Introductory Post... Hope animals are allowed.

Helllo… My name is Rui Pereira and this is my introduction post. I was born in Albergaria-A-Velha, Portugal

and immigrated to Connecticut in the United States in February of 1978 and were greeted by the Blizzard of 1978…. over 2 feet of snow.

It was something new, but not fun. I picked up the language really quickly for some reason and immersed myself in all things American. Hockey, baseball, basketball and football became my new favorite past times along with soccer of course. The years passed on and I graduated from Hartford Public High School (the oldest high school in the country).

I went on to attend Central Connecticut State University and graduated with a degree in Finance. This is where my life takes an unexpected turn. My brother-in-law had been managing a couple of Dunkin’ Donuts franchises and one store was being put up for sale. He had the idea to purchase the store, but needed a partner. Voila, me. I first said no to the idea, but after some continued pestering by my brother-in-law… I said what the hell, why not. Well, I didn’t know what I was in for. Financing, 5 weeks training, along with all the red tape you could imagine we purchased the store. This became my reality…

And that’s not an exxageration… when you first start off as a business owner, there are a lot of sacrifices to be made. My sacrifice was working third shift for the first year, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. I say this not to make it sound special, that is just what you did to make things work. Anyway, after a year of pounding away, I decided to hire a full-time baker and we grew from there. We built up to owning 3 stores and for 11 years that was my life. Then we sold the stores and I have done a number of different things since, but always had the itch to do something online. So for about 10 years now I have been involved with various different facets of online marketing. Some minor successes and some not so successes have been my experience so far as I traverse the internet landscape. Not an easy course, but one I have learned many lessons from.

I have met the love of my life… Miss Daisy as some people refer to her as. She is a visiting nurse and when the weather is treacherous, I drive her around. A friend has aptly nicknamed her “Driving Miss Daisy” as a result.

And here me and the real Miss Daisy… I did good. She’s a definite keeper.

In her daily work she comes across a lot of suffering and not all are of the human kind. She has rescued many animals. Birds, cats, dogs are just a few of the rescued by Miss Daisy. In October of 2015, she showed up with this little fellow… 2 weeks old… his mother had died.

And this is how we fed him…

And this his him a couple of months old…

And this is him now… August 5, 2016.
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As you can probably tell we are both animal lovers and can’t imagine not having pets in our life. There is another boy in the house… Dallas Dean is his name.

Regal and strong.

I just wanted to give you a little background and hope that this will become a place where we can share not only a little about ourselves and those we love and what we love… but also support one another. Especially in times of need, so that we can also celebrate together in times of not so much need.

Great day everyone.

Rui Pereira