A Dog's Tail - Life Behind Bars

Me Behind Bars at the Animal Shelter

Yes, that's me, alone and lonely in the animal shelter. Pathetic isn't it? When they talk about a dog's life, I don't think this is what they meant!

When I started my life's journey, I had 5 brothers and sisters. I guess my doggie mother never got spayed so when she had puppies, her parents couldn't keep all of us so they took us to the county shelter, hoping a nice family would take us.

Me and my siblings were two months old when we went to the county shelter in Southern Oregon. That was already one strike against us. Most people want tiny puppies and the older we got, the less anyone wanted us. Every day we sat on the cold concrete floor, watching people come through, looking us over but choosing other dogs.

The noise was terrible in there. Every time a human walked by, all the dogs barked very loudly for attention. I also had to fight 5 greedy brothers and sisters for the food we got-which wasn't great as it was, but hey, it was better than starving.

Me with some of my Siblings - We don't look much alike do we?

One by one, though my siblings all got adopted.

What was wrong with me, anyway! Couldn't they see my potential as a brave watchdog and faithful companion? Of course, there was that little wall eyed thing I had going on, but surely someone could see the beautiful dog behind that one eye that looked off to the side.

As luck would have it, my future mother was watching my siblings and I, sitting in that cold, lonely kennel. She came to the shelter each week to volunteer, walking the dogs and taking photos to put them on a website, helping lots of us to get adopted.

I didn't know it then, but my time was getting short. Every Friday, a guy came to sent some of us off to the "big sleep." Whenever there were too many puppies, or if dogs had been there too long with potential pet parents passing them by, their name made the black list and off they went. It was pitiful. Their tails wagged all the way to the death house since they didn't know what was in store.

Me in my new home - Dig the fancy collar!

Before I had to take that walk, my future mom got me out of the kennel one day and took me into the office. She held me on her lap and petted me while she talked to some of the workers at the Shelter. Was she going to take me home with her? I could tell she wanted a snuggler so I snuggled for all I was worth.

I heard her say that her husband didn't want any more dogs! There were already two at home. But maybe she could take me home just for a weekend so that I could get some time with a real family (and maybe her husband and the other two dogs would fall in love with me in the process!)

Well, I lucked out and that was the first day of my new life. That day had started out just like any other, cooped up in a cold kennel alone in the county animal shelter and longing for a family. But it ended up with me ADOPTED and RESCUED by the nicest family in the world.

By the way, I totally outgrew the eye thing - Had to throw that in.