# Sweet shelter dog may have used up all her chances...



## ray (Nov 4, 2015)

I volunteer with my local animal shelter with their dog adoptions and their vet team and have been doing so for a while now. I really enjoy this work, it means a lot to me. I am a huge animal lover so I really enjoy getting to know the dogs that come in and helping them find homes. People always ask me "How do you not just take them all home?" but for the most part it's not really a struggle. My shelter, though city/county run, almost never euthanizes animals for reasons other than health or aggression. So I know that these dogs will find a good home one day. That being said there is one dog that I genuinely want to adopt. Her name is Tina and she's a Jack Russel/Chihuahua mix which means she's small and normally small dogs get adopted quickly but not her. People usually just want a small dog that they like ok and assume the dog will be easy. Well Tina has a lot of anxiety and fear so she's not easy. She doesn't like certain (most) people and she's bad with kids. She also has accidents when she's nervous or excited so she's not remotely house trained. Other than that she's heartworm negative and only a year old so she would normally be a very adoptable dog. However, she keeps being brought back. She was brought back once for not liking kids and then was pulled by our humane society which actually RETURNED her because they couldn't find a foster home for her. I think that's actually unprecedented... Then while we had her she was adopted again and didn't even make it a week. She was brought back for biting. She bit him while he was moving a couch and we know she hates loud noises so chances are she was just scared but still, it was an unprovoked bite and now she's in bite quarantine and her fate is completely uncertain. It may be decided it's not worth the risk of putting her back up for adoption since she's a liability having bitten someone. Especially after all the chances she's had to find a home. If it's decided it's not worth the risk/cost of making her adoptable again she'll be euthanized... This little dog decided the first time she met me that I was one of her humans. Within five minutes of knowing her she was climbing into my lap. Whenever I get near her kennel she starts jumping and wagging her tail when usually in a kennel she's hiding in a corner all curled up because she's scared of all the other dogs around her barking. I wish I could adopt her and give her another chance, see if maybe I could be the one to make it work, but I live at home while going to college and I doubt my parents would agree even if I offered boarding fees for her and kept her in a quiet room where they didn't have to ever interact with her while I worked on potty training and socialization. It's their decision though so I'm just going to hope she's made adoptable and try to find the right person, even though I really wish that person was me.


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## Andromeda (Apr 28, 2016)

Ugh, that's rough. :/ I kind of know how you feel. When I was in high school I walked dogs on the weekend for the SPCA, and there were so many dogs that I LOVED, but obviously couldn't adopt. :/ I hope she finds someone who's willing to give her the time she needs!


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

I'm sorry, that's so hard. Would your parents be more willing if you just fostered her? Maybe say it's just for a month or two. Tell them her rough story and take them to meet her. Maybe she'll be sweet with them too if you're there and they'd be more willing to consider it if they know it's just temporary and they might feel bad for her and want to help a little. Just say you want to foster her for a while so she can decompress from shelter life and she'll be relaxed enough to try again at a new home. So many dogs and animals act completely different when in shelter or uncertain environments, and it sounds like the poor thing has been bounced around to lots of different homes and places so her behavior is pretty understandable, but I'm sure you know all this. If she has time to just breathe and sette into a home atmosphere, she may shape up.

(and if she becomes a "foster failure" that works too!)


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## ray (Nov 4, 2015)

I go in tomorrow for my regular dog adoption shift so I'm going to try and find out if they have an idea of what they're going to do to her. And I'll see if there are any hypothetical scenarios I could help out with like fostering her. Then I can talk to my parents. I'd asked to adopt her before because of her issues and they said no, it would be too much trouble. I mentioned her being brought back for biting and possibly being ET'd instead of put back up for adoption and what my dad said was essentially "That sucks, but you can't save everyone, and one day you'll be able to help lots of doggies" (I plan to be a veterinarian and am considering doing shelter medicine). Her quarantine is up next Friday so they can't do anything to her until then. I'll try my hardest but for the most part the situation is out of my hands...


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