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 Petfinder 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 at the time, 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 the shelter when she'd spotted Opal's sister, Dixie, standing in the anonymous drop-off cage. Amy rescued Dixie from the pound and brought her home. Unable to locate her owner, Amy was determined to find Dixie a good home, and made her first call to me. 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. Sadly, their beloved siblings, Nini and Beau have since passed away, but they now have their kitty Kittenu, their "new" little sister.  My girls are my inspiration!