This is where I stir up a hornet's nest I didn't even know I had to think about. No kill shelters for animals - good thing, right? Shouldn't even be an issue, right? I thought that for years. Now? I'm not so sure.
I adopted Molly 4 months ago. For the 4 months prior to that, she was at a shelter. Prior to that, she had been abandoned, with her sister, when the people who owned them moved. Her collar had to be surgically removed at that time.
I keep waiting for Molly to become mine. Molly is not mine. She does not greet me when I get home. She does not hang out in the same room that I am in, ever. She does not consistently come when called and, if she does, lingers just out of reach. She does not come to me when I cry.
She does not do these things for anyone else, either.
She bolts for the bedroom if a door slams anywhere in the neighborhood. She will not go through a doorway if the shadows have changed from the first time she went through it. She lives in constant fear. She is with me at night only because, in her mind, my bedroom is her room. It is where she hides.
I have never seen a less happy dog.
I am not suggesting killing her. I am merely putting forth the theory that if the no-kill shelter does nothing other than keep the animals alive, it might be doing them a disservice.
As for me and Molly - we will keep on keepin' on.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Boy, do I understand your thinking on this. Animal shelters are loud and clangy, full of stainless steel and little comfort. The months I went to one looking for Yoda made me feel sad beyond the sadness I felt at the loss of my furry friend. I cannot take anyone else home now - I've reached my limit of animals I can take care of financially. And the ones you bring home are not always okay.
The day I turned Aya in to the shelter was such a difficult day - even though she'd attacked me the evening before and shredded my hand when I tried to get her to come out of my son's room. She was a stray that we brought home, but obviously had suffered some sort of trauma. I always think that love and time can heal all wounds, but sometimes that's either not true, or the time available for it to happen is not enough. In her case, I feared for my son after she came at me and I would not risk her turning on him.
On the other hand, Lois came from the loving home of an elderly person who'd been moved to a nursing home. Four months in a shelter were enough to make her very skittish and fearful. As luck would have it, once we got her away from that environment and into our quiet home, she came around and after a month of wariness, she became the loving dog she is today.
I wish there was some way to foresee how a dog will turn out after being adopted. And a way to look back and see their life experience before you take them home. It's a game of chance. I am hoping that given enough time (and it may take A LOT of time) that Molly will come around. She has obviously had a lot of trauma previously or she would not be acting the way she does now.
Post a Comment