Rescue Dogs
Rescue Dogs
It was that time of the year again with Christmas quickly approaching. I was wondering what to get my wife for Christmas this year. We've been married a very long time (34 years) so we have exchanged many gifts and it was becoming more and more difficult to think of an appropriate gift, you know one that she will cherish.
I decided that a puppy would be a good gift because she loves dogs and so do I and who doesn‘t want a puppy anyway? After reading the AKC Book of Breeds and other resources on the different dog breeds I decided get her the Kings of Dogs a German Sheppard. So I located a few local AKC Breeders hoping to find the right puppy but all of the puppies were either too young or too old.
Christmas was drawing near and it was time to act. My wife and I both work so I thought that the puppy would need a playmate so I decided to go to the Animal Shelter and adopt a puppy while we were waiting for the other puppies to get a little older.
As always the Animal Shelter was full of dogs but no puppies. (I later found out that parvo had taken its toll on the puppy population). I thought I would look at the dogs anyway. You know it's so sad to see all of the cast-offs dogs (like people say "every puppy grows up to be a dog).” I decided I would take a look around anyway because these dogs really need a home. I looked around and one dog was walking and jumping on her hind legs. This was defiantly an extremely hyper dog with big very sad brown eyes that looked at me like no one would ever think about adopting her. I could understand her dilemma because I wouldn’t think about adopting a hyper dog. The sign on her cage said that she was a one year old Poodle/Doberman mix named Indigo and she had been a gift for a little girl and that the dog had become uncontrollable so they had to give her up.
Some people either don’t think or care about the responsibilities of owning a pet (I always hated the term owning a pet). Having a pet is a life time commitment and should never be taken lightly. I believe dogs (its funny how dog spelled backward is god) are very special and loving animals and that they should always be treated with love and affection.
I didn’t see a playmate for the puppy we were going to get so I left the animal shelter and headed home. All the way home I kept thinking about the dog that stood on her hind legs with her beautiful brown eyes that followed my every move. Certainly no one would ever adapt her and she would be put to sleep before lone. The image of her kept haunting me and after I had traveled a few blocks I pulled off the road and into a parking lot because I had decided to call my wife and talk to her about the this dog.
I told her about this uncontrollable hyper dog that I was certain no one would ever adopt and of course my wife asked me if I had adopted her and I said no. My wife feels the same way that I do about dogs and we agreed to adopt this uncontrollable dog knowing that she would be very hard to handle.
I returned to the animal shelter and told the receptionist that there was a dog that I wanted to adopt. She asked me which one and when I told her I could easily see the shock and amazement in her eyes. The receptionist told me to go get the dog and I did. The dog jumped and then proceeded to pee all over the place yes we was very hyper an excited. It was probable the first time she had been out of the cage in a long time.
As I was completing the adoption papers the Animal Shelter person said that they did have a puppy that was up for adoption after all and would I like to see her? This is true, although hard to believe, the puppy was a German Sheppard, so I adopted her too. The German Sheppard was being kept in the office and was pampered by all the women like she was a little princess and the animal shelter people didn’t want to have her adopted at first.
We already had two old dogs, one 10 and the other 11, and now we have two more. Three of the four dogs were shelter dogs.
I would soon find out that this dog had one speed - full throttle all the time. This dog never seemed to rest. She looked much younger that the Animal Shelter indicated. After a visit to the vet we discovered that she was four months old and not a Poodle/Doberman mix but a Scottish Deerhound.
Dogs that have been in the small cages at the animal shelter do not know how to run because they have been closed up in a small area but in a couple of weeks they both were running well, especially Wilde Wanda (Indigo) the deerhound. At first she would just run fast small circles around a tree and then she realized she could open up and run all around the yard. Skeeter, the sheppard follows Wanda around like well a puppy.
Dogs from shelters do not know affection or how to deal with it and have to learn. Although now they both know affection very well, and Wilde Wanda? She's still going FULL THROTTLE all the time!
I had taken one dog kennel with me and now I had two dogs! Well this was a dilemma; Indigo would have to be the dog that went into the kennel for obvious reasons and I would have to hold Greta in my lap. Lucky for me the drive was only about seven miles.
Indigo was raising wholly **** in the kennel barking, wining and crying all the way home. My two older dogs started barking right away when they saw the two new pups. Of course this terrified both of the young ones. Probably the reason why the pups were terrified was one of the older dogs was a Rottweiler and the other a Pit-bull.
After I put the older dog in the large kennel I let the two young ones loose in the yard. They were both afraid of all the space and acted like they were glued to my legs. I guessed that these dogs had not been outside in quite a long time.
Well, it was time for new names so Indigo became Wanda and Greta was renamed Skeety.
Wanda was reluctant to be held or petted but Skeety was just the opposite and couldn’t get enough attention.
After a few days I realized that Wanda had been abused. She was afraid when I would get close to her. So, I gave her space and didn’t force anything. As time pasted she became more trusting although there were many obstacles to overcome. Bathing was one of the first major obstacles!
You know the cliché “time heals all wounds.” As the days pasted she became more trusting and more loving. She is a very sensitive and loving dog that someone in her past had abused and she hadn’t forgotten it. She would just need some healing time and time to gain trust. What’s that saying “trust has to be earned not giving” that’s were she was in her mind.
First there were baby steps with Wanda coming to me for some (not many) pets. Then she would allow me to hug her but not for long before she would jump up and run away. The thing is I could tell by looking into her eyes that she was becoming more comfortable with me because her wild eyes turned into loving eyes.
Not everybody knows how to love and needs some help learning sometimes.
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Synopsis
Not everybody knows how to love and needs some help learning how sometimes.
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