Introduce Yourself to the Team!!

Hi! I'm not new to Spark, but it's been a very long time and many extra pounds since I logged in and participated. I've gained roughly 30 lbs over the last year. Decided to join this team because my little rescue, Rupert, lights up my life and keeps me going. (Please don't tell my husband or human-child I said that.) Look forward to going on this journey and getting to know you all. Have a great day.

Hi! I actually signed up for this team quite a few years ago. DH and I have had dogs and cats and both over the years. We started out with a dog from a rescue center, a border collie mix. Then a cat came visiting us and we ended up taking him into the vet because he came by one day and he wasn't using one foot. Turns out it was broken and he also had FIV. The vet said we should probably put him to sleep cause he would probably only live a short time. We had him 10 years. That's where we started enjoying having dogs and cats. We have of course lost many over the years and we both really mourn their loss.

We are both retired now and moved to a warmer place! We enjoy not having snow and ice in the winter! I was caregiver for my mom several years back around the time we were looking for a place to retire and found one. With that and a lot of other things going on from that point forward I ended up gaining 12 pounts. I also wanted to lose 10 before that! I've lost a little bit but still have going up and down a pound or two so I'm not getting very far right now. I've been doing a BLC challenge and did lose a few pounds during this past one. It's started up again so hope to stick to it.

Love cats and dogs and we've always gotten rescues so I figured I'd try stopping in and seeing how everyone is doing! We have a fairly new rescue dog. He's about 15 months now. We had to get a trainer. He likes to run around like crazy which is normal for his miixed breed! We've made a dent in the training!! Anyway the 2 cats are wishing he would settle down. We're lucky he's crazy about his food.

Hi everyone! I'm new to the team but not to Spark, I've been on Spark since April 2009 but active sporadically. I have been involved in rescue for over 10 years, mainly border collie and herding dogs, but I love all breeds. I have fostered over 150 dogs/puppies for three rescue groups. I have 3 rescued dogs (Border Collie/Lab mix, Border Collie/Great Pyrenees mix, and an English Shepherd mix) and 3 rescued cats.

Thank you, Kay. We have a new rescue, Miracle, who makes us smile so much that it's easier to focus on warm, sweet memories of Henry. Really re-energized to lose the rest of the weight I'm shooting for thanks to SP and the wonderful, supportive people here.

Donna! It's sounds like you are a dedicated rescuer of cats! It is hard to lose our fur babies! I have had many pass through the years and it never gets easier. I have had a few favorites myself, cats & dogs, even though I loved them all. Congrats on your awesome weight loss & good luck with losing the rest. I know you'll do it! Kay

to the team!
All of my pets have been rescue. I understand the heartbreak of losing one of your furry friends.
I had an eighteen year old I lost. The next I only had one year, but had to put him down because of renal failure. My newest is a young female and quite the character. We are still setting boundaries after a year. Things are good, and she seems to be adapting.
Looking forward to getting to know you better.

Hi, all. I live in Arkansas with DH, six rescue cats and ferals we care for outside. Have been on SP a number of years. Active, not active, active again. Have lost 100lbs over a long period of time. Have 37 more to go to reach my original goal. We love, love, love our fur babies. Would have dogs, as well as cats if we had a fenced yard. We both work a lot of hours and having an indoor only dog would be challenging. All of our cats are rescues. Some directly, some through cat rescues. Never intended to have a one. :) Too much heartache when you lose one. Speaking of which, we are dealing with the passing of our teenage cat, Henry. Parents don't like to claim favorites, but he was. It's been very hard.

Looking forward to being a part of the team.

Donna G

to the team!

WFCHCHCGG, I was going to send you a friend request and a spark goodie, but your security settings are too high. So probably only team leaders of groups you sign up with can do that. If you want instructions on how to change that, just let me know. Send me a personal msg, or post on my wall and I will see it sooner and give you instructions. I am really busy with bookkeeping for a tax professional right now, so I am not checking into my teams every day or even every week, but I do check my wall and personal msgs sooner.

Welcome to the team! I have a lot of medical issues too, but just doing the best I can with them.

Hello. I joined spark with the goal of losing weight and hopefully improving my health. My medical conditions include Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Osteoarthritis, Type 2 Diabetes, Depression, Migraines, Fatigue, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, and Raynaud's Disease. I haven't known a pain free day in over 12 years, but I will not let that stop me. I look forward to making friends and being an active member of the team.

You are welcome!

welcome

My name is Teresa. All of the pets I have owned have been rescues. That is 4 dogs and 4 cats during my lifetime. Unfortunately, my last cat had kidney failure and I had to put him across the Rainbow Bridge. Hardest thing to do. I have adopted a three year old Siamese. I have never had such a young and active cat. It is certainly different from my seniors. We are still adapting together. I had my doubts, but she is settling down, and I am certain she will be with me for her lifetime. (and mine)

Welcome

Welcome Amy..thank you for all your rescues that you took in..I think I would take in every homeless and abused animal.. took care of many strays through the years...I glad you have decided to join us on the team

Hello..... I am Amy. I have 4 rescue cats here, I also had a rescue dog but he passed away this year on January 2nd, he was 12. I was involved with transporting animals to rescue organizations for about 10 years until my health declined. When I was a child I was saving animals lives. I was I guess sort of an animal rescue then even if you think about it. I nursed sick cats and dogs and they got better I also took in abused animals and find ways to get them over fears. I had one dog that was afraid of beer bottles (neighbors threw them at him) and he was deathly afraid of a broom, he wasn't when I got done with him. My grandmother fell in love with him and adopted him :) the last 6 years of life he was spoiled and loved, like they all should be.

J_HENNINGTON, welcome to the team!

I thought I would come by and introduce myself.. I was a member of this team before but left.. I have two Calico cats..they look like they should be mother and daughter but they are not related. I got them both from the Humane Society at different times. They are a bright spot in my life. The older one is Miss Kitty the younger is Miss KiKi..They help me focus on something else besides my problems. I married and my husband has Dementia about Mid stage. I have two adult children with families of their own..both live in town.. I have grandchildren and one great granddaughter who was born in February of this year.. she lives in Germany. I hope to meet her someday...I have a lot of challenges in life but I am just one of those people who refuses to give up on me

Welcome to all the new team members and their fur babies!

Glad to have you join this great team. I am so thankful to you for adopting all those rescues, you have a loving family

Hello! I am a doggie owner at present of 4 little furbabies and still close with 1 furbaby who was my 1st foster. I volunteer with Havanese Rescue and in 2014 I fostered Circe for 3 months before she was adopted by a wonderful family that became good friends - which means Circe gets to visit often! Two years after fostering Circe, I fostered for the 2nd time a little pair that have been together most/all their lives - Sugar and Pepper - and consequently, ended up adopting them myself. Just last Oct, I adopted a little Miniature Schnauzer named Wilson from a woman who could no longer take care of him after losing her husband. And my little Maltese - Bailey - has been with me through all these experiences. Today, Circe is 11, Sugar is 11, Pepper is 8, Bailey is 7 and Wilson is 5. I am blessed! Cindy

to this great team of animal lovers! We are glad to have you join us and hope you are able to fine a nice companion!

Hello Folks! I have loved animals my whole life! Currently disabled with chronic conditions . Looking for small dog...like Papillon/King Charles Spaniel. Getting outside regularly will also improve my health.

Hi and welcome to this great team. We will look forward to seeing pictures of your furbabies!!!

We have four dogs, two of which are rescues. I’ll have to take a picture of the newest one. We don’t know what she is or how old she is. She kind of looks like a fruit bat.

Welcome, Karen and thank you for taking such good care of those sweet kittens. Glad your hubby saw the man dump them so he could go rescue them.

Hi,
My DH & I have 4 cats, 4 dogs & 2 fish--all rescues. Most recently my DH, the macho truck driver, saw a man rush out of the woods with an empty pet carrier. So DH went back into the woods & found 4 kittens only about 3 weeks old. One died but now we have 3 rambunctious kittens that are about 2 months old.

We may be pet sitting soon for a fellow truck driver who won't be able to take his dog in the truck when he changes jobs! Keeps me busy.

It is sad to see them there. I get excited when one of my favorites gets adopted. There was a Shar Pei mix that was so sweet. She finally was adopted after having eye surgery. I was so happy, but miss her.

That is so nice that you work at the shelter but so sad when dogs and cats don't get adopted.

I volunteer at an animal shelter and always feel bad for the dogs and cats that have been there for awhile. It's also sad to see friendly older animals.

We are glad to have you on the Rescued/Adopted team and hope you get the encouragement you need to focus on your weight loss goals. That is awesome that you lost all that weigh before. It's so hard to keep it off. Let us know how we can help.

Hi everyone! I am in my 30's from Michigan. I've lost over 100 lbs. before before the PTSD. My blood sugars forced me to wake up and try to save my own life again but i am still struggling a lot. I'm hoping that being on SP will help me stay motivated as it did in the past. Being on teams with supportive friendly people makes everything fun and a lot easier.

Welcome to this great team, I love your rescue kitties and so thankful you found them!!!

Hi there! I've always had rescued dogs and cats growing up, these two are my first boys that are all my own. Merry and Pippin. I went to the shelter and looked at the older cats and just pick the two friendliest I could find. They are definite mood boosters, I think the only one they love more than me is each other, which is great. They said at the shelter that Pippin had been there for a really long time, and I can't figure out for the life of me why, he's the sweetest thing.

Welcome to both of you, sorry I'm late posting. You both sound like amazing people!!!!

Hi! Relatively new to this group. Any animal I have ever had has been a rescue. Right now I have 2 outside cats, 1 indoor cat, and 1 dog.
I suppose you could count the fish in my pond too - neighbor was going to flush them when they were cleaning out an outside fountain. I asked to drop them in our pond with the thought of either saving them or feeding the many turtles who live there. Much to my amazement, the next spring there were thousands of glittering fish swimming in the pond and all the duckweed & waterfoil was gone leaving clean water. That was 6 years ago and we still have a pond clear of weeds and glistening with schools of fish.

Hello. I am new to this team. In fact this is the only team that I have joined. I am on a continuous weight loss journey that right now I seem to be losing. As for my rescue, it is a male Doberman. When he was 4 months old, the farmer that owned him, hit him over the head with a shovel with the intent of trying to kill him. There was a neighbor there that grabbed him and took him to the vet and after that he was sent to the local shelter. He was picked up by a Doberman Rescue, but because of the blow to the head, he developed epilepsy and with the seizures, he has diminished brain function. He was adopted out, but was always returned. When we adopted him, he was scared and had bite marks all over his face from the other dogs at the rescue. It has been 7 months and now he runs around the house, carefree and happy. He loves to sit on the couch while my husband pets his head. He has found his forever home and will never be hurt again.

Wow, that's a big difference, he certainly is a beauty! So glad you have him!

Oh my, Ruth, that is amazing the difference in that poor baby when you got him. What a beauty now!!! Thanks for sharing that amazing rescue!!!!

Hi! I am Ruth aki Koi239. I saw this poor boy on the Internet and had just lost my dog of 11 years (also a rescue).He was trapped in a roll of barbed wire, matted and scared. It took two hours to cut him out.

He looks a lot different now. I found out he is a 100% Chinese Crested Powderpuff. He is now a well trained certified service dog for my respiratory needs. He also reminds me to take my medicine on time.

To this great team and look forward to getting to know you!

Hello, I am a librarian in Nebraska and true to form I have 4 rescued cats that I love to baby. They are my steadfast companions in my weight loss journey, and in my journey to earn my PhD (nothing like four cats and a desktop with a touchscreen). Four kitties is about all our home can hold, and since three of them make having a dog impossible, I volunteer with dogs on weekends at the humane society. I turned 30 in October and have been trying to get my health back on track since - and I am hoping that maybe my husband and my chubby cat will get a little something out of it, too.

I just found this thread, don't know how it got lost!!!

Beth, we are glad to have you on this team and I love the picture of your sweet kitty.

Beth!! Your kitty is so cute! Sorry I'm so slow getting here, but my dad passed away & I got a little behind in my sparking! Awww, your kitty is so cute, and doesn't look her age at all. I'll bet it takes a lot of energy to watch two toddlers, good for you! So happy to have you on the team!

Hi! I am looking for some new teams and found this one. My name is Beth and right now I have one rescued kitty. We raised her from the time she was about three weeks old. She is now 16 years old. Our other kitty crossed the Rainbow Bridge last December. We will rescue two young kitties come June. I take care of two toddlers during the day until the end of the school year.

She's adorable, Krys! I always have loved hounds of all kinds, never had one though.

Hi, I'm Krys. I have a rescue Beagle mix, Princess, that I think came from a puppy mill. She is absolutely terrified of other people, but somehow liked us. When we went to the shelter, they had a sign on the window that she was scared of people and walk in gently. We walked in and she came bounding to us with her tail wagging and treating us like old friends. The staff was amazed, they had never seen her take to anyone before. Needless to say, she picked us and we brought her home. This was a year ago, and she's still terrified of others but loves us and we love her!

to both of you! Sandy that's great rescuing all those precious animals. I only have a cat & dog, but would love to have more if I had the room or my hubby would let me!

Joan, I would love to see pictures of your cat; I looked on your page but I didn't see any. I bet he's a beauty. And both my cat & dog are very spoiled!

Looking forward to see you both post on the team boards, we're happy to have you here!

Hi, My name is Joan and I have a rescue Himalayan cat(Gizmo). He was rescued from a kitty mill and was only 10 months old, but was very traumatized. Didn't see him for the first 3 months, hid under the bed. But it's been 5 years now and he is the "spoiled" boy in the family. He loves to dance with me and we have sprint races in our little apartment. The best workout partner!

Hello! My name is Sandy and so far I have rescued 4 dogs and 4 cats. I want to work in the animal shelter when I lose some more weight and get my energy level back up. Right now, though, I couldn't walk a puppy. I am sure it won't be long until everything is under control health wise and I can accomplish my goal of volunteering at the shelter.

I got a new fuzzy friend, she is so sweet and loving we got her on my favorite day Friday the 13th [got married on that day just a fluke but I have been married for almost 30 yrs and still we love and like each other~
anyway back to my new girlfriend she is amazing, I am so grateful for her, cost a few $ but she is only 2 yrs old and loves to walk!

Thanks for the prayers, much appreciated

God Bless you also ~ new phone on my page of Lola

I'm sorry I just noticed this, so sorry you're having so much stress in your life! Hope things smooth out for you, will keep you in my thoughts & prayers!

I am Flo, always have fuzzy kids / now my baby passed away I feel lost~ but my husband wants to take a break [lol] he is never home

I just got out of the hospital from stress/ very high BP they said stop it~ lol

Told me husband to break is over I need to have fuzzy love again month without it is all I need.

Also need to loss weight [not as important to me right this minute] get a friend to walk and off it will come

New members, please tell us a little about yourself & your pet(s)