Four year old Callie was released to Miniature Schnauzer Rescue in October 2009 - and it took two volunteers to pick her up. Callie, a Giant Schnauzer, was "housed" with 3 cats, 4 dogs, and 2 Pigmy goats. She spent most of her time in her kennel, outdoors, and was an absolutely smelly mess. Callie was covered in hair, fleas, crusted mud . . . and more. On their way home with Callie, one of the volunteers said "That was truly a rescue . . . it was heartbreaking!"

Callie was groomed over a period of days by her foster Mama. She had a serious bath, a flea dip, and then the cutting/shaving of the dreadlocks began. And what emerged was a most beautiful Giant Schnauzer . . . a delight and very playful.

The most beautiful girl had no training, was hyper, overweight and certainly not at all accustomed to being an indoor girl. Her conditioning program began immediately with good food, a lot of walks, and chasing after balls. Callie also had to learn to live with her foster Mama's Giant and Standard Schnauzers. She got along well with one of the Giants, and they played run and chase in the back yard, and slept together on a sofa.

Callie's new Mama continues her story: "Though we already have two miniature schnauzers, Dudley and Beau (aka Skye, a former MSR that we adopted 3 years ago), we'd wanted a Giant Schnauzer as part of our family. The day we signed up to be a foster family with Miniature Schnauzer rescue, I asked if they ever got Standard or Giant Schnauzers in need of a home.

It turned out that there was a sweet, four year old female named Callie, who'd been in foster care for about two months. Excited, I texted my husband about her, and he said yes! Though it took a few days for Callie to adjust to Dudley and Beau, she responded well to kind/firm correction. Because a neighbor girl down the street is named Callie, we didn't want to get the two confused, so we changed Callie to Allie. It doesn't matter to her . . . she's just happy to no longer be shut in a crate all day. She goes for walks, rides in the car, is learning to play with Dudley and Beau, and sleeps on the bed. She loves all four of our children, and they adore her. And her favorite food is butter! Helping to cook in the kitchen is something she enjoys very much. We are very blessed to have Allie as the newest member of our family."

Terry and Kimberly Howell