Nothing But A Love Bug

Halley is a very special girl. When the shelter called us they said she was uncontrollable but were hoping we might be willing to try to turn her around. Of course we would! We sent one of our volunteers who is trained to deal with the aggressive kids. The staff popped her in the crate in the car and he drove her home. He managed to get her into the house where she informed him in no uncertain terms that she hated men and all other dogs. She refused to come out of her room, she rushed him when he brought food and snarled and lunged when she heard his dogs. He called me. I drove up to the house and we opened the garage so we would have a quick and quiet exit if I could get her out safely. Sure enough after a few minutes I was able to get a leash on her and walk her outside for a breath of air. Turns out women are OK….thank goodness! She popped into the car and didn’t look back. By the time we were home she was leaning into me and sniffing my hair. She slept with me and cuddled all night just like a normal dog. You would never know it was the same dog.

Reading her paperwork she was only 2 years old and had to be sedated to go to the vet or groomer her whole life. She was good at home but was terrified of men and other dogs. We had seen her reaction to them ourselves. It was way over the top. We can only guess that she had been traumatized badly in her life. Sure enough we had to Ace her to see the vet. We put her on Prozac to help with her PTSD and will work with her to recover from what ever terror she still dreams about. But under that terrified girl was a love bug that I fell hard for. She is going to be the best dog ever when she is ready to go home. Until then we will take it slowly and show her the world is a good place full of good people (men and women).