moar shelter stories
Have had a very eventful couple of weeks. Which is... rare.
More friends becoming parents, which just doesn't stop feeling so weird.
And... blah blah blach, other real life stuff. As always, as I'm about to talk about my life I just shut down, hee, can't do it.
What I can save here for posterity, is my latest triumph as a Dog Whisperer XDDDDDDDDD no, no, a handler. Beast Master. Dragon Tamer! Mwahehehe, I make it sound so badass, so forget for a moment that my closest friends walk on four legs and are covered in fur, friends don't tell friends how pathetic they are.
SO! Remember that time I was all desperate because I had encountered a case I didn't know how to treat? I was honestly getting hopeless, there, more because co-workers and volunteers were afraid of him and bad word was going around him already.
Well. See this smile :D yesh, that's right, we're friends now. Well. Not really friends yet, but we're getting there.
Once I figured out it was the touching as an approach what he was reaction violently to, I made him accustomed to me being near him. Just sitting near him, several times a day, several days in his room. No touching. Sometimes I wouldn't even look at him, until he became more or less familiar to me being around him with no interest in him, just company, and that it didn't mean I was gonna try to hurt him. Once he understood that, I tried to sit nearer and nearer him, the closest he'd let me without trying to attack me, and once he was used to me just plopping by his side with no fear of his warning growls I manged to loop a knoted cord around his neck, without touching him, and that was the next step, for him to get used to being led by his collar with no other purpose than to get him out of hiding and just sit there, next to me.
See, for these dogs to feel something around their necks it's as if someone was atacking them, so what he had to see was that it didn't hurt him, I didn't even try to make him submit, it was just something around his neck. Again, several days. Pulling him a bit closer to me every time, and in the end he wouldn't even bare his fangs at me. And it has all been going pretty smooth from there. I made him come to me by his leash, trying to make a bit of non-direct physical contact with him, like my stretched leg grazing one of his legs, and at first he would get scared and try to get lose, like a spooked horse, but once he saw I wasn't hurting him but wouldn't let him go either he just sat, and one glorious day he lowered his head and let me come touch him, adjust a better collar around his neck, put a leash on him, cut some dirty knots in his fur... I felt like jumping up and down doing the chicken dance and squeal like a little girl with a ton of free ice cream, man, I swear!
Now he's adjusting in his cage with his new room-mates, he goes out to the courtyard and goes inside to his cage on his own. He lets me feed him his medication... heeeeeeeee. I'm just giddy. I swear I thought I wasn't gonna be able of cracking him. And it's taken time but we managed just fine, in the end.
Now people are still a bit afraid of him, not everyone trusts that they can go near him without getting bitten, which I'v observed, he doesn't do anymore. Sometimes he will bark at you if you get near his cage since he seems to think you're gonna take one of his cage mates away from him, he came from the state pound so I guess he's used to seeing cage mates taken away by force to never come back so he defends his mates and his territory, but he's stopped biting. And while he still never takes his eyes away from you I think he's on his way to, if not a full recovery, at least enough that he can have a good quality of life and doesn't feel threatened and scared all the time.
Do you wanna meet the boy?
From his first days, when he wouldn't let anyone near him
From one of those times I'd sat by him until he relaxed and accepted me there
I wanted to name him Rónin or León. But one of my bosses over-ruled me and named him Betún. It's... that black grease used on black shoes and American football player's cheekbones? What's the word for it in English?
... wow, lookit that ramble.
I just... I'm just proud. About... well, yes, about me, why not say it. I never do. But man, there are times when you do feel proud about yourself, about the work you do that no one else can do, specially with difficult cases that no one else gives a chance, or think have a chance. So yeah, today I'm being self-headed, I rocked with this pooch XP
On a related note:
I don't even spread the word for him, y'know. We can't change the world but we can help some lives be better, have happy endings.
... ALSO OK, HE LOOKS FUCKING BEAUTIFUL HERE, WTF, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, HE GETS MORE AND MORE *PERFECT* BY THE DAY HOW CAN THAT BE I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW SOMETHING THIS GORGEOUS IS EVEN REAL *CRIES*
omg I think I'm gonna go under a cold shower. And no, not even because of Padaface, we're melting, were supposed to hit 90 Fº / 35 Cº tonight, it's not even funny, I keep spraying my dogs with cold water, they think I'm Satan incarnate *melts into the floorboards*
More friends becoming parents, which just doesn't stop feeling so weird.
And... blah blah blach, other real life stuff. As always, as I'm about to talk about my life I just shut down, hee, can't do it.
What I can save here for posterity, is my latest triumph as a Dog Whisperer XDDDDDDDDD no, no, a handler. Beast Master. Dragon Tamer! Mwahehehe, I make it sound so badass, so forget for a moment that my closest friends walk on four legs and are covered in fur, friends don't tell friends how pathetic they are.
SO! Remember that time I was all desperate because I had encountered a case I didn't know how to treat? I was honestly getting hopeless, there, more because co-workers and volunteers were afraid of him and bad word was going around him already.
Well. See this smile :D yesh, that's right, we're friends now. Well. Not really friends yet, but we're getting there.
Once I figured out it was the touching as an approach what he was reaction violently to, I made him accustomed to me being near him. Just sitting near him, several times a day, several days in his room. No touching. Sometimes I wouldn't even look at him, until he became more or less familiar to me being around him with no interest in him, just company, and that it didn't mean I was gonna try to hurt him. Once he understood that, I tried to sit nearer and nearer him, the closest he'd let me without trying to attack me, and once he was used to me just plopping by his side with no fear of his warning growls I manged to loop a knoted cord around his neck, without touching him, and that was the next step, for him to get used to being led by his collar with no other purpose than to get him out of hiding and just sit there, next to me.
See, for these dogs to feel something around their necks it's as if someone was atacking them, so what he had to see was that it didn't hurt him, I didn't even try to make him submit, it was just something around his neck. Again, several days. Pulling him a bit closer to me every time, and in the end he wouldn't even bare his fangs at me. And it has all been going pretty smooth from there. I made him come to me by his leash, trying to make a bit of non-direct physical contact with him, like my stretched leg grazing one of his legs, and at first he would get scared and try to get lose, like a spooked horse, but once he saw I wasn't hurting him but wouldn't let him go either he just sat, and one glorious day he lowered his head and let me come touch him, adjust a better collar around his neck, put a leash on him, cut some dirty knots in his fur... I felt like jumping up and down doing the chicken dance and squeal like a little girl with a ton of free ice cream, man, I swear!
Now he's adjusting in his cage with his new room-mates, he goes out to the courtyard and goes inside to his cage on his own. He lets me feed him his medication... heeeeeeeee. I'm just giddy. I swear I thought I wasn't gonna be able of cracking him. And it's taken time but we managed just fine, in the end.
Now people are still a bit afraid of him, not everyone trusts that they can go near him without getting bitten, which I'v observed, he doesn't do anymore. Sometimes he will bark at you if you get near his cage since he seems to think you're gonna take one of his cage mates away from him, he came from the state pound so I guess he's used to seeing cage mates taken away by force to never come back so he defends his mates and his territory, but he's stopped biting. And while he still never takes his eyes away from you I think he's on his way to, if not a full recovery, at least enough that he can have a good quality of life and doesn't feel threatened and scared all the time.
Do you wanna meet the boy?
From his first days, when he wouldn't let anyone near him
From one of those times I'd sat by him until he relaxed and accepted me there
I wanted to name him Rónin or León. But one of my bosses over-ruled me and named him Betún. It's... that black grease used on black shoes and American football player's cheekbones? What's the word for it in English?
... wow, lookit that ramble.
I just... I'm just proud. About... well, yes, about me, why not say it. I never do. But man, there are times when you do feel proud about yourself, about the work you do that no one else can do, specially with difficult cases that no one else gives a chance, or think have a chance. So yeah, today I'm being self-headed, I rocked with this pooch XP
On a related note:
Click to viewI don't even spread the word for him, y'know. We can't change the world but we can help some lives be better, have happy endings.
... ALSO OK, HE LOOKS FUCKING BEAUTIFUL HERE, WTF, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, HE GETS MORE AND MORE *PERFECT* BY THE DAY HOW CAN THAT BE I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW SOMETHING THIS GORGEOUS IS EVEN REAL *CRIES*
omg I think I'm gonna go under a cold shower. And no, not even because of Padaface, we're melting, were supposed to hit 90 Fº / 35 Cº tonight, it's not even funny, I keep spraying my dogs with cold water, they think I'm Satan incarnate *melts into the floorboards*