When did you adopt your pet from AARF?: July 2021
Pet’s AARF Name: Abner
Pet’s New Name (if you changed it): D’Angelo
How is your adopted pet doing? D’Angelo took a ride from TN to PA in order to be with us, and was full of licks and kisses the moment he was handed to us. He hasn’t stopped since.

Part of our reason in adopting him is that we had recently adopted a slightly younger pup — a Deaf and partially blind Pomeranian who was a puppy mill rescue and who we thought could use a slightly older sibling to help show her the ropes. The two of them became instant BFFs and haven’t stopped entertaining us since.

Of course, being puppies, most of their time is spent wrestling and stealing toys from each other. But he’s been a great big brother and the two of them are inseparable. He is also a huge fan of our cats, who D’Angelo (aka D) and his sister Mishka happily let be a part of their wrestling matches and chasing each other around.

He is truly one of the happiest, peppiest puppies we’ve ever met; we describe him as “aggressively loving” because all he wants to do is meet every new creature (human or otherwise) he comes across, and give them kisses. Fortunately, his little face is impossible to resist and he’s building a small fan club everywhere he goes.

Though he was originally found as a stray, he has done remarkably well with everything from housebreaking to crate training to leash-walking, etc. He’s EXTREMELY athletic — can jump a good four feet in the air from a sitting position — and definitely prefers to view the world from as high up a perch as he can find (he’s a bit cat-like in a way), so we’re in the process of looking into some agility training for him, which we think he’d have a ball with.

He’s whip-smart and has learned basic commands in minutes. Of all the pets we’ve ever adopted, he has definitely been the quickest to jump right into the fray — honestly, within 10 minutes of stepping in the door he had found his favorite spot to sleep, picked out a favorite bed, etc.

While we would normally set up a meet-and-greet between our pups before adopting, sometimes you just see a pup and you “know.” There’s some sort of connection that happens where you just know that this animal was meant to be part of your life. It doesn’t happen often, but on the occasions it has, that sense has proven to be correct 100% of the time. D’Angelo is one of those dogs.

I should also say how great everyone at AARF was to work with — super friendly, helpful, honest, quick to respond to Qs, etc. It was a truly seamless process, particularly the transport part, which made it so much easier. I have shared your name and website with others I know who are looking for pets.

Thanks again for entrusting us with D’Angelo. He is deeply loved and it’s hard to remember a time where he wasn’t part of the family.

P.S. We joke that it’s very hard to get a great picture of D’Angelo because he’s ALWAYS moving, as the attached images will illustrate.