Well, the greatest joys in life come when you least expect them.

Erin, from our forum, wrote --

"Well, a couple of weeks ago Paige came to me before bed and asked to talk to me for a moment. The conversation went something a little like this. “Mom, I don't know if your gonna say yes to this but….” This is the sure sign she wants something. “I was watching TV the other night and a commercial came on to sponsor shelter dogs for $16.00 a month. You send them the $ and they send you a picture of the dog and updates each month."

"I explained to her that SHE could do that with her own money if she choose to do that. I was totally thinking that she would say nah. So she thought about it for a second and said, “I think I can spare $16.00 a month to sponsor a dog. I make $40.00 a month in allowance and that doesn't include the extra stuff that I earn money for.” So then I came up with the idea to see if Eric would be willing to let her sponsor one of the foster dogs because then at least we knew the $ wasn't going for TV ads.

When Eric gave us the OK to sponsor one of the foster pups. I had Paige read about each one and the situation that they were in and all the goodies that Eric puts on the site. She choose the pup and made a commitment to send $16.00 to that pup for 3 months. Now at the end of that 3 months we will see where she stands."

"She was so proud to go to the pet store and get her sponsor pup presents and to get her own $ out for the donation, it was cute. I have enclosed a few pics of Paige and of course Paige with Sassie.

She can not wait to get pictures of Sparkles. I am forever grateful to SPBR for allowing her to experience this."

Well, I couldn't think of a more deserving gil to receive Paige's blessings than momma Sparkles.

Sparkles came to SPBR with her babies in tow, from a kill shelter in Ohio.

Sparkles is now in a loving foster home with Julia in Buffalo, where she's affectionately known as "Barkles".

She is looking for the perfect forever home, and her adoption page is here.

And now, for the rest of the story.

Erin writes --

"My family has always had pit bulls as part of our family. It started with my grandfather who had one as a child, and past the love for the breed onto his children (my mother and her siblings)who have passed the love of the breed on to their families."

"We obviously had Sassie before Paige was born. It took sometime for Sassie to get used to the little critter around the house. As soon as Paige was able to walk they were best friends. Sassie would just want to be by Paige. We worked really hard to teach Paige & Sassie respect for one another. We included Paige in the care of Sassie early on in her young life. She would help with the feeding and watering of Sassie daily and when she got a little older she would help with bathing, making sure Sassie was exercised (i.e. playing outside in the yard).

Paige and Sassie were inseparable. Sassie would walk down to the bus stop with us to send Paige off to school and then she would wait patiently for Paige to return in the afternoon. Every year Sassie has a birthday party hosted by Paige. Of course it is just our family there but we have a cake for the humans and special treats for Sassie. And we all sing “ Happy Birthday” to her. Paige and Sassie even share a bedroom. I say this be cause Sassie has her own area in Paige's room that is designated for her belongings. Beds, bones, and blankies you know all the important things. Well as we all know kids and dogs age. Paige is growing up and noticing changes with Sassie.

Of course Sassie is aging and become a mild mannered senior. So probably for the last year I've been scanning petfinder and different rescue groups on the Internet and explaining to Paige how important it is to save a dog rather than support a breeder. Well the point hit home hard when we went to Petland to get Sassie a Christmas present from the kids. We went in and did not know that they are puppy peddlers. So we looked at every puppy in their little glass boxes and we had a “Sales person” bring each one out for about 10 min each. She even went as far as to give prices on some of them.

Well we went to leave without purchasing anything and the sales person says “Should I put a hold on any of these puppies for you? You know they will go fast becau se it's Christmas.” My answer as we were leaving was “I wont buy ANYTHING from a place that supports puppy mills and breeders.” Out the door we went. Of course that started the barrage of questions from Paige about my comment. So I explained to her about puppy mills and breeders. I even had her go online to do some research. (Hey I figured it was a great learning experience).

So Paige became aware of all of the dogs that are in need of forever homes in the world. Both of my kids come and look on SPBR and Petfinder with me as I'm looking at the pups and reading all of their stories. They have each asked if they could get different dogs. My son who is four doesn't exactly understand the meaning of getting a dog yet, but I've made Paige really aware in the last year because she started asking for a puppy for her birthday."

To me, this story is almost too much -- there's so much beauty and promise to it.

Erin is doing an absolutely stand-up job as a Mom to Paige, and to her Sassie.

Paige is living and learning by her Mom's example and by helping dear Sparkles, in turn.

And to me, in the end, the world is ending up with one better person at the end of the day -- a young lady, who will some day become an adult, and who will always remember her Sassie and her helping Sparkles as her start.

Some day we adults will be too old to do rescue -- hopefully not a day soon!! But you can bet, stepping forward from the shadows will be an adult Paige, helping our breed and showing people what loving family members they can be.

This is what life is all about, and we are proud of Paige, and are proud to be associated with such a caring and inspiring young lady.