Dog’s are amazing creatures! I’m sure anyone reading this can attest to that. Over one dog’s lifetime, they can go through so many things…abuse, neglect, abandonment, hunger, loss of loved ones, and so on and so on. If any one, not to mention several of these things happened to a human being, the natural tendency would be to carry the hardship with us throughout our lives until the choice is made to address it: let it go, get counseling or whatever the person’s process is. Dog’s on the other hand live in the moment! There may be some residual scaring that takes place, but in general dogs are pretty darn resilient. Dogs that have been abandoned at the shelter are able to “keep their chin up” and wait for their next home to come along. Okay, so I realize that humans are not dogs and that we have different brain capacities and ability to empathize and everything…but we as a society tend to humanize our dogs anyway, so why not focus on the good stuff!
Precious is a great example of a dog that was dealt a rotten hand but hasn’t held on to any of the baggage. She was living at a home in South Central Los Angeles where she was chained to a tree for most of her young life. She only weighed 23 pounds when DDR rescued her, she’d been infested with fleas that had bitten her raw, and she had two big sores on her hips that had been left untreated. She was given absolutely no attention! But Precious doesn’t care about any of that. She was brought back to health, socialized with dogs and is just a good dog. When you see her at adoptions she is very quiet and gentle-never pushy or demanding. She even gets to spend time at Lori’s house on weekends. I think we can all take a lesson from Precious and learn to let go of the past and look forward to the future!
