Dearest RASP People,

On Sunday October 7, Dakota and Helen made their public debut at their first event with RASP at the West Suburban Humane Society Walk-a-thon. We all had a great time but it was after the event that we had an interesting encounter at the local PetSmart. We were wondering the aisles picking up those last minute puppy items while tugging Helen away from the bone aisle. We saw this little girl holding a little black spot in her arms. As we got closer we were pleasantly surprised that the black spot was actually a six week old Shar-pei.

We had a nice conversation with the couple and their daughter at this little mini-Shar-pei convention in the leash aisle. It turns out that their female Shar-pei is named Dakota which is the name of our male Shar-pei that we adopted from RASP in July. It was funny that the mother, I don't remember her name, said to Helen, "You look so familiar, where have I seen you?" Helen is our female Shar-pei (with a little Golden Retriever) that we just adopted from RASP on Sunday. As we continued to talk we discovered that the couple had actually talked to Deb Cooper about adopting Helen. It was really interesting to meet such nice people right in PetSmart that we were suddenly interconnected with among the 8 million people that live around us.

As we were driving home I couldn't help thinking about how we are all interconnected in this web we call life. Dakota and Helen add a whole new dimension to my interconnectivity to people. Everyone that we have met through RASP have been so nice and caring. We would like to acknowledge all of you who have saved one (or two) of these gentle, kind souls through RASP and provided the homes that they deserve. You set the stage for our world, creating the structures and environment that make it a better place. We are fortunate to have you all in our web of life. We have been entrusted with this planet and all of it's inhabitants. Every thing that you do to make it a better place, however small you may think it is, inspires me incredibly. Thank you for everything that you do.

Peace,

Austin and Vern