Sunday, October 30, 2011

What about BOB? - Part 1

When Bob entered the shelter in July it was immediately obvious that he would not do well in the shelter. He was not eating, he huddled at the back of his kennel shaking and giving a big scared "whale eye" to anyone who looked at him.

While the shelter has nothing against scared dogs, we know that often they are SO scared they are forced to snap and even bite if pressured so many of us just left him alone, gave him some time to "decompress" after having gone through what - we would never know.




But after several days, he remained not eating, shaking and scared. It was torture to see a dog in such a level of stress. That was when a handful of brave volunteers started to gain his trust. First, they would just sit in his kennel with him, throwing tasty treats his way, singing softly to him and one volunteer simply brought a book and would sit in her kennel and read softly to him, not pushing him, not asking him to do anything he didn't want to do, just being with him and showing him he had nothing to fear from us humans. Slowly but surely he started coming around and one day, a volunteer got brave enough to carefully slip a leash over his head and coax him out of his kennel. It became painfully obvious he had not been eating as his ribs and back bone were sticking out. Once out of the kennel, he was actually very good on the leash but when assaulted with the barking of the dogs in the kennels around him would pancake flat on the ground and refuse to move.

Clearly this was a dog who was about as under socialized as the come. Undoubtedly, he lived the majority of his life in a backyard with not a whole lot of human interaction and what he did have did not seem to have been very enriching or positive. Had he ever lived indoors? Had he been taken on walks? Did he have any dog friends? Had he ever been around children? Cats? These are questions we would never know the answer to but still had to solve the main and most serious question of "What about Bob"?

Several different dog volunteers approached the Foster Coordinator to see if a suitable placement could be found for him and she went out to meet him for the first time. As she entered the inside of his kennel, his shaking became more noticeable and the look he gave her was not very friendly - not out of aggression, just out of pure unadulterated fear. She went around to the outside of his kennel, treats in hand. She tossed a few in his direction. While he sniffed them , he still wasn't comfortable eating them. Taking cues from other volunteers she began singing, just a few lullaby's, a few love songs she could remember or fake the words to. We'll never know if he liked it or thought it was horrible - Sarah is not known for her singing voice . . . . but he approached her and she slowly slipped the leash over his head and took him out to an exercise pen. This time he did well, didn't pancake onto the ground even once and made it all the way to a small exercise pen successfully. He quickly did his business and began eagerly sniffing around the pen. I few times coming close enough for her to pet him and cuddle the tiniest bit. A volunteer was walking through the courtyard and saw us together. "Hey, this is Bob!" she exclaimed and entered the pen with us. He immediately went to her and seemed to really enjoy the attention and petting he got from the volunteer. The Foster Coordinator, never without her Flip Camera, managed to get some good footage:




The journey - and we had no idea how far this journey would take Bob - was about to begin. Step one, find him a foster home . . . . *to be continued*

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