By The Breakman Family

We adopted Libby from BREW during the Fall of 2000; She is an adorable beagle, rescued originally by the Puerto Rican organization called "Save A Sato" (www.saveasato.com). Her story is this:

Libby was bought as a puppy in New York with a male companion in 1995. Her owners, Puerto Ricans living in New York at that time, bought the two dogs with the sole purpose of breeding them and selling their puppies. After three years, the owners and the two beagles moved back to Puerto Rico and lived in a low-income housing development. Libby was bred every heat and had just a few puppies per pregnancy. As you can imagine, her owners were never quite satisfied and kept her tied all day in the backyard. In fact, her last two pregnancies resulted in dead puppies. When informed by the veterinarian in Puerto Rico that, because of her age, Libby should not be bred anymore, the owners decided to get rid of both dogs; they gave away the male to a friend, and the female (Libby) was handed over to a sister, with instructions to abandon her 'wherever she pleased'. She did just that, but poor Libby, confused and scared, was able to find her way home, whining and crying the entire time. When the sister realized that Libby had returned, she decided she would abandon Libby the next day at an area further from her home.

The sister is a neighbor of a contact person of "Save A Sato", who is always on the lookout for abandoned animals in the area. Thankfully, before Libby was again abandoned by the sister, "Save A Sato" stepped in and came to the rescue. Shortly thereafter, "Save A Sato" sought placement of Libby and contacted BREW. BREW agreed to take her, and Libby was flown over, within a matter of days, from Puerto Rico to Washington DC. She was fostered for two weeks by BREW, but not before she had 9 teeth pulled by BREW's vet.

When we met Libby at her foster home, she was very shy (but affectionate) and we fell in immediately in love. She came home with us a few days later. She is a wonderful addition to our family, and she has done a great job training us. She has really come out of her shell and is gaining confidence daily. She no longer cowards in the corner and has even started to bark at neighbors (in a friendly way) and chase strangers (this is a good thing, because before she was always scared of people!). She is a very intelligent, friendly dog and is the epitome of a lap-dog -- always wanting to be as close to us as possible. Even without 9 of her teeth, she has a very healthy appetite, eating anything and everything we put in front of her!