Worth the long read to find out more about BISHOP. Full profile will be in the comments. "I was the lucky dog sitter for Bishop while his foster family went out of town. Repeatedly I asked him, "Who is the very best good boy?" because I was surprised and delighted by his excellent behavior. Although he did not respond, it was clear to me that the correct answer is, "It's me, Bishop!" It was so wonderful to have him visit. He is SUCH an easy dog to have around. He seemed to miss his foster family briefly, but adapted to their absence very quickly. He's a smart guy, and was happy to comply with lots of requests from me. Sit, down, touch, and place are all things that he did happily, and well, for me. He is, as they say, highly food motivated, and would be quite easy to train to do many more tricks and behaviors. It is always a lot of fun when one of my canine visitors is willing to respond to my requests. I have temporarily fostered some pups who will only do as they are told by their foster, and not by me (or maybe anybody else), but that is not the case with Bishop. He was more than happy, without question or hesistation, to respond appropriately to my requests. This good boy is also house broken and crate trained, although he didn't really need to be crated. The first several nights he was with me I followed the helpful hint from his foster who provided a specific treat for when he was crated. I had scarcely gotten this treat out for him, and off to the crate he went. Not a single peep from him all night, either. By the time he had spent several nights with me, I just stopped crating him overnight. He was very content to sleep through the night in a cozy dog bed placed at the foot of my bed. When I had to run errands, I initially crated him during my absence. That ended, too. His worst "naughty" action when he was not crated, during a period of about three hours, was to take a chamois cloth off of a kitchen chair. That's it! He didn't chew it up or destroy it or really do much of anything with it. Literally the only thing he did was take it off the chair and leave it on the floor. The first line from Robert Lewis Stevenson's poem "My Shadow," was written with Bishop in mind. "I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me" was exactly what happened when he was my guest. Time for laundry? Up and down the stairs he came. Going to the bedroom to fold and put away? He was happy to join me. Sitting in the kitchen for a cup of coffee? Although he didn't care for any, he did want to keep me company there, too. Just vegging out in front of the TV? More than happy to lounge in a dog bed near by. As a person who is rather old school in many of my ideas about dogs, I do not care to have them join me in or on my furniture. That means no dogs on my couch and no dogs in my bed. Bishop does have these privileges in his foster home, but it only took a few re-directions for him to learn the rules in my house. Smart guy! He will easily adapt to whatever consistent requirements are established by his forever family. Sitting on the floor with him, in lieu of him sitting on the couch with me, resulted in his splaying out, with his head in my lap and his belly up, for some very necessary skritches! Bishop's foster family makes sure he gets daily walks. I did not do this. In fact, I did not take him for any walks. My fully fenced yard offered him plenty of chances to get the "ants out of his pants" and he did some zoomies a few times. He likes to grab a stick and play keep away. A couple of sessions of training daily, for only 10-15 minutes at a time, along with several outdoor opportunites, seemed adequate to work his body and his brain. While he was with me, he did not require extensive amounts of exercise. Does he have ANY faults? Just one. He will put his paws up on your chest to get a hug or attention, and he is a pretty good sized guy. He is an attention lover, and wants nothing more than to be adored by his people. Since he is a smart, food motivated, and compliant fellow, this mildly imperfect behavior could likely be extinguished quite easily with consistency, in a short period of time. Why this incredible, unbelievably easy dog has not yet been adopted is beyond my ability to comprehend. I am guessing that his coloring (black dogs just don't seem to be as adoptable) and breed discrimination (identified as a pit bull terrier on the website) both work against it. This is really too bad. Whoever is smart enough to apply, and lucky enough to be selected to adopt him, will have years of joy and contentment with this very, VERY good boy!!!" - Jamie (fb)

Come join us for a SUPER FUNDRAISER! The Details: Tuesday, July 15, 6:30pm Celebration Cinema Grand Rapids (East Beltline/Knapp’s Corner) We've rented an entire auditorium for our private 6:30pm showing - seats will be limited and are first come first served. How to secure your seat: Make a $25 donation to Hearts of Hope via Venmo. Donation includes your ticket to our showing of the film, a box of popcorn, and a 32oz pop! Tickets must be reserved in advance but will be picked up in the lobby of the theater the night of the event. Please follow these instructions for clearly indicating your donation is for the movie tickets. Venmo to “Hearts of Hope Dog Rescue Janelle McFarlane”. Tickets are a minimum donation of $25 each but you can request multiple in one donation. For example if you are paying for two tickets, Venmo $50. In the "What's this for" box - please enter "Superman - " for two tickets you would enter "Superman - 2" for 3 you would submit $75 and enter "Superman - 3". This will help us track the number of tickets sold! Venmo is our preferred method in order to maximize the impact of donations by avoiding losing a portion to fees. If you are unable to donate by vemno please reach out for an alternate method. As always- thank you for your support! #SupermanTheMovie #CelebrationCinemaFundraiser #SaveTheDate #moviewatchingforthedogs (fb)