By Neal Wooten
You see a post online where a friend’s dog had puppies. Maybe they’re pure-bred mutts and free to a good home. Maybe they come with papers and cost a pretty penny. You bring them home, and this becomes their life. They hop right on their new beds, play with their new toys, and poop on their new floors. This is how it goes sometimes.
Often, people go to the shelter to get a dog. It amazes me how much these dogs understand, be it intelligence or instincts. They know their only chance to get out of there is to persuade one of the visitors to take a chance on them, so they put their best paw forward. When they show up with a leash, the dog knows they just won the lottery and are so eager to see their new home. This is how it goes sometimes too.
But a stray is a different story. He has already had an experience with humans, and it wasn’t a good one. He has already been betrayed by the one person he should have been able to trust. He lives by his wits, finding food wherever he can and utilizing whatever shelter he can find in abandoned buildings or in the woods. His instincts tell him that he if wants to live, he can never trust a human again.
He isn’t just picked out of a box or selected from all the dogs at the shelter. No, nothing that carefree and jubilant. He has to be caught or trapped, so even this experience is traumatic and adds to his already severe anxiety. Then, like the others, he is taken to a home. But for him, it’s different. He is being taken against his will. He doesn’t know that a bed and toys and snacks await him. He only fears it’s more of the same or worse.
Once there, he cannot let down his guard. That’s what life has taught him. Those toys aren’t his. That bed is not his. Are those snacks poisoned? And who is this strange human who shares his new living quarters? When will they come with the strap? When will they come and throw him in the car, take him to the middle of nowhere, and drop him off?
But the days pass, and none of that happens. He is given food at the same time every day. Those toys are fun. Those snacks are great. Six months later, he begins to trust a little. In the end, the human ends up with the same kind of companion as the others. It just took a little thing called patience, but worth it all the more.
