We promised each other that nothing that ate could live with us ever again. My husband is retired from a major airline and we had planned to travel after retirement. Then we adopted our grandson. He eats. He begged for a dog. Finally, I went alone to the local shelter to see what they had.

I walked through the center and found nothing of the size that we could deal with. I decided to just visit with the cats for a few minutes. As I went in, I could hear a small little whine and bark. There, I fell in love. She was almost hairless and so very scared. I got her out of the cage and she held on to me for dear life. I knew I had found something else to feed.

We went by PetSmart on the way home for a bed, blanket, toys, a collar and leash, and food. Our son was nearly ecstatic and has said that it was the best day of his life! That was ten years ago. Our little seven-pound ShiPoo, now a robust 25 pounds, runs our household.

Our traveling in retirement didn’t happen. Instead, God sent us a wonderful, beautiful blond haired, blue-eyed 5-year-old to love, then a wonderful little fuzzy Maggie to help us raise and love him, as well.

That 5-year-old is now a fine 20-year-old young man still at home with us. Maggie is still helping and supervising us every day. We could travel now if we wanted, but we did get to do a good bit of seeing all that we really needed years ago. We are quite content to stay around here and enjoy this best time of our lives.

Story submitted by T. James from Douglasville, Georgia.