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John Callahan, Board Member/Foster Committee
Carol Callahan, Secretary/Foster Committee
John retired as a police detective, Carol retired as a bank controller and they moved to Pueblo seven years ago to be nearer family. Their second generation of pets had gone to the Rainbow Bridge and they both agreed they would not start a third generation for years to allow for traveling and unencumbered retirement. It wasn't too long that they were accosting complete strangers on the street to get a dog fix. John was worse than Carol. He would cross the street to pet a pouch, run out the door pretending to check the mail if a dog was within eye sight and volunteered a free dog sitting service with each encounter.
Dog sitting was fun and we had a full schedule. But we needed our own. We finally talked a family member into giving us Chance since he was much happier with us! Then of course, Chance needed a full-time companion, and we rescued Tippy from the pound. It was love at first sight.
During our daily walks in the park we met Auntie Doris, (long-time PCSR volunteer and foster mom Doris Quinlan) who had a different dog every month. We decided we could foster an occasional dog - and there must be lots of dogs needing foster homes after Katrina hit. Bonnie, our first foster, had been very sick and was placed directly from the vet hospital with a wonderful family. Carol cried, John was sullen. Chance and Tippy got lots of hugs and kisses. Our second darling foster met her new parents, kids and dog pal, jumped in the car with them and never looked back. Carol cried, John was sullen and Chance and Tippy got lots of hugs and kisses. Many more foster dogs followed. We added just one of the fosters to our permanent family, Me-Me. She was number 19 and was returned to us because she was too active and driving their old dog crazy. John had been in the hospital earlier that week and said, in a drug induced state, if Me-Me comes back, we are keeping her. She's a treasure.
Today we are on dog number 22 and 23. Carol went back to work to afford health insurance and John is still enjoying retirement. He cooks all the meals as a trade-off. Yum. We moved to Pueblo West to have a bigger yard so we could take in more than one dog and also bigger dogs. We have met so many wonderful families that we are still in touch with, still dog sit with and enjoy pictures and updates. Each of our adopters were hand-picked. The PCSR team is the most wonderful group of people on earth. Carol has stopped crying, John is no longer sullen and Chance, Tippy and Me-Me get lots of hugs and kisses. We may have rescued their lives, but they rescued our hearts!
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