My Nonprofit Reviews

I lost the love of my life in 2010, we were together for 15 years, and he was my doggy soul mate. I began doing research on Great Pyr's and decided that this breed may be right for our family. We have a 4 year old ball "crazy" lab, and didn't want to introduce another "ball" doggy, plus we have a cabin in the Sierra's and I often hike on my own and wanted a large strong breed, but also one that was mellow and non-aggressive.

A month later, I filled out the adoption application and soon received a call from the rescue. I loved their first question for me, "How do you feel about dog hair in your house?" My answer, since my GSD/Chow mix passed away I'm just not getting enough of it in my diet.

We made the 3 hour drive up north to see the dogs as there was one bio on their website that I thought may fit with our family and I really didn't have any 1on1 experience with the breed so we wanted to interact with them and feel out the situation to see if it would really be a fit. We brought our lab with us, just in case! The Pyr I was interested in was already meeting a perspective family when we arrived and I knew looking at the big Pyr boy and the little boy the family had that he was not destined to be ours. Watching how gentle this giant was with the 4 year child melted my heart.

We met all the dogs they had on site, and just didn't make a connection. I found one of the volunteers and let her know that we would be leaving but I would be monitoring their website for new dogs to meet. She stopped me and said, but you haven't met Reno, he's across the street with the couple that walks him everyday. I gently told her that I had read Reno's bio, and because of his abusive background and shyness, he really wasn't a candidate for us. My soul mate doggy was an abuse case as well, but I didn't think at this stage in my life I could do that again. I was wrong. She knew or saw something in me that I apparently didn't or wasn't willing to at the time. We agreed to meet him and the nice couple from across the street brought him over.

All I can say, is always stay true to your heart. The minute I saw him, I KNEW he was the one. We spent a couple of hours together, took him for a walk with our Lab Oscar, who can be lease reactive (none of that happened) and I sat down with him, they gave me a brush and I knew he needed to come with us. That was 4 years ago next month.

They were totally informative about him and his past, which was really terrible. Great Pyr's are so intelligent it always amazes me. It took a LONG time for him to overcome his past, and there was a time about a year into our relationship that I really didn't think he would ever recover, and that was ok, sad but ok (two steps forward, one step back often times). He was ours and we were his forever home regardless. We loved and love him and just wanted him to feel safe and loved. He spent much of his time outside, by his own choice (as we have a doggy door open 24x7). We then decided to give him a job and got 3 chickens to raise. He loves his chickens and who would of thought that chickens would change everything! This big buy blossomed! He had a home, a job, and a Lab friend! Now I just wish we could get him off the bed sometimes! How do you get a Pyr off the bed? You WAIT! He pays it forward and is also a great foster brother to bottle fed kittens every year, being gentle and wonderful with them.

I can not imagine a day without this big lug of a fluffy, make me vacuum, sleep in the wet drool spot, wonderful and kind companion.

Sierra Pacific does great things for the animals and has a heart of gold in my eyes. They saw something very special in this guy, as I'm sure they do with all (they are ALL special) but this one is incredibly special to me and I wake up with a mouth full of hair every morning saying a thank you prayer for him in my life. I hike without worry, and when I was injured he never left my side during my recovery.