Sometimes rescuers don't just find homes for animals in need, sometimes we ARE homes for animals in need. Even for animals that we, well, didn't need.  That's what has happened over the past year and a half to one of On Wings Of Care's stalwart volunteers, Dave Couch.

Dave was just about ready for retirement, and was he ever ready for it.  The last thing he was thinking he wanted were any pets. 

Reasonable, right? Maybe for some, but not for an animal-loving rescue volunteer like Dave.  He just didn't know it yet.  But his friends at On Wings Of Care did.

'Buddy' was a problem cat.  Or so his owners thought.  He was bored, and he used to pick on his sister 'Sapphire'.  He also was very thin, and his coat was dry and full of dandruff.  His owners were having some health problems, and Buddy's problems were a little too much for them.  They asked us about Buddy, and we came to take a look. What we found was just what you just read. A bored kitty with an attitude, dry skin and dull coat.  A perfect candidate for a newly retired, healthy athletic man who knew about good  nutrition, right?  That's what we thought, too.  Dave protested a bit, as he had not had cats before and wasn't too sure he knew how to have one.  But he totally sympathized with the poor guy for being bored and appearing to have a bad attitude -- who wouldn't bug your sister if you had nothing better to do?  (must be a guy thing...??)

So with a couple of long lectures on the care and feeding of a cat, and a car full of cat food and the "World's Best Cat Litter", Dave put Buddy in his fuel-efficient Honda and headed for his home in the Sierras.  Within a month, the only being that Buddy wanted to bother was Dave, and Dave had Buddy going along on hikes above Lake Isabella!  It was pretty clear that those two boys belonged together.

Enter 'Bear' -- the next step in Dave's exciting retirement...

We got the call from a friend who had heard about this young long-haired shepherd on death row at a shelter in Huntington Beach.  We went to see him and found a very sweet, exhuberant two-year-old boy.  Very eager to please, and more than a little bit insecure.  Definitely too wonderful a dog to have wound up on death row in a shelter.  No one seemed to know the reasons why he had ended up homeless and unwanted, but it was well worth finding out if he could become a solid citizen for some loving human.  So home he came with us, and it didn't take long for us to see that this was one super dog with a super heart.
But what to dowith him?  We were full up with our own critters at home.  And then we remembered Dave...

Dave met 'Bear' and Bear met Dave, and that was it.  Dave didn't mind that Bear looked quite comical, as the shelter had shaved him completely because his coat was so terribly matted and dirty.  And Bear knew from the instant he saw Dave that that was the match for him.  The two have scarcely been separated since.  We can't say that Dave has solved Bear's exhuberance, but if anybody could handle that, it's Dave.  The two wear themselves out together hiking and jogging all over the Sierras.  In all respects, it has turned out a perfect fit.   And it didn't take long for Bear's hair tro grow out into a luxuriant, beautiful coat.  Fitting for a dog who now lives in the Sierra Nevada with an active dad!  Oh, and yes, Buddy still goes along on those hikes.  But Dave carries him most of the time, because how else could the two of them keep up with Bear!

And there's one more postscript.  Almost a year from the day that Dave adopted Buddy, Buddy's previous owners decided they also could no longer keep Buddy's sister 'Sapphire.'  We almost didn't have the courage to ask, but how could we not?  And we need not have worried.  Dave thought it was a great idea for him to adopt 'Phire'!  Well, the three boys had a challenge on their hands, bringing a female into their house.  She wasn't the easy-going type they were, and it took a good couple of months of patience to persuade her to come out into the living room and join the family.  But it was Buddy, the brother who used to pick on her so relentlessly, who finally brought her around.   Maybe being around the spunky Bear had taught Buddy an appreciation for his more sedate, feminine side.  But these days, more often than not Buddy is grooming Phire and they are snoozing happily together.  Buddy still joins Dave and Bear on some of their hikes, but other times he stays home with Phire.

And nowadays, On Wings Of Care has been keeping Dave mighty busy helping us save lives of rescue animals all over the west coast.  Don't worry, Dave, we have no imminent plans to send more rescues your way!