All the staff and volunteers are doing fist pumps in the air over this one. Girl, one of our long stayers has finally found a home and we’re just so happy for her.
Girl came to us over a year ago with her puppies. She’d come from a very confronting and frightening background and was completely shut down. She was an incredibly timid dog and new people terrified her.
We took our time with Girl. Slowly a couple of staff gained her trust, but she wasn’t ready to trust just anyone, not yet. She was still quiet and reserved but started to creep forward for food and pats if she knew you, if she didn’t, she’d hide.
Giving her the time and space to understand that the people here were nice, and only good things ever happened, she started on her journey of trust and one day, something awoke in her that made us all a little teary.
One day, out of the blue the quiet timid girl started wagging her tail and jumped in excitement when she saw us…..This might not mean much but it meant so much to us. Her playful side had awoken and there was no going back. From then on, her greeting to the shelter friends she knew and trusted was an excited happy one.
We’d made a breakthrough, but it still took a long time of introducing her to a lot of new people, staff and volunteers exposed her to many positive interactions until she learnt that she didn’t need to be fearful of other people anymore.
I will never forget the sight of the poor, pitiful dog that came through our door and what an amazing difference there is now. A very happy ending.
Girl was just one of our long termers. There are a few we have in care we hope to be doing fist pumps over soon. We’ll post a couple of them in the coming days. They do need experienced dog people to give them direction, but if you have a place in your heart for a bit of an underdog, giving a home to one of these dogs can be one of the most rewarding experiences, so please give us a call on (03) 9824 7928 or 0418 389 810
To identify our long term dogs on our website they have ***Long Stayer*** written next to their name. https://saveadog.org.au/animals-adoptions/dog/medium-large-dogs/