When Lucy came into rescue, she was literally given a second chance at life because of a kind veterinarian. Lucy was purchased out of the newspaper, along with a sister littermate. Both Lucy and the other weim lived a life confined to the backyard with little human contact. Lucy started having seizures, and her people were unwilling to pay for medication or have further tests done to determine the cause of the seizures. Instead, they brought her to the vet to be put to sleep. The vet saw something in Lucy and called weim rescue. We took Lucy in, and placed her in a foster home. The foster home adored her, kept Lucy on her medication, and taught her the joys of living indoors. The foster home taught her sit, stay, come and her name. Lucy was a wild counter-surfer and very food motivated. Lucy was extremely loyal to her foster family, followed them every where and loved to be with them. Lucy was doing very well, not experiencing any seizures, and finally part of a family. Sadly, she was terrified of being left outside and she couldn’t catch on to the concept of house-training. We had to move her to another foster home with more time to help Lucy with the house-training issue. While at the second foster home, Lucy began to experience cluster seizures. Her foster home was very dedicated to Lucy, and stayed up several nights comforting her, loving her, and caring for her. Lucy failed to recover to her normal self following a particularly rough bout with the cluster seizures. Lucy was no longer coherent, and her seizures were unmanageable even with medication. So, Lucy was moved to a third foster home for hospice care. . It was determined that Lucy suffered severe brain damage, and would not recover. Lucy lived out her last days in a very loving home. For a few weeks she was stabilized on medication and a special diet, but she never regained her wonderful personality. Lucy’s hospice home let her go over the bridge following more cluster seizures. Thank you to Lucy’s foster families, the donors who sent money to pay for Lucy’s extensive medical bills, and the vet who gave her a second chance. Her second chance was short - and she made the most of it.

Lucy’s life was short, but she had many who loved her and cared for her in her time in rescue. We often search for a reason that these weims touch our lives, and Lucy’s legacy is very important: never buy a puppy on impulse. Do your homework before you buy - check out the parents of the puppy, and know what health issues are common in the breed. Or better yet, adopt a dog who desperately needs a home.

I just came across your rainbow bridge page, Shelby touched our hearts. We had 3 Weims, 2 were rescues. Our latest guy, Dusty who was 5, came to our home in January of this year from an abusive home. Never had I been with a Weim that had been abused and beaten. The poor guy was afraid of everything, he was terrified to walk in the grass and when he did he would run then cower at the door thinking he was going going to get beat. We spent a lot of time with this boy and he was making real progress. Over the summer he loved to play in the grass, running around with the other 2 only to run up to the kids and roll around on his back. Today, we lost him to kidney failure. I was searching for answers when I came across the of Shelby on your Rainbow Bridge page. It started the tears again, we really miss our Dusty and only wish he would have been able to spend more time with us so we could show him more love and happiness. I can only hope he found what love really means in the short time he had with us. He died in our arms today. Attached is a pic of happier times, Dusty was the blue.

Jake came into rescue in May of 2006. His male owner passed away in an accident last summer and his female owner is battling terminal cancer. With her treatment, she could no longer care for Jake and his German Shorthaired Pointer buddy. Jake was taken in by a wonderful foster home. His foster home had a female rescue Weim (2 years old) and a female Lhapsa Apso (and four human boys). Jake loved to swim and was quite literally a "fish" and loved to fetch. Jake also LOVED to play with squeaky toys and liked his daily walks and long naps and lots of hugs and kisses. Jake came to rescue with a very bad nasal drainage problem that he had had for a couple of years. During his stay in foster, he lost a lot of weight, had some severe swelling in his rear leg, and the nasal drainage worsened. After a lot of sole searching and a vet consult, it was determined that to ease any suffering Jake was going through that it would be best to send him over the Rainbow Bridge. We hope that he found his owner who passed last year.

Gretchen came into rescue in 2004. Her owners were moved to an assisted living facility and could not keep Gretchen and her Weim 'brother', Frederick. They were both taken to Boulder Valley Humane Society. At 10 years of age, the shelter would not put them up for adoption and called us. Gretchen was moved into foster care and placed very quickly into a home on the Western slopes.

In the fall of 2005, Gretchen's owner was struggling with caring for an aging dog, so Gretchen came back to her foster home. After many months, an adoptive home took Gretchen in. She lived with a wonderful family. After turning 12 years old, Gretchen was still seemingly in good shape. Then, in May, she lost a lot of weight and upon a chest x-ray, a massive tumor was found in her abdominal cavity. To save her from any suffering, she was sent over the rainbow bridge. The picture below is with Gretchen (the blue) and her new sister, Maddie.