder reject' meaning she wouldn't sale because she didn't have an apple head and had a scar on her forehead where no hair would grow. husband walked out with her 20 minutes later in his leather jacket and she rode home that way LoL. She is so awesome for a chi, she is quiet (most of the time lol) sweet, sociable, and so playful. She is spoiled rotten, and weighs 6lbs altho she is supposed to weigh 4, she is the best scavenger ever and I have often considering just stopping feeding her dog food to get her to lose weight because she obviously finds plenty on her own. She answers to 'Princess' & 'PooPoo' (thanks to the kids because she was very hard to house train & we'd find little 'presents' hidden everywhere)
About a year after getting Corona we got a phone call from a friend about a half chi half Pomeranian puppy that had been abandoned at a vet & we took her in, originally as a rescue. We named her Kahlua, took her to the vet, got her spayed etc & started looking for a home for her. But she is the funniest dog Ive ever met, I call her my circus puppy and after a couple of months I knew she was staying. She was very hard to train and still acts kinda 'special' most of the time but she is the jester in the house, always hyper and happy and bouncy. She loves everyone & every rescue dog we take in is her new bestest friend. She is 3yrs old & about 8lbs now, between her & Corona they have a wardrobe that takes up 2 dresser drawers & everyone we know can't believe we have 'fru-fru' dogs. Everyone calls her "LuLu' or 'Lula Bell' & I don't think she knows her real name LoL
Around the same time Kahlua came to us we also took in an abandoned 9 wk old male pitbull pup, a beautiful blue and white boy who was clearly well bred. We named him Zeus & got him back into good health & adopted him out to a friend of ours who had two other rescue pits. They had him for almost a year and while he was a pup things were fine but the bigger he got the more their oldest female pit harassed him, she was 8 & in charge & Zeus wanted to challenge that, & she wasn't having it. So, to avoid having a nasty situation arise they returned him to us. I felt so bad for him and set out to find a better family for him that he'd be able to stay with. Well before I got him placed husband got very attached to him (first dog he's been really attached to since Kaiser) and declared that he must stay. Zeus is now 2, 95lbs and still all puppy. He crashes thru my house like a bull in a china shop but I love him. He's silly and goofy and really sweet. He is definitely the guard dog in the bunch, he knows KoKo is top dog but she is lazy so he patrols the yard. He loves ppl & is great with kids. He has done wonderful with the few rescue pits we've had since getting him back, but dogs he does not know are a different story so we don't take him out for walks or anything altho he does LOVE to ride in DHs truck. He is now referred to as DHs 'son' and seems to have helped him finally heal from losing Kaiser. I cant type his nickname on here LoL lets just say its synonymous with donkey.
Our newest furbaby is Winston, he is also 2, a long haired teacup chi who barely weighs 2lbs & thinks he runs the house. We took him in because his original owner couldn't handle him, he was too aggressive. I thought this was hilarious as we've been retraining pits for years and never had to put one down for being too aggressive so I said "Sure, we'll take him". OMG this dog is evil, I am convinced he actually has a mental disorder and I refer to him as the 'schizo-rat'. If he was a larger dog I'd be forced to have him put down before he hurt someone. He HATES me & will literally come to me when I call him & then attack me. However, if I'm in bed I'm suddenly a different person?? & he sleeps under the covers with me and licks my face to wake me up. He worships husband and will let no one near him if he's in DHs lap (including Zeus who is terrified of him LMBO). He loves L (probably because they have similar personalities) but doesn't like K or C. He goes into attack mode when anyone who doesn't live here comes in the house and we have to catch him and crate him. Nothing we have done has changed his behavior a bit. He is way too unstable to adopt out so husband has decided he has to stay with us, with my luck he'll live to be 30.
We also have a 10yr old ball python named Raya, he's getting ornery the older he gets but still likes to be taken out and handled. His favorite thing ever is to go down my shirt & curl up & sleep there...he's been doing this since he was a baby (I used to wear 'bra-top' tank tops all the time) but he is now almost 5 feet long so it doesn't really work out so well anymore LoL
K & C have male & female fiddler crabs named Bart & Lisa. They were originally in Cs classroom as a science project and she begged to 'rescue' them when it ended. I was skeptical at first but they're actually pretty cool.
Right now we don't have any rescue dogs but I'm sure it won't be long before I get another call. We just placed a gorgeous blue female pit pup last month, she was left to die at 8 wks old, in an apartment her owners moved out of. We called her Bella & the girls are still mad at me for not keeping her. I keep telling them if we keep them all we can't rescue any more but I won't go so far as to say 5 is our limit because I know how things go and there may very well be another one in the future who just HAS to stay.