Happy Gotcha Day Virginia

In April of 2000, I surprised Caron for her birthday by taking her to SOSBeagles headquartered in Bordentown, NJ. I had been looking for a young female beagle for some time. I did searches in Yahoo and came up with some sources, but no luck (including Petfinder. That's when I stumbled across Beagles-on-the-Web (which ironically Caron now runs).

BotW had many links including rescue groups, which I really didn't know anything about at the time. Included was the link to SOS. Among the dogs listed was a picture of a sweet little tri-color female (only about 20 pounds then) who had both ears back and diamond shaped markings on her back. It said her name was Virginia. It was love at first. It seemed like her eyes were saying, "come and get me Daddy".

I immediately filled out an application and sent it off. I followed up with several phone calls over the next couple of weeks to be sure Virginia was still there. Finally, on April 20, 2000, Caron, my brother, and I drove to Bordentown on Caron's birthday.

She had no idea where we were going and still wasn't sure once we had pulled into the place. That is... until she heard the barking and arooing! She has trouble remembering anything after that.

We met two other dogs (Sadie and Pebbles, both of whom were later adopted) in addition to Virginia, but she "had me at hello". Caron said, "are we really going to do this?" And the rest is history.

Today was Virginia's 8th "gotcha day" and we couldn't have asked for more in a dog. We could do without the separation anxiety, but she's golden when it comes to everything else. She is as sweet as can be, smart as a whip, and a great big sister to Tinker.