When Harry met Sally... er when Ray met Louise.

Okay, I promised the story of how we met next. I started rescuing Eskies around 2000. Ray had been rescuing since 1998 or 99. No wait, that's not right. Anyone who rescues knows the odds are good that you've been rescuing all your life.
And that's true of us too. We just didn't know we were "rescuing". Ray grew up on a small farm outside Cattaraugus, NY. They always had dogs including those that just showed up and stayed. Ray likes to tell how his mom always had a hot meal for anyone in need that came by human or canine. His dad was a local mechanic who could fix anything so he was very well known. Ray is just like him.
I grew up in the city of Chicago back when it was safe to play on the street corner after dark. I wasn't allowed "pets" except a fish or parakeet. But I could have all the neighborhood cats I could feed. So our yard became a sanctuary of it's own for stray kitties looking for a meal. And of course the strays got tamed and stayed to teach me lots of lessons about trust and giving.
Okay, okay, I'm wandering and you want romance. Bear with me a bit longer.
Fast forward to circa 2000.
I have my first Eskie (a rescue and another story for later) and so does Ray. I had just discovered "groups" online. And a few Eskie friends recommended some good groups to join. Ray was already on them.
Over the next five years, we came to know each other as caring Eskie owners through our posts to the group. Occasionally we'd send a private email to each other about some question or topic just as we did to many other cyber friends. Mainly we came to know each other as reliable, friendly, eskie people, and most of all friends.
Not until fall of 2005 did we actually meet in person. I had been watching an Eskie in need in Bowling Green, KY. So had Ray. He knew I was in the general area of Kentucky (Southern Indiana) so he asked if I could do anything for the Eskie girl. I was getting ready to head South for the winter. I was still a real "snowbird" then. Ray asked if I could help pull the Eskie and meet him with her. He would take her in and help her.
Of course I would help, that's what we do. During the course of setting up our meeting, we discovered that we had several mutual rescue connections that each didn't know about the other. That gave us a bit more to chat about.
We finally had the transport all set up and agreed to meet the day after Thanksgiving at a Cracker Barrel halfway between the two of us.
During the course of the emails sent working out the details, Ray asked if I'd like to have lunch with him. Normally, I'd balk at the idea of having lunch with a man, especially a semi-strange online man. (I was divorced over 8 years then, and very happily single and definitely NOT looking.) But, we were friends, and I felt I already knew him. It wasn't a "date", and I knew we had a lot in common. So I said, what the heck, sure, I'd love to have lunch with him at the transfer spot.
Well we met, walked the Eskies (he had old blind Charlie along for company), and let them get to know each other. With the Eskies safely crated in the van (it was a cool autumn day), we headed in to Cracker Barrel and that was all she wrote.
We had so much to talk about we never stopped. For over three hours we monopolized the waitress' table just gabbing and sharing thoughts and ideas. Mostly we talked about Eskies and rescue but a little bit about life and everything else.
Was it love a first sight, not exactly. Love and becoming best friends very quickly at lunch, maybe. But that was the start of a beautiful long distance relationship, or maybe just the advancement of something that was destined to happen all along.