Twelve years ago I had a call from a colleague I used to work with at the Ottawa Humane Society. She was the behaviourist at the time and had a dog come in who needed a quiet foster home. This particular dog was terribly scared, but had a gentle nature and seemed to want to be with people. My husband and I had previously discussed fostering as he had not grown up with dogs like I had and I had been hoping to bring one into our family eventually. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to lend a hand and also see if having a dog would work for our family in the long term.
A couple of days later we went to the shelter to pick her up. Let me tell you she was skinny, had a terrible looking coat and was about the most unattractive dog I had ever seen. We sat quietly beside her and with a wag of her tail and lick on the hand we began our journey.
As far as could be told, she was about one year old, had most likely never been indoors and there were signs she had been mistreated. When we brought her home she stayed close to us and eventually explored her surroundings learning about soft beds and tasty treats. Despite not knowing what to do with a ball, she was quite proficient at catching mosquitos and after a day or so, Catch became her name.
Over the weeks, we spoke gently, moved slowly and were amazed to watch her as she came around. She learned to play, master the stairs and discovered the joy of going for a car ride. One cool thing for me was to watch the development of the relationship between my husband and her, they learned together and bonded very quickly. We of course adopted her.
All these years later Catch has been our constant companion. She comes to the office regularly, loves the mail carrier, attends family dinners, watches over our daughter and has had her fair share of road trips. Thinking back it is hard to imagine how that skinny, scared pup would become the healthy, (much better looking) people lover she is today. It all started with a phone call and we’ve never looked back.
Side note: True to her name she did eventually become quite good at catching balls too!
Susan from PIJAC Canada
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