Tues 26th Dec: Making positive changes

 Today was as quiet as I had expected Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to be, so there wasn't much adoption activity, only potential adopters coming to meet some of the dogs.  Of course the staff and volunteers still need to take care of the cleaning, feeding and walking the same as every other day, which is why we're always open regardless of holidays or bad weather.  

Boomer 

On days like these I try to spend more time with the shy Lamma dogs whose rehabilitation is a work in progress, and that includes the young corgi Boomer, or Bubu as he was previously called.  He's already changed a lot from when he first arrived as an angry and totally untouchable dog, and he enjoys his life very much now.   We work at his pace without pushing him to go beyond what he's comfortable with, but I do feel that he'll be ready for a home at some point soon. 

Previously called Eden, Gimli is part of a family now

The same applies to the dogs at our Homing Centres, particularly at Kennedy Town, where the scared and frightened arrivals are transformed over weeks and months to become adoptable.   We have seen many such successes, like now-Gimli who was completely terrified and shut down when she first came to us, along with others in her group who were similarly untouchable.  Gimli's change has been quite remarkable, and now it's hard to remember her as she was before. 

Bertie is a very scared puppy 

Unfortunately one of the gorgeous new puppies, Bertie, is also very scared, while Button is the opposite and a normal, very happy and sweet little boy. 

Happy Button is too cute for words 

We're asked so many times about the background and history of our dogs and puppies, but unless they're surrendered directly from their previous owners we can never know why or how they came to be homeless, or anything about their early lives.  Sometimes we can guess that the fear is genetic, meaning the mother (and maybe father) were strays, and other times it's a result of bad early treatment, which is often seen in breeds like poodles, and is certainly the reason for Boomer-Bubu's anxiety. 

I need to stress that most of our dogs are perfectly happy and "normal" in behaviour, but for those whose life has been difficult up to the point when they come to us, we will do what we can to turn them around.