I have always had dogs in my life, all "makes and models."  For our wedding present, my parents gave us a Dandie Dinmont!  That was the start of my terrier addiction.  The first dog I purchased on my own was a Kerry Blue.  My husband's purchase was a St. Bernard.  We wanted to show and eventually breed, but we were young and naive!  And when we got up to four dogs in our little house and learned how much we did not know, we realized we couldn't keep buying "show quality" dogs that we would of course keep after they proved to have little hope for winning ribbons.  Our handling days were over.  (A good mentor at that point could have saved the day and changed our history).

As a social worker, I worked in a state adoption unit, so learned to do home studies, work with homeless children, and choose and supervise adoption placements.  How handy that professional training and experience later proved when I started doing basically the same thing for dogs!  Except it's harder with dogs, because you can't explain to them why you have to uproot them and that what you are doing is better for them in the long run.

For twenty years, we lived and taught overseas (Peace Corps, then International Schools Services), where we could not have a dog at all.  It gave us time to really study breeds to decide what we would eventually live with once we returned home.  We went to dog shows all around the world.  And we were always drawn to Airedales.  So the week we finally came back home, we found Airedale Rescue in Connecticut, who was Phyllis Beecroft, and went through the adoption process.  And we adopted Wellington, who was about 8 years old.  I offered to help Phyllis if there was ever anything I could do, and she proceeded to be a great teacher.  She invited me to go along with her for a surrender, for a home visit, and involved me in fostering.  I learned the ropes from her...and then she moved away, and I "inherited" Connecticut's rescue program.  And then I inherited New England's rescue program.  And then, I followed Lynne Jensen as National Chair, for three years.   

I have been responsible for 400 placements in New England in these past 15 years or so, fostered a hundred of these myself, adopted nine "keepers", and have made so many wonderful friends and had a lot of fun.  I am retired but work harder than ever.  The pay isn't very good, but the joy is profound when a sad dog becomes a beloved family member.

I serve on the Board of Directors for the private shelter in our county, The Little Guild, in Cornwall, CT, where among other tasks, I helped set up a program of evaluation of dogs and potential adopters.

I am most fortunate to have a husband, Denis, who loves the dogs equally, and though I get the "credit" for doing rescue, he jumps in and does his share to help with all aspects of the "job."  Many late meals, many hours on the road, many sleepless hours when a new dog barks all night.  But he's the softee who wants to keep them all, and I'm the practical one who knows that's not good for us or the dogs.  

We currently have five dogs, an Airedale, a Wire, and three Welsh Terriers.  The reason for the little guys is that the Airedale, Bean, has an inferiority complex, so it builds his self-esteem to be the only big dog among the midgets.