Thanks to all of you who sent donations and for all of your support during this holiday season and the past year. We truly appreciate and look forward to your cards with photos and notes letting us know our alumni are so will loved. It lets us know that what we do is really worthwhile to both the Pei and the families that adopt them.

To say that 2010 has been challenging for us would be putting it mildly-we lost nine of our "kids" this year. 2010 has dealt us two final (we hope) blows.

We lost Sonja last week. She had been with us for almost four years and was always overlooked, probably because she was not the "look" people seem to favor. Her skin wasn't perfect, but even having a specialist work with her, there was nothing we could do. To Sonja, this was her home, and she knew she was loved and would be cared for. We always do the best we can in terms of time spent with our "kids" and the care provided. We also always wish for them a "home" of their own with family of their own to love them. For Sonja that wasn't to be, we were her family, and we will miss her as one of our own.

Last night we lost our own girl, Luki. She was our blind girl who we have had since she was two weeks old and dumped in a night deposit at a Sacramento shelter six years ago. She and Deuce, who we lost three weeks ago to cancer, were best of friends for the last six years. Luki had developed blood clots in both back legs last night. She could no longer walk and was in excruciating pain. When we rushed her to our vet, they could not control her pain, and we couldn't watch her suffer. She has now gone to be with Deuce-her best buddy and seeing eye dog.

For all of you who have emailed us or sent in an application recently and have not received a response, we apologize. Not only is it the busy time of year with the holidays, but we are just trying to deal with our grief that comes with so many losses so close together. We will do our best to catch up, and you are welcome to send a follow up email. We appreciate your patience as we work through these difficult times.

Please keep all of our "kids" in your thoughts for 2011.

Anna and Rich

At this holiday season our "kids" could sure use your help. We know things are still tough for a lot of people, but if you are able to help with a donation in any amount, it would be much appreciated. It is getting more and more difficult to make ends meet for this rescue, but we are hoping we will be able to continue helping those Pei who need us so badly.

We hope you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving surrounded by family and friends. As with so many of our updates this year, we have more sad news. Yesterday we lost another of our four legged family members-Deuce. He was one of our personal dogs and will be missed by Rich and me and our other "kids", Cassie, Mitchell, and Luki. Luki, our blind girl, will feel the loss of Deuce the most as he was her "seeing eye" dog. We got Luki when she was two weeks old, and she has been blind since birth. Somebody had dumped her in the night deposit at the Sacramento County Shelter-probably when they realized she was blind. Deuce came to us from the Orange County Shelter, and they had been together for most of their lives. Luki is being treated for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and now she has lost her best friend. We will all be helping her make the adjustment to losing her best buddy and hopefully, getting this disease under control.

Deuce had suddenly quit eating, and we took him to see Dr. Larry on Tuesday morning. His bloodwork looked good, but clearly he was not "himself". We brought him home hoping it was just a passing "bug". He died here peacefully at about 4am Wednesday. A necropsy (autopsy) was done in hopes of perhaps helping another dog down the road in terms of what had gone wrong. It was determined that Deuce had cancer of the intestine and some fluid had leaked into his stomach. Dr. Larry said there was nothing we could have done, but that doesn't make the loss any easier. It certainly has been a year of terrible loss for us, and we can only hope next year will be brighter.

Happy Holidays from all of us here in Redding.