Rex was a very sweet boy who was left on a road in Wyoming next to a gas station. A very nice person picked up Rex and took him to her home and contacted rescue to help find Rex's home (because who would dump such a sweet boy on the side of the road???) or a new home if his original home couldn't be located. Rex was not microchipped and had only a slip-chain around his neck. Rex was the perfect gentleman and quickly won over the household as well as the resident female Lab. This nice family took Rex to their vet where they looked him over, guessed his age to be around 5 years old, and did a basic exam. Unfortunately, Rex appeared to be in end-stage cancer of some kind. His belly was filled with fluid and it was just a matter of time. Within three weeks of being found at the gas station, Rex crossed the rainbow bridge. We can not thank this wonderful family (a non-Weim familty at that) for caring for Rex during his final days. While we'll never know Rex's real name, or his age, or the life he had before being found at the gas station, we know that he had a great last three weeks in a home who treated him as if he were their own.

If you have been wanting to donate to rescue to help the dogs currently in need, don't forget about the dogs who needed rescues help, not in finding a new home, but giving them that last final act of kindness we can provide.

Cinnamon was a 4 year old, gray female weim. Cinnamon was used as a breeding Weim and recently dumped at a vet's office because she failed to produce a litter. A rescue group took in Cinnamon and was treating her for heartworm and getting her spayed. Cinnamon would have arrived in Colorado on June 13th, and had a foster home lined up. Cinnamon lived outside her entire life, and during her treatment was learning house-training and crate-training, and basic obedience. Cinnamon had a rough life and died in a kennel run with people trying to help her to have a better life.

Bohdi was a 10 year old gray female weim. She had been living in the garage for the last 5 months, and her owners felt it would be best for Bodhi to find a loving home instead of continuing to live in the garage. Bodhi had growled and shown her teeth to the family's toddler, and to prevent a potential incident, Bodhi was moved to the garage. Bodhi enjoyed fetch, walks, car rides and being with her people. She'd always been on the mellow side for a weim, and was easy-going and laid back. Bohdi went in for a medical check and it was determined that she had an inoperable tumor, so her family sent her over the Rainbow Bridge.

Aiden came into rescue as a 1.5 year old male from a local shelter. He spent a few weeks in a foster home with cats, kids, and other dogs. He was placed in a home with a young couple. Aiden lived with the young couple for over a year. His new family had a child and contacted us to take Aiden back onto rescue. Rescue was very busy at this time, so Aiden was placed in boarding and then moved through a few foster homes. After a couple of months in foster care, a family from Arizona showed interest in adopting him. We typically do not adopt out of state, but this family sounded like a good fit and we had someone driving to Arizona that could give him a ride. It was love at first sight for the first couple of weeks, and then the love affair ended. Aiden was showing signs of stress and the family had a hard time with him. After two months of trying to work with Aiden, they requested that we take him back. Aiden was taken in by Rebecca Kapp who runs Arizona Weimaraner Rescue. She held onto Aiden until Michelle flew to Arizona to get him in January 2006. At this point, Aiden was between 4 and 5 years old. Without knowing if Aiden was placeable, a joint foster program was put in place. Aiden spent time with Michelle and her family, but most of the time was spent with Cindy and Andrew's family. Aiden turned out to be very stressed. He was on edge and very barky. He was always on patrol. We introduced some calmative drugs and saw a change in behavior. We then consulted with an animal communicator and what she shared with us was gut-wrenching. Aiden had shared with her that he almost wished he was dead. He was very confused and couldn't understand why no one wanted him. Living in foster care was even harder for him. We removed him from an available dog and just decided to work with him. Because he had conveyed to the communicator that the drugs were making him feel even more unbalanced, we took him off them. We then started a dog class to help Aiden deal with his irrational fears. He knew he was being irrational, but couldn't control himself. Class was beneficial, but we still couldn't put him at ease. Aiden spent the fall and winter on weekend hunting trips to the mountains and the plains. During one such hunting trip, Aiden went through some barbed-wire. He was stapled up and given some anti-biotics. While on the anti-biotics, he cut back on eating. Cindy and Andrew hoped that once off the anti-biotics, he'd start eating again. Over the weekend, he stopped eating at all and was listless. On Monday when he went to the vet, some bloodwork was taken and it showed that Aiden was in kidney failure. There was nothing that we could do but let him go without any more pain. Aiden touched many of us in rescue and will forever leave a whole in our hearts. Here is his picture with foster dad Andrew and foster brother Jake in the background.

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.

Misty was a four and a half year old female Weim. She was rehomed early in life, nine months. Her new home couldn't handle her and they surrendered her to our rescue. We placed Misty very quickly, but she was returned within a night because she growled at her new people when they tried to get her off their couch. Misty had a very alpha personality. We brought Misty into foster care, had her evaluated, and she was a typical young female Weim with attitude. We found her the best home - with a couple who was very involved with the club. They later adopted another hard luck case from us. The summer of 2005, Misty had a biting incident. Her owners worked very hard with her, but there was something in Misty that was a little different. Just before Christmas, she attacked a family member's pug. Her owners knew that no matter how much work they could do with her, she would always be too unpredictable. They let her go over the Rainbow Bridge just before Christmas.

You could call it love at first site. The moment I laid eyes on Otto posted on the MHWC website I knew he was ours. My husband on the other hand called me crazy and asked "Why on earth would we want to adopt a nine year old dog?" He sure changed his tune when he met Otto in person. The big beautiful old guy greeted us warmly with kisses and wagging tail.

Otto spent his first 9 years in a household that became victim of a divorce. Otto was not a part of either his mother’s or father’s future. Fortunately for us, they relinquished him to Weimaraner Rescue.

We were shocked to hear that Otto was nearly euthanized a few weeks prior to coming to live with us. He was placed in the home of a foster mother who labeled him as "unadoptable." Poor Otto was sent to the kennel to await euthanization.

Fortunately Michelle Daum the Rescue Coordinator felt something was not quite right. She phoned the kennel the morning of Otto’s schedulded euthanization and asked them not to proceed. She wanted to give Otto another chance at life.

He immediately blended into our family of 4 boys and 1 year old Lhasa Apso. He was so funny, well behaved, great mannered and obedient. With the boys in constant motion and daily chaos ours is not a quiet or relaxing household. But Otto loved it and he enjoyed being in the center of it all. He enjoyed our morning and evening walks and running off leash out at Chatfield. He became the protective "older brother" for Maggie our Lhasa Apso. She really taunted him she slept on his pillow, and took things from him. Otto never so much as snarled at her. He just let her get away with anything, again a perfect gentleman.

Though I desperately wanted Otto’s story to have a happy ending, I write this with a heavy heart. We had to put Otto to "sleep" this morning. Our brave boy had too many medical challenges. Beginning with an operation to remove ugly mast cell tumors. After that operation things just started going downhill. To our surprise, not even healed from his operation, we found several other tumors had surfaced. Worst of all Otto suffered a severe skin rash that caused his hair to fall out. It turned his skin bright red causing itching night and day. Steroids, antihistamines, medicated shampoos and conditioners and even prayers didn’t help this poor guy. Otto underwent skin scrapings, skin biopsies, several aspirations, x -rays, and bi-weekly visits to the vet. The amazing thing is that Otto would wag his tail throughout all of these painful procedures, never even a whimper -what a brave boy! I wonder if Otto waited until he found his forever home to get sick. He must have known that we would do everything in our power to help along his final journey. Otto leaves behind a loving family and four very sad little boys. Though we only had Otto for a short time, we were blessed to have him. We will forever remember what a brave and strong old guy he was and we can only lead by his example.