Puppies Then and Now - One Year Later

I can hardly believe it's been one year since my sister and I found these two tiny puppies starving by the side of the road.  I know this is an overused cliché, but what a difference a year makes.

The first minutes after I found them and brought them home.  They were as scared as I was!

When I first brought these puppies home, I had no idea what I was going to do with them.  I already had two big, aging dogs at home.  A puppy (never mind two puppies) was not on my radar screen in any way. But the Good Lord works in mysterious ways.  It only took a few hours for me to realize that there was no way on God's green earth that I was going to give these pups up.  Never mind take them to a shelter.  Wasn't gonna happen.  I promised myself and my husband that since I decided to keep them,  I would do everything in my power to work with and train them to become obedient, loving, well trained members of my family; pleasant to be around not only for me and Harry, but for the rest of my family and all who came to visit.  

Well, these pups exceeded my expectations, tenfold.  Thanks to a phenomenal dog trainer who has become a dear, dear friend, Destiny of Harmony Canines, who showed me what to do, how to do it and why, and a lot of hard work and dedication on my part, Gretchen and Laci are beautiful, strong, healthy, fun, obedient, loving dogs who would do anything in the world for me, as long as they know what I want.

Gretchen and Laci are an integral, very important part of my life and my family and I cannot imagine life without them.  As Destiny will confirm, I am ridiculously in love with these pups and I am not ashamed to admit it.

I thought, on my one-year anniversary of finding and rescuing the pups, it would be fun to post some pictures of "then and now".   In researching my "then" photos...wow, I can hardly believe the change.  So here you have it, Gretchen and Laci then:

 Laci...before she was Laci, so tiny and skinny and very scared.

 Even back then, (this picture was taken the day after I found her) she was so cute and sweet...this is when I fell for  her.  Well...OK...it was probably the night before...

And Gretchen...always with that worried look on her face.  She still has that look today.

Look how skinny she was :/  And she, too, was pretty scared.

And Now look at them...

My sentinels :)

These are a few photographs Destiny took just a couple of days ago.  We have started training the pups on Agility Training and Destiny was laying the groundwork with me to work with the pups.  She (Destiny) brought a young girl, Zoey, with her to help with getting the pups socialized around young kids; something Gretchen especially needs.  It was amazing (and heartwarming) to me and Destiny to see Gretchen so comfortable around Zoey.

This past year has been an incredible amount of work for me getting the pups to where they are today.  But it's been an amazing journey and I wouldn't trade it for anything.  There has not been one day that I regret keeping Gretchen and Laci and everyday I am grateful they came into my life.  Because of them, and so many other wonderful things in my life, I am truly blessed.