From a letter to Dena and Carol, the folks who raised Rainie, the Roolets and of course Patrick:

Here we are, on day 6 of Patrick being one of our crew and it's as if he was always with us. With all the fosters that have come through our house, never has a dog adapted to our home as quickly as our Squishy did! Within an hour, he mastered the doggie door (as usual, Rainie showed him where it is) and was watching out the front window with Roo from the back of the couch (my cat-bassets).

So far, we know this much about him:

• he LOVES to follow Gus around. Gus is still a bit cautious about him but playing a little.
• he LOVES to waddle in tandem with Rainie (how do their tails know which way to wag in order to stay in synch??)
• he LOVES Zeus. At this moment, they are curled up together on the couch behind me, snoozing happily. This is one thing that I'd never expected to happen, Zeus is generally pretty aloof.
• you must greet him properly before he'll eat. Once greeted, he settles down to eat pretty well.
• he plays hard with Rainie and Buddy (the sweet foster guy who came back to us b/c he was miserable without a playmate, he's meeting a nice family today, wish him luck)
• Rainie is already so bonded to him, it's amazing.

Bringing Patrick home has made me really enjoy the dogs again. I am giddy about him, and miss them all terribly when i'm not home. I was finally able to change my name on the MSN messenger from Alice's Mom to Rainie and Squishy's Mom (though I will always be Al's mom). Somehow this squishy boy has brought our family together. I had NO idea it would work out this well.

Thank you for both of these silly bassets who have changed our lives. I am sure that my Ellie sent us Rainie, knowing that I'd need some comic relief after losing Alice. Patrick was sent for pure joy. They are both amazing. We're in love.