Homeless not damaged
It’s been a week now since Ellie our new neighbour arrived to take up residence with Sue and Chalkie and what a fabulous first week they have had together. Ellie has settled perfectly and is such a delight of a girl it has been a pleasure to see her thrive so quickly. She follows Sue around and is attentive to what is expected and is learning fast.
Being part of this experience has really made me think deeply about what rehoming dogs means for them. I know we have done this twice now with Susie-Belle and Twinkle Berry and understand first-hand the challenges and joys that it can bring. What Ellie’s experience has helped me do though is broaden my thinking as with our two, they have been dogs with very special and particular needs brought about by their puppy farm backgrounds. The kind of damage inflicted on dogs from those environments is terrible and occurs over such a number of years that for them to live in homes when they are rescued is extremely challenging for them. So I have a personal perspective on rehoming closely shaped by our own particular experience which is not necessarily typical of the majority of what happens in pet adoption. Although I knew this already of course, to be a first hand witness to the joy and ease of Ellie’s adoption has really made me think even more positively about why people should adopt pets if they can. So often people will say they’d like to but shelter animals have issues, they couldn’t take the risk, they have kids and it wouldn’t be fair to bring in a troubled dog, all kinds of reasons that people believe stops them even considering adoption. But many, many dogs wanting homes are just like Ellie, perfectly healthy, happy dogs who given a chance will be perfect companions with no more issues that any other dog. As always the issues come about and go on because of the humans. Sort the humans, the dogs are fine most of the time.
Today I’ve also come across on Twitter on @NoKillNation a short and simple tweet – of course, they are all short and simple by the very nature of Twitter – that has touched me by its simplicity but absolute clarity.
