In December 2010, I had just had to put my 12 year old corgi to sleep. My partner and I were devastated. We weren’t looking to get another dog so soon but our other dog Shadow was pining terribly. I started looking at different sites and one day came across Denise’s page. Scrolling down i saw lots of lovely little dogs, but I didn’t want a little dog, I wanted a medium size dog. I kept looking and landed up a group of the most gorgeous puppies you will ever meet (of course I could be biased here). I read their bio and rushed in to show my partner who agreed they were so cute. We agreed to ring Denise and find out a little bit more and meet them.

Needless to say we organised a day to meet the puppies. Their breed said Maltese x Pug. To me they looked all staffy and I had wanted a staffy for the longest time. I cuddled a couple of the puppies and when my partner came into the room, one little puppy came straight to her. My partner picked her up and immediately the puppy bit her on the chin. This was our girl.

Just a bit of background about these puppies. Mum Wendy was found wandering the streets of Western Sydney heavily pregnant. She was microchipped but it was registered to a pet store who had no record of who had bought her. She was taken to the pound and under Duty of Care was placed with Denise to have her puppies. Now Wendy was only a tiny little thing as Maltese x Pugs are, but she delivered 6 strapping healthy puppies by caesarian section. We later found out by DNA test that daddy was an English Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

So back to our puppy. We named her Khatam after a favourite former patient of my partner’s. She was a little live wire who soon started growing and growing. Our other dog who had been lonely was initially quite resistant to this little whipper snapper but took it in her stride and they would spend many hours munching on grass in the backyard together.

Fast forward 4 years to now. Khatam is a big healthy girl of 19kg who is the biggest sook you’ve ever met. She loves nothing more than to sit on my lap when I’m watching TV and sleep on the bed at night. She is a very sensitive soul and loves to rest her head on my feet when i am working. She also has another staffy sister now whom she plays with all day. Her nickname is boofy because she thinks she is a 3kg chihuahua and bowls you over with excitement every time she sees you.

I wouldn’t be without my boofy and thank Denise everyday for doing what she does, because without her I wouldn’t have found my staffy baby

I stumbled across Buddy by accident when I was showing a friend the Paws website soon after our earlier adoptee PHIL had sadly passed away

I was surprised that such a lovely little Pomeranian was up for adoption.  Buddy had been in foster care for 3 months and had fitted in very well with his foster fur siblings but really felt he should be an only child because he’s very special. He agreed to try me out and thankfully we hit it off instantly and the love story continues. He’s a sweetheart and everyone in our family adore him. He loves to play ball and has lots of energy

I found the adoption process so straight forward,  so easy and hassle free.

I will always adopt from Denise at Paws and wouldn’t consider going anywhere else.

Our Buddy is a constant joy to us and we hope he will have a very long happy and healthy life with us

Thanks again, Maggie xx

It was love at first sight when I first met Bubbles, I had been fostering for a few years, dogs had come and gone but there was something special about this little pug who was given up by a backyard breeder when she could no longer have puppies. After a few weeks in care it became very obvious to Denise that Bubbles wasn’t going anywhere and I officially adopted her. Bubbles and I are best of friends, we are never apart and I can not imagine my life without her. I thank Denise at Paws everyday for bringing Bubbles and I together, I couldn’t have dreamt of a more perfect companion. xx

We had decided to become foster carers after we had lost our much loved Shih Tzu Maltese cross at 13 years.   Fostering seemed to be an ideal way to enable us to have another dog, while at the same time helping other dogs who needed an interim home.  Henry came to us as our latest foster dog in May 2012, rescued by Denise from Renbury Farm pound.  Before Henry we had taken about six foster dogs into our home, and they had all been adopted into lovely homes.

Henry loved us from the moment he arrived in our house.  We are sure that he wasn’t feeling too well when he first arrived, as just the day before he had been desexed, had several teeth removed, and had been clipped.  But, on the very first night, he was sitting on the lounge next to me, pawing at my arm to give him some attention.  And he was equally affectionate with my husband and daughter.

The problem was that while Henry loved us, we soon discovered he didn’t really like anyone else very much.  He wasn’t too keen on other dogs either.   We then realised that Henry was going to need some serious effort put into socialising him so that he would be ready for adoption.

We were lucky enough to find a great trainer who gave us many techniques to help with Henry’s behaviour and socialisation.  The trainer felt that the problems all stemmed from Henry being a truly neglected little fellow who had never had the opportunity to mix with other dogs or people.  Fortunately for us, this trainer was also a dog walker, and as part of the training process we were able to join the trainer on his walks with other dogs.  The turnaround was really fast, and within a few days I was fairly confident that I could take Henry to my local dog park without worrying that he would behave badly.   As time went on, Henry settled into our daily routine and really began to make amazing progress with his socialisation.

We, came to realise that Henry belonged in our home, and that we would adopt him ourselves.  He loved us unconditionally from the moment we met him, and whilst it sounds clichéd, we felt that this truly was one of those instances where Henry “chose us” and our home as where he wanted to live.  Equally, we realised we could not say “goodbye” to him.

We have never regretted our decision to adopt Henry, and we love him as much as he loves us.  His favourite place is inside with us, either curled up at our feet, or sitting next to us on the lounge.  He loves his daily visits to the dog park, and while he hasn’t really learned to play with the other dogs, he is very much a part of the “pack”.  He now happily welcomes visitors to our home, and very quickly will jump up on the lounge to be near them.   We feel so happy that we were able to give this little fellow a chance at a happy life after a fairly rough start, and in return he has given us so much.