Here's an update from Emily who adopted a "crazy", backwards stair walking Lab from Toronto Animal Services South a few years back and turned the dog into a charmer. (Emily was also the person who found Maggie abandoned and dying at a park and brought her into TAS where her life was saved.)

We adopted our girl, Olivia, just over 4 years ago (she was about 3-4 years old at that time) from TAS South and what an adventure it has been! Originally assessed as 'not yet eligible for adoption' (to put it nicely!) on account of her being a totally unsocialized, beyond-hyperactive dog who had to be muzzled around other dogs, Olivia (aka Little Bear) came home as a foster pup though I failed miserably as a foster to this nutty-bar as she and my older canine man fell in love and we just had to have her as part of our family.

Olivia, being the crazy-face Lab that she is, keeps her older brother active and his arthritis at bay with long wrestling sessions and she easily makes friends with any and all children that visit our home - she LOVES LOVES LOVES children and is so incredibly gentle with them, believe it or not! She especially loves it when they drop food on the floor **sigh, that's a Lab, alright** We're happy to also be able to say that my husband and our canine kids are expecting our first 2-legged child in late August and I know that Olivia is going to be even MORE in heaven with a new play-mate and her own full-time food-dropper!

Olivia still has those abandoned-dog traits, to an extent, as she does not leave my side even 4 years later - she is my little shadow and the heartbeat at my feet. She never fails to crack us up into hysterics on account of her endless antics, is the first to the door as the official welcoming committee to all guests and takes her job as vehicle/back-seat ambassador at drive-through windows VERY seriously (the bank drive-through's still confuse her..."where's the FOOD?!?!?!?").

Despite her never-ending high energy, Olivia makes friends with anything that moves - piglets, hens, kittens, stray/feral cats, dogs, children, homeless tennis balls, stray branches etc... She LOVES to swim, go on hikes and chase her favourite, spongy choochie-ball in the park (granted, it took her one whole year to learn to DROP the ball so I could launch it again!).

I have attached just a few of the many crazy pics of this great girl - napping with her best buddy and brother, playing with a 1.5 pound foster kitten, retrieving her choochie-ball from the lake and, of course, keeping vigilant watch over the cakes in the kitchen (notice the serious expression? Food is SERIOUS business for this Lab)! We love her dearly and thank TAS South for accepting this less-than-desirable, riskier dog into their care as well as the original Pound Dogs blog, "One Bark At A Time" for showcasing this crazy love-bug. We can't imagine what our family and days would be like without her and look forward to many more years with our Little Bear.

When this raggedy Shih Tzu first arrived at the shelter from a puppy mill, she was an extremely frightened little girl.

Blaze, a skinny little Beagle, is a real charmer. He was adopted at the TAS/Adopt-a-thon along with nine or ten other dogs from TAS South, East and West by some wonderful families, some who lined up even before the store opened on Saturday. Now that's dedication.

Kingston is a young German Shepherd mix who is all about having fun ... with me, with the staff, with the other dogs walking by, with the guys on the way to their hockey game, with the kids on the sidewalk, with the couple who were lost and had stopped to ask for directions.

This is Maggie, a small German Shepherd mix. She's the fourth Georgia dog rescued and transported up from a high kill Georgia pound with funding and coordination provided by Ashley Hyslop and Paws for Hope and Faith.

Please meet adorable Maggie. Don’t let the photos fool you on her size – soaking wet at most she weighs 25 pounds. Maggie is a snuggle bug. She loves attention and showing you how much she loves you. She is very outgoing and loving. If you let her – she will nap on your lap all afternoon.

Sadly, Maggie was picked up as a stray in Southern Georgia and once her owners were located they surrendered her to a high kill shelter because they decided they didn’t want a dog anymore and disposed her as if she was garbage. Maggie doesn’t hold any grudges though. She is more than happy being in Toronto and is so excited to find her happy ending! Maggie would fit in with any household!

I'm not sure how accurate that mix description is but Ellie does have a puppy Great Dane face even if she's only about one tenth the size of a Great Dane. She's the third Georgia dog rescued and transported up from a high kill Georgia pound with funding and coordination provided by Ashley Hyslop and Paws for Hope and Faith.

Please meet sweet Ellie. Ellie loves to give puppy snuggles and kisses. Although she looks like a puppy and is cuddly like a puppy she is thought to be fully grown. She was found as a stray in southern Georgia and was never claimed. Her time was up and thankfully she was rescued at the last moment.

Ellie is a little shy but once you show her any kind of love she will give you her whole heart! Ellie is great with people and other dogs – she has yet to be tested with cats. However, Ellie doesn’t have a mean bone in her body so there most likely wouldn’t be any issues.

Dinah is the second of the four dogs rescued and transported up from a high kill Georgia pound with funding and coordination provided by Ashley Hyslop and Paws for Hope and Faith.

Please meet beautiful Dinah!

Dinah is a young and very sweet yellow lab mix who comes with a sad story. At approximately two months of age, Dinah and her brother were found locked in a storage unit in Southern Georgia and had almost starved to death. She was under 7 pounds.

Dinah was brought to a high kill shelter. Unfortunately, because there are so many Labs and Lab mixes in the southern States she must not have stood out and was overlooked. Dinah's time was about to run out when she was rescued and transported to Toronto Animal Services.

Dinah is SO happy to be Canadian now and has heard that Canadian's love their Yellow Lab mutts's and is sooo hoping to find the happy ending that was promised to her. Dinah is very sweet and playful. She loves giving kisses and going for long walks.

Toronto Animal Services is once again sponsoring four dogs from Georgia to help them get adopted out at this weekend's Petsmart Adopt-a-thon (835 Eglinton Ave East, 416 696 0388, Saturday Feb 23rd and Sunday 24th starting at 10am). This rescue/transport was organized by the wonderful Ashley Hyslop with Paws for Hope and Faith providing all the support in Georgia.

Here's the first of the four.

Please meet handsome George! He can't get enough of the Toronto snow.

George was found as a stray with a bunch of puppies he fathered in Southern Georgia! They were brought to a high kill shelter and although the puppies got scooped up almost immediately, George sat in his concrete cage for months hoping someone would come to adopt him. His time was running up and the fact that he is mainly black didn't help - he didn't have much of a chance in Georgia!

Thanks to Toronto Animal Services for giving George his chance at finding a happy ending - George is ready to find his forever home. George is a big teddy bear with gorgeous curls! He is thought to be a Great Pyrenees mix and about 1 - 2 years of age. He loves everyone and is very laid back! He is a gentleman and only wants to stay by your side on walks. Please come visit George at the Petsmart Leaside Adopt-a-thon on Feb 23rd/24th.

Anyone who meets George can't help but fall in love with him!

A pic from the owner of Panda, now Lola:

Even though Dallas is an exceptionally good looking dog, he really doesn't like getting his photo taken.

At first he approaches me to say hello with no qualms.

Simone is watching me dig out my car from the second floor window. We'd just come back from her walk in the morning sunshine, walking through the white blanket of last night's heavy snowfall. The last few times I shoveled snow, I kept her outside with me but she just sat by the door and gave me her "Why are you making me suffer out here?" look. This time I let her inside.

A woman in her sixties walks up to me with her German Shepherd.

"You know you're not allowed to do that," she says to me.

"What?" I say.

"You're not allowed to throw snow on the road," she says.

"The snow is already on the road," I say, which is true. The snow is already on the road. My car is parked on the street. I'm digging out the wheels and the piled up snow around the car so that another car can park there when I leave without having to ram through a two foot high snowbank. I'm not doing this for purely selfless reasons. I'm clearing the space because parking is a premium in this fairly dense Toronto neighbourhood and I figure the more accessible spaces, the better it is for everyone, including myself.

"You have to put that snow on your property," she says.

I look at her. Her face is pinched. She's looking for an argument. I look at her dog. Her dog looks bored. It starts sniffing around. It's been through this before.

"You must be really busy complaining this morning," I say. "Every one up and down the street is digging themselves out doing exactly the same thing."

On our walk, Simone and I passed at least a dozen people digging out their cars parked on the street. They were all just moving the snow onto the road because there's no where else to move it. It's not like everyone is parked conveniently in front of their own front yards and people aren't going to be shoveling snow from the road and putting it onto someone else's property. So, the snow gets pushed around as best as people can manage. It's not as if there are any other options.

"You complaining to every one about what they're doing? Or just me?" I ask the woman. Maybe I'm looking for an argument as well. It's been a somewhat shitty week.

"I've been living here for thirty-five years so that gives me the right," she says.

"The right to what?" I ask.

"I can call the city on you," she says. "A neighbour once shoveled snow onto the road and I told him he wasn't allowed to do that but he didn't care about the roads because he didn't have a car but then the city came by and made him shovel it back." She smiles at the memory of it.  Or at least the pretend memory of it.

"If he didn't have a car, then why was he shoveling?" I ask.

"He was shoveling snow from his property onto the road," she says. "The city made him shovel it back."

"I'm not shoveling snow from my property onto the road," I say. "The snow is already on the road. I'm also not causing an obstruction on the road. I'm removing one."

The woman looks at me, angry at my insubordination. She tries a different tack.

"People don't know how to park anymore. They all take up too much space, park too far apart so there's not enough parking. We used to understand how to park. Now ... it hasn't always been like this," she says.

"Really?" I say.

"Yeah, it started in the last few years. I've noticed this.  When the original people in the neighbourhood started to move out and the new people started moving in," she says.

"What new people?" and I'm pretty sure she's going to say "immigrants".

She pauses, then she says, "Young people."

I try not to laugh. There's one of these in every neighbourhood, I'm beginning to realize. Someone who hates the world.

"Yeah, young people are terrible," I say, uncertain if she means to include me in her disparaging remark against the vast majority of her neighbours. "The things people have to put up with from young people. The way they park. Their attitude. So, uh, you hate young people of a certain age range or just anyone younger than yourself?"

She walks away. She's fuming, I'm sure and she's muttering something about how she's just telling it like it is. The German Shepherd walks submissively behind her along the sidewalk which a neighbour, probably a young person, hasn't bothered to shovel.

There's some once in a decade snowstorm going on outside so maybe don't come down to Toronto Animal Services South today but if you're looking for the sweetest German Shepherd mix ever, that would be Timber and I have a feeling the first person who comes by to meet him is going to adopt him.

On our walk last week, every so often he would just stop, sidle up beside me and give me this look:

One more previously adopted: Panda, a French Bulldog. The couple brought in their baby and Panda got along with the child and the child got along with Panda. Easy peasy.

Emma's a short Dachshund mix who's got her winter pudge on. You kinda want to pick her up and squeeze her and make "pffth pffth" noises while you're doing it.

Harriet put up a brave front but after ten minutes outside on the not terribly cold sunny Sunday afternoon, even her eyeballs were shivering. No problem since she apparently likes being carried so I picked her up and put her under my coat and took her back inside. That's when I realized I'd succumbed to small dog owner syndrome and now I feel an urge to go shopping for a rhinestone dog bag.

If you want this Puggle pup who makes funny warbling noises when she wants attention, I suggest you run to the shelter.

Lots of photos from the owners of Foxy, now Maya: