 |
Adopting & fostering animals is better than buying, for years through Dog trust & the RSPCA I have fostered dogs while owners have temporarily been in hospital & I've loved everyone of them, it's hard when they go back home & I've cried buckets seeing them go even though I knew eventually they would return home when owners recovered.
Then 4 years ago the RSPCA asked me to take in a Jack Russell who had so many issues, he was 10 years old & all his life had been shut in a bare filthy room & fed on scraps, he was so scared of everyone & other animals because he had never been socialised which meant they couldn't put him in one of their kennels or rehome him with all his other issues too.
Because I was experienced with dogs & had for years trained German Shepherds they asked me to take him in for 6 months to work through all his issues & train him so he could be rehomed, at first I was hesitant because it's very difficult to train older dogs but I agreed after they said the only other option was to put him to sleep.
Digby arrived at my home the day after they had rescued him, it was heart breaking to see how scared & thin he was but he seemed grateful to have a cosy bed for the 1st time in his life & he spent most of the time hiding under the dog blanket on his bed until he learnt to trust me, feeding was an issue he was very nervous of eating & drinking so I spent weeks hand feeding him & squirting a little water in his mouth with a water bottle until he started eating & drinking on his own from the dog bowls.
After a few months I managed to work through most of issues with good success, he was very eager to learn so training him was good too, the only issue I couldn't resolve was his being nervous with other people & other animals which meant for him to be rehomed it would have to be somewhere quiet, without children & with someone who had lots of patience in waiting for him to trust them, so I decided to give him a forever home myself which also meant I wouldn't be able to temporarily foster other dogs.
Digby is 14 now & it's so good to see how healthy, happy & content he is compared to when he 1st arrived, he has a quirky & very cheeky character that nobody could fail to love, I'm dreading the day his life eventually ends but he has lots of energy & is healthy so hopefully he has a good few more years left yet & it's good to know that I have given him a comfortable happy life in his later years
Rating:  [5 of 5 Flaming Jalapenos!] |
|
|
