I grew up with three dogs - none of them were rescued from a shelter. My family, like a lot of other families out there, thought that rescuing an animal meant that you were going to get a mean, misbehaving animal that nobody else wanted.

This entire thought processed changed in January 2015 when I started an internship with my local animal shelter. I was really excited because the internship literally required me to hang out with animals and take their photographs for the website and social media outlets (animals and photography are my two favorite things). It took me no time at all to realize how incredible these animals were and I fell in love with each and every one of them almost immediately after meeting them.

Two months later, I walked into the shelter to find a Cockapoo named Bradley (my last name) and he looked a lot like my family's first family dog, Cuddles, who had passed away about two years before then. We still had two dogs at home and I never in a million years thought that we would be able to bring him home, but when I sent my mom a photo of Bradley she immediately replied, "put him on hold. I'm on my way." He was very stand offish and scared when we met with him, but we still just felt that it was meant to be so we ended up adopting him and bringing him home.

The next year was a real challenge - we found out that he was abused by his previous owner and certain things scared/upset him and made him seem like a vicious dog. We didn't want to give up on him, though, and we didn't want to believe what we always thought about shelter animals - that they were all mean dogs. He was already 3 years old and had a really rough past, so we just had to work with him and get to know him each and every day. There were nights when he would come and lay with me and seriously almost hug me, and I felt like that was his way of thanking us.

It's been over a year and a half now that Bradley has been in our family, and he is the sweetest, most lovable pet we've ever had. He trusts us 100% and he is no longer afraid of anything, which makes us so happy. We seriously couldn't have asked for a better dog to join our family and it's the most rewarding feeling in the world to know that we saved his life.

We actually loved rescuing a pet so much, that we ended up rescuing a cat about two weeks ago and now we are convinced that only the BEST animals come from the shelter.

This is our newest fur baby, Princess, and she is the most lovable cat I've ever met in my life. She is 5-years-old and was dropped off at the shelter because she was infested with fleas and her owners just simply didn't feel like taking care of her anymore. The vet treated her before she was put up for adoption, but because of her age and the scabs on her skin she was not getting adopted. If we didn't rescue her then she would have been euthanized. She is doing so well in her new home and all she ever wants to do is snuggle with us and be loved. (She doesn't like it when I pay attention to my homework instead of her, either - as you can see from the picture below)

Bradley and Princess both are such blessings and not only did we save their lives, they've saved ours as well. My family has been through some rough times over the past year, and both of these pets have given us unconditional love and snuggles when we've needed it the most.

Seriously, the BEST animals come from the shelter. I hope that after reading our story, you will consider adopting and not shopping :)