I've found my furever family!

Just before the holidays, SPIN got a call about a couple of non-bonded Standard Poodles whose family situation changing meant they were no longer to continue to care for them. Would SPIN be able to help them get to new loving homes? Of course, was the answer

One of those two dogs, 25 month old Betty, moved in with us on New Year's Eve, as our new SPIN foster dog. This was right after both our own dogs passed away earlier that month, and Betty immediately filled a lot of the sudden emptiness of our Toronto home. Her evolution from a country girl to Big City Betty was gradual, in part due to the fact she was in heat when she came to SPIN. Eventually, that would pass, she would be spayed, recuperate, and then, as Bernice McNutt said - "learn to be a dog".

Betty was great on a leash from Day One, despite never really having been walked with one, besides trips to the vet. New people, noises and situations became less scary. She even rode the GO Train and met a bunch of health care workers her foster dad knows at their busy downtown hospital! Oh, and running around was SO MUCH FUN!!! And she doesn't know about swimming, but standing in Lake Ontario for a drink all the time is easy to learn. Playing with dogs is something she's starting to figure out, but hasn't really had a good Poodle wrassle. Yet.

Her levels of affection provided are off the charts. We would sometimes called her "Eileen", as that's what she would do. Jump up beside one of us, and just lean back into us.

We knew someone would really find the Adoption Golden Ticket with her, because we had with the Foster version.

When Betty was on the verge of being made available for adoption at the end of February, she was one of a number of foster dogs who attended a SPIN fundraising event in Oshawa. Well, today Betty moved to her forever home - which just happens to belong to one of the families who came to that event to meet her.

They are going to spoil the you-know-what out of her, and she deserves no less. We know she'll do the same for them as well, as she did for us for the 3 months she was in foster care.

We'd like to say very loud and specific THANK YOU to the people at Global Pet Foods Oshawa North, who hosted that event. In fact, our only other previous SPIN foster dog, Ollie, was adopted a year ago - also the direct result of people who came to meet him there in February 2023. Also SPIN's Brenda and Lynne (and anyone else I've missed) who did all the hard work to put those events together.