My Inspiration

One crisp Christmas Eve in 2001, in the Northern California gold rush town of Murphys, a litter of puppies was anonymously dropped off at the local pound. When Amy Monsen of the Calaveras Humane Society was summoned, she rushed to the pound, scooped them up and brought them home to foster. Within a few weeks all had been adopted but Opal, the smallest of the litter. Shortly thereafter, while visiting www.petfinder.com in search of a dog to adopt, I stumbled upon Opal's photo. She was flattened out like a pancake, short little legs barely stretching up to her face, brown eyes gazing up at me. I was smitten. Arriving at Amy's after driving for 3 hours from San Francisco to Murphys to bring her home, out pounced a small, black furball. After the excitement of meeting and greeting, off we went. As soon as we opened our front door, Opal eagerly pushed her snout through and rushed in to explore.Our cats, Nini and Beau gave her their requisite hisses, followed by yawns, and promptly went back to snoozing. Opal was home.

Over time I remained in touch with Amy, sending her regular Opal updates. In July of 2005 I received an email from Amy. She had been making her usual rounds to the pound to bring pets to her shelter when she'd spotted Opal's sister, Dixie, standing in the anonymous drop-off cage. Dismayed, Amy rescued Dixie from the pound and brought her home, just as she had done years before. Unable to locate her owner, Amy was set on finding Dixie a good home. It goes without saying that in the blink of an eye, we jumped right into our car and drove up to Murphy's to bring Opal's sister home. Opal and Dixie have been inseparable ever since. My girls are my inspiration! (Sadly, Nini, who always played with and slept with them, passed away on June 12th, 2009. Beau passed away on March 3rd, 2004, although it seems like only yesterday. All of us miss Beau and Nini more than words can say.)