I’m very much an “everything is connected” type of person. I look for them and surprisingly for someone as reserved as I, I make them as often as I can, or at least as often as I see fit. Although I don’t necessarily think everything we do is guided by fate, I think that the choices we make guide our path. I reflect on a time decades ago as a single gal in a windy city, I had two interviews at very large department stores on the same day. I mixed up the times and showed up to the second interview first where I was hired on the spot and although that store was my second choice, bird in the hand and all that, I accepted. That is where I eventually met my first husband who was the father of my only child. Fate? Destiny? Life path?

I’m a girl mom. I have one sister, one daughter and don’t know nuthin’ about raising no boys, so after our female chow chow had been gone for awhile and we started talking about another dog, I was just dipping my toes in the rescue world and I knew I wanted to foster an older dog. Welp. As we know, I was overruled and we ended up adopting Ray. Then Julius.

But I always held out hope for my female to complete our pack.

It has never been a coincidence that all of our adult fosters have been female. They were all auditioning for the Assembly. Though not an actual foster, Torrah was our first candidate and will always be the one who got a way. She overnighted at our home a few times to get a break from the shelter and she would have been a good fit since Julius liked her and Ray also had no issues with her. But her adoption would have meant that none of the others would come after. Sugar, who at 16 is the oldest living FWPBC alum that I am aware of, and her litter of puppies are now eleven (!) would not have come to my home. Margeaux piggy came next and nearly stayed but in the end, she found her people. Bryn was my biggest challenge and success stories. She also found the perfect family for herself and made way for Miss Fanny Bananny. That girl stole my heart in a different way and I was so happy to have found her the right family so quickly. The next two were puppies that Julius eventually vetoed leading to the addition of our Chuck, the first new addition to the Assembly in many years.

I thought I was ready to write about Julius’s passing but I’m not. Or maybe I am. I was clearing videos from my phone and found some of him on January 4, 2025 that really in retrospect chronicle what our year was to have in store. It was a rough year in that I knew in my heart he would not see Christmas but there were rallies and I allowed myself to believe he might. Ultimately, he was tired of the fight and the pain and he knew. And I knew. On December 21, 2025 he gained his wings and two days later we were so lost without a canine presence, we were searching the internet for a dog to preferably foster or adopt. And we found one. As we debated and refreshed the screen he was adopted…

But. Two days before Julius passed, a sweet senior girl was taken to the shelter for requested euthanasia, due to her age. She was spared and evaluated for adoption and two days after she was posted for adoption, she came to our home as a Peaceabull foster…