Today as some of you know, we spent the afternoon visiting a few of the people and places that have helped in this whole puppy mill situation.  We started the day at A Canine Experience in Snohomish and met a few people that assisted with the Skagit county raids.  That was great to put some faces to the people that we have been talking to and to see some of the puppy mill dogs there. Then we headed up to NOAH in Stanwood and met the folks up there and also got to see a few of the dogs that are still there.   Many of you have probably seen the news coverage of Brandon with the dogs.  Last, but certainly not least, we stopped at the Everett Animal Shelter to see some of the Gold Bar dogs that are still there.  We spent quite a bit of time with Bud Wessman, Shelter Director discussing the events and talking about the dogs and where do we go from here.

Stopping at the Everett Animal Shelter was especially precious time for me.  Many nights since the bust, I have cried for a very special dog that was brought in from the Gold Bar house.  I have finally found “Boo,” a dog that I fell in love with about 2 years ago when she was a puppy at Jason & Serenna’s home in Gold Bar.  Unfortunately, they had transferred her just 3 days ago to another shelter, but I have emailed the Seattle Humane Society and am going to try to call tomorrow in the hope that I might be able to go see her before we head home for Eastern Washington.

Today was very emotional for Brandon and I and this whole month has totally turned our life inside out.  As we have told many people, we never imagined that this would be what it has snowballed into.  We never imagined that we would be dressing up to go to the capital to lobby for a new law, that we would be on TV and in the newspapers.  That people would consider what we did to be “heroic”.  It’s all been just an enormous blur.

The real heroes for us are all of the volunteers and rescue organizations and everyone that has put their life aside to take care of these dogs and also to fight for the cause, those are the real heroes here.  Meeting many of these people this week has been very emotional and very fulfilling.  It’s wonderful to see this many people all stand up for something that we ourselves are very passionate about.  So, Thank you to everyone that has donated time, supplies, money, etc.  We are so grateful that these dogs are safe now and hopefully soon can enjoy life as it should be.