RuffHousers

My girls and I have always been into animals. We are suckers for a furry face. Since the girls were little, we have encouraged them to be someone that makes a difference.

The time we couldn't decide which dog to foster, so we took them both!

You know the story about the guy throwing beached starfish back into the water, and the other guy says "There are millions, you can't save them all, what difference does it make?" And the first guys tosses another starfish back in the water and says "It makes all the difference for that one"? ...or something like that... Well that's the idea. Help 1, or 10 or as many as possible, but don't give up because you can't save them all.

Foster dog, Beauty, snuggling a less than enthusiastic Alex.

Anyhow, our kids are growing up to make a difference. And if all we succeed at in parenting, is teaching them that they can make a difference, we will consider it a job well done. We can confirm this with their therapists in 20 years, I'm sure.

In their spare time, the kids make signs for fantasy fun(d)raisers!

So here's the deal. We want to do something. Something big. But you have to work up to something big. We are all full of ideas and grandiose plans, but we want this thing to succeed. So we will start small(ish).

Speaking of small(ish) Pita was another foster favorite. Thank goodness she was adopted by the most wonderful family friends of ours, so we can know she is forever loved!

We already have years of foster experience. We once fostered a pregnant cat, that had 6 kittens in Abigail's armoire! In our last year in Seattle, we fostered a different shelter dog almost every week! The girls ask for donations for animal charities instead of plastic toys from their friends for birthday presents. Abigail even wrote a blog about our foster experiences, at Abigail'sTails.blogspot.com. And I was a volunteer at Homeward Pet Adoption Center, a wonderful and inspirational no kill shelter in Woodinville, WA.

The Girls dropping off giving tree donations from school at Homeward Pet

So now, we are ready to kick this thing up a notch with the birth of our latest Haveson family adventure, RuffHousers! RuffHousers will be the umbrella under which we will fulfill all of our animal rescue dreams! Our little Haveson think tank has come up with the following plan, increasing in level of complexity and commitment over time.

1. RuffHousers Orphaned Dog Assistance League Transport - volunteer our family vacations to rescue organizations that need help with transporting animals from High-Kill Shelters to other rescue organizations in different locations that have better adoption rates

eventually leading to...

2. RuffHousers "Diamond in the Ruff Adoption Soirees" - Take a small number of rescue dogs off of "death row" and give them the VIP makeover treatment resulting in a well groomed, well dressed, well behaved and well understood dog. Then we would present the perfectly polished pup at a fabulous "coming out" adoption soiree.

eventually leading to...

3. Diamond in the Ruff Rescue Boutique - This is WAY down the line, might even be the girls running it when they are grown. High end boutique where you can first adopt and then spoil your special rescue pup.

eventually leading to...

4. Happy kids that have learned that if you work hard, you can make your world a better place!

Girls with Fin and Sawyer, our 2 most recent fosters!

So this post got really wordy, and hopefully not too boring. We hope the pictures are cute enough to keep you engaged. Just in case, here's a few more for good measure...