A tale of homecoming - Pet forum for dogs cats and humans

Bluedrake · #1 May 28th, 2009, 09:32 AM

This is the story of a little dog named Junior.

Junior belonged to a Sheltie breeder, who was having a hard time making ends meet, so she had to work long days and sometimes nights to feed her precious dogs.

Some of the other males in the pack were very dominant and pushed Junior around, even injured him sometimes. Because of that, the breeder had to keep her dogs in cages all day long, letting them out in the mornings and the evenings only, and it broke her heart to do this to her dogs.

One day, the breeder decided to go to the United States for a short vacation, and so she asked some of her friends to watch the dogs for her. Nobody wanted to take Junior, because his behavior was so awful. He would gnaw at anything in sight, scratch, whine and always try to run away.

Finally, she called my mother and asked her if she would watch the dog for three weeks. My father grumbled about having a third dog in the house, but eventually an agreement was reached, and Junior came to stay at my parents' house.

The first night went without incident, Junior went into his cage without a fuss, and everything seemed to be working fine. On the second night, when it was time to put Junior in his cage for the night, he cried and cried until my mother had no choice but to let him out, and she hurriedly reassured my father that the dog would not not stay long, that he would be gone in three weeks.

My father replied 'maybe he'll never leave'.

And so, three weeks passed, Junior getting more accustomed to his temporary home, his behavior improving by the day, until he was hardly the same dog.

Then, the breeder came to pick him up. My mother put a collar and a leash on Junior and handed him to the owner, but Junior stayed as far away as he could, but not daring to pull on the leash.

'Try dropping the leash, and let's see what happens', my mother suggested. The breeder did so, and Junior ran to my mother, hid his face beneath her arm, as if begging 'keep me, let me stay here'.

It broke the breeder's heart to see her dog turn away from her, but eventually she said: '' if he is happy, then so am I".

And so Junior became part of our family, and he now lives happily with two playmates, a large courtyard to play in, and a daily walk at the beach.

I hope this story will brigthen your day, and I will post pictures as soon as possible!