We found Wiley and her sister abandoned in a shopping cart at our local Stater Brothers market. We already had 3 other rescues at home, and I knew we couldn’t keep both. We took one of the sister to our vet who took her in and we took Wiley home with us. She was 4 weeks old and barely weighed 2 pounds!

When we brought her into the house,  we already had 3 other dogs, 2 of which are large. So we had a full house.

Macy is a minipin/greyhound/chow who weighs around 60 pounds, Reno is a flat coat retriever and he weighs 75 pounds, and then there is Abby who is a Shih Tzu mix and weighs around 10 pounds. Macy was a rescue from a shelter when she was 3 months old, Reno was 6 months old when he showed up on our front lawn, both are now 6 years old and Abby was brought to us by the neighbor kids who figured since we have dogs, she must belong here. She was a terrible mess. Her hair was 6 inches long, matted, greasy and she was in terrible shape. It turned out that she was 8 years old, had been used to breed, had her teeth filed down so as not to bite when breeding. She is now in perfect health and just turned 12.

I was afraid that they wouldn’t welcome such a small dog and might even hurt her. We brought her in and put her down on the floor. All 3 dogs came running up to her and sniffed and snuffled her until finally, she had had enough. She stood up and stomped her paw on the ground as if to say “I’m here and I’m staying”. From then on she was their baby!

We took Wiley to our local Humane Society (San Bernardino) and they took such good care of her. She was so small that a kitten collar was too big, so she had to wear a Ferret collar for the 1st 6 months. She was spayed, chipped, and gone over with a fine tooth comb by the Humane Society and since then she has been the “smile and laughter” in our home.

Each of our rescues play such a big role in our life. It’s just my husband and myself, so they are like our kids. “

Macy is the Mama of the house, Reno is the strong protector of all of us, Abby is the sweetness and Wiley is the funny. They have given us so much love and kindness. We return it by giving them the best “forever” home we can. They eat better than we do, sleep better than we do, and get all of our love and attention. We don’t go on vacations, or leave them to strangers. They are our family.

Wiley’s favorite things to do are: stealing any item she can and hiding it under the sofa in our home office. Items can be forks, shoes, socks, underwear, rocks, lizards, birds, Louis Vuitton handbags, lamps, mail, really anything she can drag under there. She loves to hunt lizards in our yard. All you have to do is say “Go to your yard” and she runs out and starts going from place to place where she last found a lizard. She loves to dig for grubs too. She has a zillion toys mostly just stuffed items, because she loves to eat the “squeaky” out of any toy she is given. She keeps her toys on a shelf in our living room and each night we go through her toys until she picks one. We know she doesn’t want the toy if she hits it twice with her nose. Sometimes this goes on for a while until she picks just the right one which is usually her pink pig.

She also loves playing ball and can jump at least 4 feet high to get it. We spend a lot of time playing ball. All our dogs love to be in the yard with me everyday when I water the grass. I have several videos of Wiley helping me water which mostly includes her biting the water, or trying to drag the hose back and forth. She also loves to go on walks. We try to take all 4 of them every night.

Wiley loves performing for friends when they come over.  They all know how to sit, lay down, speak, high five and shake hands. We have a ritual at feeding time too. Since everyone goes crazy at dinner, we now make Macy sit on the rug at the sink. I pour out their food and if she moves or gets up, we stop the process until she sits again. Then she has to touch my nose with her nose (our way of kissing) and shake hands with me. Once that is done, every one eats. Since she is the alpha female, we figure if she is calm during the process, all the others will be too. And it works. Wiley and Abby sleep with us, Macy has a crate filled with all her pillows and blankets and every night at 12:30 she goes in and waits to have the drape pulled down. She stays there until we get up. Reno sleeps on the floor at the foot of our bed and keeps watch over all of us. They even have their own spots on the sofa and if one of them is sitting in the other’s place they stare at me until I make them move!

Well we are very Thankful that Wiley and her family all found each other. Rescue Dogs Rock!

 More pictures  can be found on Marian’s Instagram page @ marianegreer.