It's pretty easy to tell that Monroeville resident Lynn Ramich loves Bichon Frises, those white fluffy canine cousins of the poodle.

Aside from the fact that she has four scuttling around her living room, other vestiges of her favorite breed abound.

On this frightfully chilly day she's sporting a "proud adopter of a rescued Bichon" sweatshirt. The room is peppered with Bichon knick-knacks, from photos and figures to a startlingly good painting a friend did.

The dogs are all on the small side but immediately make their presence known. They greet visitors with such enthusiasm, you'd think royalty had arrived.

It's part of what makes the breed so popular with dog lovers -- the little powder puffs are so loving, so eager to please, that they tend to typify the best qualities with which dogs have been endearing themselves to humans for thousands of years.

"They're so affectionate, so loving," Lynn says. "I have a friend who says they're good for people who need to feel needed, which is true. They want to please you and they tend to think of themselves as people. They kind of look down at other dogs."

Gus, 11, is the oldest and got Lynn hooked on Bichons. She had always been a dog lover but found Bichons are her favorite when she got Gus from a neighbor.

He may have been around the longest, but it's 4-year-old Peaches who rules the roost. She's just one of the dozens of dogs Lynn has rescued since the late '90s through Lily's Hope, her rescue agency, which gradually became a dropping-off point for unwanted Bichons.

Peaches was part of a litter that arrived with ringworm. She calls that clan her hardest case, as it required treatment and feedings starting at 5:30 a.m. and didn't end each day until 9 p.m. after daily rounds of scrubbing out the dogs' quarters, individual feedings and washings and Ramich changing her own clothes with each visit to the basement where the sick puppies were being kept so as not to contaminate the rest of her household.

This went on for weeks.

Ramich has her own full-time job in the registrar's office at Penn State-McKees-port. She says the Bichons are, in essence, another full-time job. But she has help from her husband, George, who takes all the dogs to the vet and has come to love them almost as much as his wife does.

He has more time to help now, since he just retired from Gateway School District.

And how did he feel when he heard his wife wanted to start Lily's Hope? "At first, I thought, 'We don't need this aggravation,' but they've really become like our little kids," he says.

Peppe, another Bichon who has been with the Ramiches since February and will likely stay, made George realize how much he loved the little dogs. During a bout George had with cancer this year, Peppe never left his side.

There have been other Bichons, too, that the Ramiches either couldn't find homes for or didn't want to.

Lynn says older dogs are especially hard to get people to take, but some of her most rewarding experiences have been with older, unwanted Bichons.

There was Lucky, who was probably about 14 when Lynn got him. He had several health problems but she could tell he "had a lot of life left in him."    Lynn and Lucky were inseparable during the year she had him. Another older dog, Razzle, was only with her 98 days, but it was a time she wouldn't trade for anything.

"I do have a special place in my heart for senior dogs," Lynn says. "A lot of people don't want to take them because they say, 'Oh, they'll be gone in a few years,' but they give you so much and it's so rewarding to think that you gave them a few happy years near the end of their lives."

Lily's Hope started when a cousin of hers wanted to get rid of a Bichon. Lynn was a logical person to call, since she had Gus, and it grew from there.

Lynn had done some volunteer work with the now-defunct Adopt A Pet in Westmoreland County and it didn't take long for word to get out that she was the regional go-to gal for unwanted Bichons.

The Bichon Frise Club of America, of which Lynn is a member, also refers dogs to her and helps her out with some of her expenses. Others come to her through petfinder.com.

She makes sure every dog that goes through Lily's Hope leaves either spayed or neutered and with its shots and tests up-to-date.

The name Lily's Hope comes from two of the most wrenching cases Lynn has encountered. They were breeder dogs discarded at a shelter because they had stopped producing.  Lynn says they were "two of the saddest-looking creatures I'd ever seen."   They smelled horribly and were infested with fleas. One dog, Hope, appeared to be at death's door and Lynn was doubtful she'd even make the ride home. The other, Lily, was in slightly better condition but had a cough and a heart condition that had made her lips, skin and tongue blue.

Getting them back on the road to health and in welcoming homes was one of Lynn's first success stories and laid the groundwork for what Lily's Hope would become.

Lynn keeps all the dogs at her house. She gets calls from all over Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. If possible, she tries to get the sources to bring the dogs to her, but that isn't always feasible.  Many weekends are spent picking dogs up or taking them to new homes. Because Lynn does "home visits" before agreeing to pass one of her dogs along, there's even more road time involved.

Most adopters make a donation to Lily's Hope, a non-profit, but that and help from the national club don't cover all her expenses.

Cases such as Lily, Hope and Lucky are common. Many people want to get rid of dogs with health problems they either can't afford to treat or don't want to invest in. Several of Lynn's Bichons have had to have surgery.

Princess arrived last month and had to have bladder stones removed that were as large as golf balls, which are mammoth for a small Bichon.

Lynn funnels all her medical work through a vet she trusts in Verona. She also works with a local behavior specialist to help determine if some troublesome dogs are capable of being trained.

There have been a couple rare instances where she determined that death was best. She remembers one unusually aggressive dog that thrived on sneak attacks, but it's rare for Bichons to have that kind of temperament, she says.

Lily's Hope generally sees about 22 dogs a year. Most are only with Lynn for three to six weeks, but it varies.  She admits it's sometimes hard to part with them but is happy to find them good homes.  "With me, they're one of many. I like to find them their own homes where they'll be kings and queens."

So where does she find motivation to continue? Lynn says she has an intrinsic love for the unwanted and unloved.  That just breaks my heart. I just have always sort of rooted for the underdog, the ones that nobody wants."

For more information about Lily's Hope, visit www.artmoms.com/ssss/index.html.

For information on volunteering at Animal Friends, call 412-566-2103; Animal Rescue League, call 412-661-6452; Western Pennsylvania Humane Society, call 412-231-4625.

To be a part of the Creature Comforts donation drive of Gateway Newspapers, benefiting the three organizations, call this newspaper at 412-856-7400.