ARFS German Shepherd Rescue, Inc

06/04/2026

MOOSE IS ON HIS WAY HOME❤️🐾

We are beyond relieved and incredibly happy to share that Moose was safely trapped early this morning and is officially on his way home to his family! We received another sighting late last week, thoroughly walked the area and set a trap where he’d been seen many times, and he’s now on his way home.

First and foremost, thank you. The amount of support, time, effort, and compassion shown throughout this situation has meant more to us than we can adequately put into words.

We especially want to thank Karen and Lori for everything they did to help bring Moose home safely, from distributing signs and flyers, to lending us the trap and setting it, to using their camera to remotely monitor it overnight. Your help was greatly appreciated.

We also want to thank everyone else who assisted in any way throughout this search:
💕Those who shared our posts far and wide
💕Helpful individuals who handed out flyers
💕The multiple people who called in sightings
💕Home owners & businesses who helped keep eyes on areas Moose was frequenting
💕Our contacts at Animal Control and the Sheriff’s Department for their assistance and guidance
💕Our staff, who spent countless hours working around the clock trying to safely locate Moose and bring him home

This has been an incredibly emotional and difficult experience for everyone involved. While we are choosing to focus on the positive outcome today, we also want to gently remind people that situations involving lost pets are heartbreaking and extremely difficult to navigate, whether it happens to an individual owner or to a business or organization caring for someone’s beloved pet.

No one ever wants this to happen. Our team was devastated by this accident, and every decision made throughout this process was done with Moose’s safety as the priority. We know emotions run high in situations like these because people care deeply about animals, as does our compassionate team at WCVC. We are incredibly grateful to those who approached this situation with kindness, understanding, and grace, and who focused their energy on helping bring Moose home safely.

Today, we are simply thankful. Thankful Moose is safe. Thankful for the community that came together to help. And thankful for everyone who supported the efforts to reunite him with his family.

Welcome home, Moose. ❤️

05/03/2026

Reunited ~ Dahlia the female Husky from in Milwaukee County. We are very happy to report that Dahlia is Back Home!
(Lost 5-1, Reunited 5-1) (mj)

05/03/2026

She never stood at a chalkboard.
She never held a pencil.
She taught 47 handlers everything they knew.
Every single one of them came home.
K-9 Dina was not a dog who demonstrated techniques.
She was a dog who had DECIDED — completely, permanently, without reservation —
that every young handler who stood beside her would leave knowing more than when they arrived.
Not because she was told to teach them.
Because she understood — somehow — that they needed her to.
She was a German Shepherd, born in the Czech Republic in 2004.
She entered the United States Military Working Dog program at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas —
the same base that has trained every military working dog in the U.S. armed forces
since 1958.
Most dogs trained there.
Dina eventually trained the trainers.
She began as a patrol and detection dog.
Three deployments. Two combat zones.
She cleared routes. She found caches. She came home.
She survived her first deployment to Iraq — fourteen months of heat and dust
and roads that hid things men couldn't see.
She survived the transition back to Lackland — the hardest part for working dogs,
handlers say — returning to routine after combat.
She survived a degenerative joint condition diagnosed in her fifth year
that should have ended her service entirely.
Because Dina survived everything.
The veterinary team cleared her for limited duty.
Limited duty, at Lackland, meant something specific.
It meant she stayed. It meant she taught.
For six years — from 2009 to 2015 —
Dina worked alongside the instructors of the Military Working Dog training program.
Young handlers — fresh from basic, some still teenagers —
would enter the training yard uncertain, stiff, not yet understanding
the language a working dog speaks.
Dina taught them.
Not with patience, exactly.
With precision.
She would not respond to a handler who gripped the lead wrong.
She would not move for a command given without conviction.
She would not clear a course for a voice that did not believe in itself.
She waited.
She always waited.
Until they got it right.
And when they got it right — when a handler finally found the tone, the stance, the trust —
Dina moved like water.
Instantly. Completely. Without reservation.
That was the lesson.
That was the only lesson she ever taught.
Give your dog a reason to believe in you.
Handler after handler cycled through Lackland.
47 in total, across six years.
Some went on to Kabul. Some to Baghdad. Some to Kandahar.
Some to streets in American cities where the threat came in different forms.
Every one of them wrote back.
Not all letters. Some calls. Some visits.
But contact — always contact — because Lackland handlers are trained to document,
and what they documented, again and again, was a German Shepherd
who had taught them the thing no classroom could.
One handler, a Staff Sergeant who served two tours in Afghanistan, wrote:
"She failed me four times in the first week.
I thought I was the problem.
I was the problem.
She waited until I figured that out.
Then she showed me everything.
I think about her every time I give a command.
I give it the way she taught me to.
Like I mean it.
Because I do."
On National Teacher Day — we do not only remember the ones who stood at the front of rooms.
We remember the ones who waited — quietly, without frustration, without giving up —
until the student in front of them was ready to learn.
Dina retired in 2015.
She lived with her final handler, Master Sergeant J. Torres, in San Antonio, Texas.
She passed in 2017 at thirteen years old.
She is buried at Lackland Air Force Base.
The same ground where she taught.
47 handlers.
47 who came home.
Not one of them forgot what she showed them.
Hall of Legends. K-9 Dina. Lackland Air Force Base, USAF.
Rest easy, teacher. You showed them how.
Because of you — they knew what to do when it mattered.

05/03/2026

Boursin Basil Rings
Everyone loves a one pan pasta dish and this one is over the top delicious. It's so easy to prepare and adding Boursin makes it that much more decadent. We love this basil and chive flavor and adding additional fresh herbs takes it to the next level.
2 cups pasta rings or ditalini
4 tablespoons butter
1-2 garlic cloves minced
2-3 cups chicken broth or water
Salt and pepper
3/4 c heavy cream
1 package Boursin Basil and chive flavor
Fresh sliced basil
Chopped chives
Melt the butter in a skillet and add the garlic. When the garlic sizzles add the pasta and 1 1/2 cups broth/water. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer and cover for about 5-6 minutes. Give it a stir and add more broth if needed. Stir in the cream and add the Boursin. Continue stirring until tender adding liquid as needed. Season with salt pepper and stir in the basil and chives.

05/03/2026

05/03/2026

BREAKING NEWS: The Wisconsin Puppy Mill Project (WPMP) is proud to be a part of the just-negotiated release of 1,500 beagles from the Ridglan Farms breeding facility. The release will begin tomorrow.

WPMP is currently coordinating with Wisconsin Federated Humane Societies, Dane County Humane Society, and our experienced WI rescue/shelter partners to organize logistics for removal, rehabilitation, and placement of 350 of these dogs. In the coming days, we will also let you know what you can do to help both the dogs and the WI shelters/rescues who will be transitioning them to their Forever Homes.

What about the additional dogs still at the Ridglan breeding facility? Trust that we haven’t forgotten them and are continuing to work on their release!

We are grateful to all the people and organizations who have striven for days and years, in some cases for decades, to get to this moment. We are especially grateful to partner with Beagle Freedom Project and all others who worked together to secure this outcome.

More details when we have ‘em!

(Photo for attention. We'll post some pics of the actual Ridglan Beagles when we have access to the dogs!)