A few weeks ago, there was a house fire in a town outside of Boston. A woman lived their with her grown son, with their two dogs, Panda the Akita and a German Shepherd named Prince. The firefighters who came to the blaze found the dogs in the back of the house, luckily unharmed by the flames. Unforutnately, both of their owners died in the fire.
Both dogs were traumatized and Prince refused to leave the body of his owner, eventually causing firefighters to drag him out of the home. The dogs were sent to the local animal control office and when a next of kin was found, the woman's granddaughter, she was unable to keep the dogs and give them the good home they deserved. Together Panda and Prince stayed, probably knowing they only had each other at that time. Our group was brought in to find foster homes for these dogs. It was tragic to split them up when they had bonded so well, but according to the granddaughter, they two had a strained relationship in the past and with good homes and strong owners, they would be great pets at different homes.
Originally Dave and I were going to get Prince, but we ended up with Panda instead and picked her up on Monday night. She was a nervous wreck on the drive home from the animal hospital, where she got spayed and up to date on all her shots. She whine most of the way and for most of the night. She really didn't want to go into her crate, and cried most of the night. She barely ate anything, and kept wanting to find a way out of the house, scratching at all the doors. We understand from Prince's foster that he has been the same way. When we did take Panda out, she was most interested in finding a way to escape the fenced in yard (which would have been that difficult since her breed is designed for mountains of snow and our fence is becoming shorter and shorter). We haven't let her outside without a leash yet.
Over the past few days she's started to calm down and get more comfortable with us. She gets very worked up when left alone. She's so difficult to crate that Dave just shut her in the office in order to pick me up from the train the other night. In 20 minutes she tore off some baseboard and trim and knocked everything off my desk. That was our fault--we should have just brought her with us. That night, it took 20 minutes to get her in her crate and she was so sad and wouldn't settle down or even sit. About 5 minutes before I woke up, I started hearing different noises from her. She'd managed to get out of her crate (pushed through the back of the collapsible wire frame) and was pawing at the door.
We all finally got a good night's sleep last night when we let her sleep (in her own bed) in our room. She stayed put all night (except one quick walk around the room just after we went to bed) and didn't whine at all. (She did fart once, though. And it wasn't just Dave blaming it on her).
I think we're beginning to see her true colors. She's starting to eat again and feels comfortable in the house. She is definitely latching onto us as people--she really doesn't want to be alone. But hopefully we'll be able to train her that we'll keep coming back and she'll be ok. For now, we just want to love her and help her get through all the stress and tragedy she's been through. And she's easy to love on, what with all that fluffy fur.
No comments:
Post a Comment