"We had been casually looking for a dog for our family for some time when our 5 1/2 year old daughter decided to take matters into her own hands. When she sat down this Christmas to write her letter to Santa, she asked him, at the top of her list, for a "real dog." She reiterated this request on Santa's lap, and at every other opportunity she could to say what she wanted Santa to bring her. My husband and I talked it over, and, besides not wanting to disappoint our daughter (or shake her belief in Santa!), we agreed that the time was right to add a dog to our family of four (plus two aging cats). We knew it needed to be the right dog for our family given the presence of cats and how young our children are. We saw Deacon first on Petfinder.com and fell in love with his sweet big brown eyes and floppy ears, and we were excited to meet him for the first time. Lucky Dog Rescue was so wonderful to work with, just as careful to make sure Deacon was placed in the right home as we were to adopt the right dog. When Deacon and our daughter met, it was love at first sight. He was so patient with her as she led him around the park on the leash and played with him, and as we left my husband and I knew that we had found a great match.
A few days later, after Millicent and the wonderful fosters agreed to move forward, Santa wrote a note to our daughter. It said that he was so glad she wanted a dog for Christmas, because Deacon had asked Santa if he could come live with us forever. However, since dogs get sleigh-sick, Deacon would be arriving in the car with his Lucky Dog caretakers, and would she please promise to take good care of him?
Note: Lucky Dog Rescue generally asks that all children in a household be 5+. However, when the dog being considered is in a foster home and has had positive encounters where we feel they will do well in a family with children under 5, we have made exceptions.