One thing I have always loved about the Internet is the opportunity it gives us to meet wonderful people we’d never know about otherwise. You know, almost all of my best friends have started out as members of the online community of pet-lovers? I’m talking about some pretty far-flung folks, too, all across the United States and in Europe, too. (Some of my South American and Australian online friends will become “real” — like the Velveteen Rabbit — when I get to hug them in person. Someday … I go to Riiiiioooooooo.)

The pet-food recall brought some fantastic people into our site, and many of them have stayed, even though we’re not a “community” in the way of a forum-based site like Christie’s PetHobbyist.com or the old Pet Care Forum on AOL. Many of them seem well on the way to being friends!

One of those folks is Nadine, who writes about Keagan, the 130-pound Old English Sheepdog (and something else) her family has just adopted:

Keagan finally arrived Sunday afternoon, October 14, 2007. We drove six hours to Willows, CA, to meet the van that transported Keagan on his week’s journey from Oklahoma to Texas and finally to California. Cissy, the delightful young woman who drove Keagan from Texas, wiped tears away when it was time to leave him. As she handed the lead over to us, she said that Keagan is a unique and very special dog, and we were going to absolutely adore this love bug.

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