Rescue me

I never thought for a second that adopting a rescued dog would save me as much as i’d save them. But it did…..
I turned on my laptop, gravitated towards facebook as usual, and a gorgeous spotty furry face with deep sad brown eyes popped up on my screen. Dog Rescue Newcastle were advertising “Krystal” a 2 year old red cattle x, a loving affectionate girl with a gentle nature! I melted, my heart longed to hug her, and I knew I had to meet this dog, so I noted down the foster carers contact details for the morning.

Boy am I glad I made that call! I walked up to the foster mums door, and was greeted by a quiet and curious Krystal, who stared at me quietly while I tried to build rapport through the screen door, but my phone went off with the text message tone and she barked and barked at me till her foster mum came to let me in. I remember thinking “oh gosh I hope I haven’t ruined it”. She was a fragile flower with a skinny frame but a much bigger breed than I thought. She didn’t leave her foster mums side the whole time I was there, so I got down on the carpet and just waited till she was comfortable enough to approach me and sniff me so she could tell I was one of the good ones. I guess I just imagined that she would see the kindness in me and fall instantly in love with me like I did with her, and I would take her home and we would happily play and frolic for the rest of forever. But it wasn’t like that at all, this was a dog that had been very mistreated and was not very trusting, it was going to take a while to take down the walls for her to let herself feel safe with me.

I remember the day I came to pick her up and take her to her furever home October 17th 2014, she was so shy and scared and unsure. I kept looking back at her in the car and her sad eyes were fearful of where she was going next, I knew she had already been to two different foster homes before i’d met her and who knows where else before that. She was huddled in the corner between the car seat and the door and just stared at me with caution. I would turn back to her and say very calmly and kindly “it’s ok Krystal, we’re going home, everything’s going to be ok”, but she would just stare.

You don’t realise the challenges you’re going to face when you adopt a rescue dog, I had to tell her about 10 times that it was ok to drink water out of her bowl, and that she could drink it anytime, and it was her bowl now before she would even take her first sip. A few times in the early days I walked past her while she was at her bowl and she would cower and run away with her tail between her legs and a fearful look in her eyes like she had done something wrong. I would say it’s on hunny, you’re allowed to drink the water it’s your bowl now, and would tap the bowl and smile, then pat her lovingly. When I fed her the first time I had to keep reminding her that it was her food and she was allowed to eat it, and hand fed her a few times until she felt comfortable enough to approach the bowl by herself.

It made me incredibly sad watching this beautiful girl too scared to eat, it really made me wonder what kind of life she had and what kind of parents took care of her before I did. Because whoever they were, they did a terrible job. And it was that day I vowed to make sure this dog never goes a single day without feeling totally loved! ……