Christine Barber had no intention of rescuing a young puppy. After all, she and her husband, Brian, both work full-time and parent two boys. But they'd lost their beagle, Lucky, to cancer two years earlier and missed having a dog in the house. So, knowing how many dog adoption and rescue stories end happily, they agreed to keep an eye out for an adult dog at their local animal shelter in Erie, Pa. They visited every so often with their boys to learn about the dog adoption process and see if there might be a dog in need of rescue that would be a good match for their family.

"There just wasn't something right with any of the dogs we'd seen," Christine says. "Some weren't good with kids, others had too much energy or they didn't get along with other dogs ... there was just always something that didn't make it a good match." So, Christine wasn't overly optimistic when they pulled up to the ANNA Shelter one evening in late spring. Once inside though, a bright-eyed, curly-tailed puppy caught the family's eye. The next thing Christine knew, the floppy mutt was in her arms.

"She came up and sat in my lap and it just looked like she felt like 'I'm home.' She just nestled into me and laid her head down ... and well, that was it," she says. The dog, just three months old, had come to the shelter after a good Samaritan found her abandoned nearby... she was sickly and weak.

"She'd obviously been outside a long time," says Ruth Thompson, the shelter director. "She was dehydrated and needed IV fluids." The shelter's staff nursed the puppy back to health, had her spayed, and—when no one came to claim her—put her up for adoption, a typical scenario in the dog adoption process. That's when the Barbers found her.

"It just clicked," Christine says. "She was for us. We all knew it." Lucian, their 5-year-old, named the puppy Pretzel. She went home with the Barbers the same night.

A Family Completed at Last

Now, just a few months later, Pretzel's adoption story is complete and she is an irreplaceable part of the family. The kids love to play and cuddle with her. Her husband, a police officer, says he feels less stress since Pretzel came home. And Christine? Ever since that first introduction, the puppy has been glued to Christine's side.

"She is very very attached to me. She's always on my heels," Christine says. "She just wants to be with me all of the time. I think it's because she was a baby that was abandoned ... she just gets nervous if she can't be with me. I love her back completely." One way in which Pretzel shows her undying affection is by chewing Christine's shoes—always the left one, oddly. The dog never targets the shoes of any other member of the family, Christine says. But then she laughs.

"I've decided to look at it as a blessing because I got to buy new shoes," she says. Christine says she recognizes that taking the risk to bring home a rescue dog can be daunting. But bringing home Pretzel has certainly worked out well for her family, and she thinks other dog adoption stories can end just as happily for those willing to take on the responsibility of dog ownership.

"It's never perfect timing," she says. "You can talk yourself out of it because it's not the right time. But there's never going to be the perfect time. And you have to remember, it's not about you—it's about that dog. They're in this cage and all they want is love and a home. So even if you're not perfect, and you're scared, and you're uncertain—remember it's going to be heaven for them to be in a home where they get the love and attention they crave."