By Kate Elizabeth Queram   kqueram@dnronline.com

From left: The Quay family, Meaghan, 13; Erin, 9; Kathryn, 9; Maureen, 15; William, 7, and Allyson, 10, sit with Cooper, formerly known as Blaze. Courtesy Photo

On Dec. 11, Rocktown Weekly published an article about the PetSmart Rescue Waggin’, a transport vehicle that relocates dogs to shelters with higher adoption rates in order to save them from being euthanized. In December, 14 dogs were transferred from the Rockingham-Harrisonburg SPCA to Animal Welfare Association in New Jersey; all 14 have since been adopted.

Here are the adoption stories of four — terrier-mix brothers Mason and Devlin, beagle mix Blaze and hound-mix puppy Jubilee.

Ella

Jennifer Meyer fell in love with Ella (formerly Jubilee) before she even really met her.

Meyer, a Realtor in Morristown, N.J., and a mom of four, visited the Animal Welfare Association with her youngest child and saw the puppy behind a sign saying she wasn’t yet ready to be adopted.

“So I asked when she was going to be ready, and the lady looked at her watch and said, ‘About 15 minutes,’ ” Meyer recalled.

Ella, it turned out, had just been spayed; in 15 minutes, the required 24-hour waiting period would be over. “And I said, ‘You are kidding me.’ I knew right then,” Meyer said. “I was already completely in love with the dog, I hadn’t even met her yet, but we just connected.”

Meyer said she’d been trying to adopt a rescue dog for almost a year, but it was difficult due to the high adoption rates of the shelters in her area. According to Cassandra Shanahan, outreach coordinator with the Animal Welfare Association, the shelter’s high adoption rate is the result of several factors, including its proximity to several metropolitan areas and its stringent standards for incoming dogs.

“They have strict exams before they even come in,” she said. “We put a lot of work into them.”

Not that Meyer minded the wait. Ella, she said, was more than worth it.

“She has been the greatest addition to our family. She is the sweetest little dog ever,” she said, adding that Ella’s favorite activity is slinging dirt in the backyard. “All she does is dig and dig and dig, it’s hysterical. All my neighbors have dogs, so they have little dog parties back there. She owns the house, it’s hysterical.”

Cooper

Janice Quay and her family had been looking for a beagle mix for months when they found Cooper — by accident.

“We had actually gone to the wrong rescue,” said Quay, a registered nurse from Cherry Hill, N.J. “We thought we were going to a different one, and we found him. He was sitting in a crate, he was looking so cute, and I held him and then brought the whole family back the next day and that was it.”

Cooper, aka Blaze, who turned 6 months old on Tuesday, is the family’s only dog, and Quay said he’s been a great addition. He’s particularly bonded with her six children, ranging in age from 7 to 15.

“He’s awesome. He’s so awesome,” she said. “He’s got a lot of energy like a puppy does, but you walk him and then he takes a nap for four or five hours just like a baby. And he loves, loves, loves the kids. He knows when they’re getting ready for school, and we take him outside on his leash and he cries when they’re getting on the bus …  and then waits for them to come home.”

Mason

Meghan Ellison had been searching shelters for a dog for months before she met Mason, a small terrier mix with black wiry hair.

“I’d been looking for dogs on and off for the past few months. I was going to take a break for the winter and start over in the spring,” said Ellison, 26, a claims specialist with an insurance company who resides in Laurel Springs, N.J. “A girl I worked with used to volunteer at the shelter … we went to drop off some donations. I saw him there and fell in love with him because he was so adorable.”

Ellison had previously shared a dog with an ex-boyfriend, but Mason is the first that’s all hers, she said. In the six weeks he’s been home, Ellison said she’s learned a lot about him.

“He has a lot of energy. He’s very curious about different things,” she said. “He likes cheese, that’s his favorite kind of treat …  He likes to play fetch and do tug of war.”

Though the duo have been together for just a month and a half, Ellison said their bond was instant.

“The first days that I had him, I took him to the vet and he was very clingy towards me. The vet kind of commented that he already seemed attached to me,” she said. “It sounds kind of cheesy, but I kind of felt that bond immediately.”

Rudolph

Before Brian and Donna Raday had formally adopted Devlin as a Christmas present for their son and two daughters, the children had changed his name.

“[The kids] said that his name should be Rudolph and before we left the shelter everyone was calling him Rudy,” she said via e-mail.  “Rudolph Devlin is his current name on his license.”

Though the Radays had previously adopted Andy, a lab mix, from the New Jersey shelter, 12-year-old Liana and 10-year-old Jessica had wanted to add a smaller pup to the family.

“Both girls wanted a dog to cuddle on their laps,” Donna Raday said. “And this year, Andy seemed to be more mature.”

Unbeknownst to their children, the Radays scheduled a time for Andy and then-Devlin to meet. When the two dogs got along, they made arrangements to finalize the adoption and allow the children to meet him.

“We did not tell the children where we were headed, though my son had a good idea what we were doing. Liana and Jessica were so excited when we pulled into the shelter,” she said. “When [Rudy] came out, the girls hugged and played with him and were ready to take him home.”

Rudy came home with the Radays on Dec. 17, and has been an integral member of their family ever since.

“The girls love cuddling with him,” Donna Raday said. “Rudy is the type of dog who will chew your homework and steal the turkey off of the table.  He is also very affectionate and loves to be held and sit on your lap while barking at dogs on the TV.”

Though it was her daughters who especially wanted a smaller dog, Rudy definitely belongs to everyone.

“Rudy,” she said, “is the family’s dog.”