People keep telling me my dogs don't matter because they're not pure bred so I need to show them off a bit!

I've been living in a community for the past year that firmly believes that purebred, breeder bought dogs are the only dogs that count and I get told repeatedly that my four rescue dogs don't count because they're "not real dogs". As someone who has dedicated all her free time in her adult life to working with rescue animals and who has four rescue dogs and four rescue cats, this obviously doesn't sit well with me. I was even told that they were going to give me rabies because they don't come from a good background (for context: my four are the only dogs out of all the dogs here who are neutered/spayed and the only ones with their vaccines are up to date). Anyway. 15 days until I leave this place forever! My four are my entire life and my whole heart and I need to show them off to the world.

1: Ladybug who was a stray at the hospital I work at. She was treated really badly her entire life and in February she broke into my house and never left. She sadly had advanced cancer by the time I met her and passed in October, in my arms where she was happiest. But we had a whole 9 months together and I tried my best to let her experience everything good in life. She was so squint and had no teeth and she was just a bundle of love who had to have something of hers touching me at all times 😂 When I would wake up in the morning, her nose would be touching mine ❤️❤️

2: Tigger has just turned 2! We were an emergency foster for him when he was about 6 weeks old. He was living on the street with two homeless people who were feeding him pure bones. They were asked by a local rescue group if they wanted to surrender him because he was skin and bones and they declined. A few days later, they came back and said they were going to surrender him because they found out they were pregnant. He was so teeny tiny and every bone was sticking out. He had emergency surgery that night due to a perforated stomach due to the super sharp bones he had been eating. We fostered him for one week before we decided we could never let him go. He is absolute chaos and absolute joy and absolute love ❤️ He is so healthy and his early malnutrition and surgery hasn't affected him at all.

3: Poppy is 8 now! She was confiscated off a person walking along a car parking lot trying to sell her as a teeny tiny 6 week old puppy who was dehydrated and covered in fleas. We were her emergency fosters and after 2 hours we let the rescue organization know that this dog is meant to be ours ❤️ She had congenital elbow dysplasia in her right front leg and had surgery at 6 months old and tore her cruciates in both back legs, 1 year apart, and had surgery for those as well. She's definitely our most expensive animal 😂 She is really happy and mostly pain free - just gets quite sore after long walks so we are super careful with her. She is OBSESSED with toys and has more plush toys than Toys R Us.

1. Mia: Mia is probably around 10 years old. This dog is my soul mate ❤️ I was volunteering at a local animal shelter and Mia was one of the dogs I was working with. She used to have a family who abused her really badly and then threw her out of a car. I worked with her for a few months and then we adopted ❤️ She still is really scared of men, new people, people shouting, etc but she has come so so so far in the 5 years we have had her. She is my soul mate. My heart dog. She's the epitome of love. She's such a people pleaser while also being hilariously stubborn and she's a real little love bug.

Anyway! Thanks for coming to my lecture series about my dogs. Just because they don't have a pure bred bone in their body does not make them less worthy of love and a happy, safe life ❤️