Seven-month-old Matty was surrendered to SWESR in October 2022 by an older couple who could no longer provide Matty the home she needed due to their developing health difficulties. Bob and Lona had lost one of their English Setters just four weeks earlier. Lona was looking at SWESR’s Facebook page when she saw Matty’s picture and she was immediately hit with the gut feeling of “that’s my dog”. This awareness was difficult, as Bob and Lona had agreed that after 30 years of marriage and a total of 6 English Setters, they would now become a one dog family. But still, the feeling, the knowledge: “that’s my dog.”

SWESR Tammy spent the first 9 months of her life living in a setting created by one of the worst sorts of human anyone involved in dog rescue can imagine. Her owner was a puppy miller who sold dogs to wholesalers. When the wholesaler stopped buying his puppies, the owner simply hoarded them. Nine of his dogs were rescued in 2019 and became known as the Junction 9. Horrifically, this reprehensible man continued to hoard dogs, and in 2020 seventeen more Setters were rescued from him (the Junction Jazz), then six more in 2021. Tammy was a part of the Junction 9.

Leo and Betsy have always had dogs. Betsy works in a veterinary hospital in an animal shelter, so it is no surprise that their pack consists entirely of rescued dogs. They have fostered numerous pups, including labradors going through heartworm treatment, as well as American Bulldogs. Their introduction to English Setters came when they agreed to foster a spaniel “just for a week”. The week turned into three years, and that “spaniel” was their first English Setter, a Llewellin named Taliesin (Talley, for short). They fell in love with the breed, and when Talley crossed the Rainbow Bridge Leo and Betsy discovered SWESR when looking for the next member of their family.