Having a psycho dog....

When you work at an animal shelter, you see all sorts of animals come through the doors. You learn to shut your heart off to a lot of what you see - you have to or you won' be able to get through the day. You see animals with hair falling out, skin disorder, various levels of starvation, broken bones.. you name it.

Being the only shelter in the state that does not consider itself 'no-kill' means you see a high level of euthanasia. This is hard for all the employees. You get close to an animal and for some reason it doesn't pass its evaluation and no rescue will take it and it has to be euthanized. No one can prepare you for working in that situation. This does not make us bad people...unfortunately, that's where the press goes. You start working there and you think you are going to make a difference, make a dent in the euthanasia, save all the poor animals; and after a while, you realize that you are just one person fighting a whole society that doesn't 'get it' and all you can do to make a difference is to make the animals lives better for as long as they are there.

Before I move on - let me note...be careful with supporting 'no kill' shelters. They are not open access. What does that mean to you? They won't take everything. They make appointments for you to show the animals you have. If they don't think they are adoptable, they suggest you bring them to a shelter like ours. During cat season - when every neighborhood stray is pumping kittens out left and right, they tell you "We're not taking cats" and suggest you bring them to us. So yeah, they are no kill for their population, but divert everything else to us. I'm not saying that they are bad or wrong, but I feel the public needs to know what the truth is. Shelters that practice humane euthanasia are not the bad guys. It is still better than dying a slow, starving death on the street because humans can't figure out that spaying and neutering your pets is important.

Anyway - sometimes to get through the stress of the job, you have to save one that won't make it to 'adoption'; and you start by fostering, and realize you can't take that animal back. Such is the case with my Nikki. She had been brought to the shetler in January 08; adopted in March and returned in July. They said she was too hyper and pulled on her lead. When she was temperment tested, she failed miserably for aggression. I was brought to her by someone trying to save her. I got in her kennel and she rolled over for a belly rub. Mike suggested we foster her when her time started running out. NExt thing you know he was refusing to send her back.

Here's the thing. She is aggressive. VERY aggressive. If we brought her back and she got adopted out again I can almost guarantee she'd come back. She's great with us and Buddy; and her boyfriend down the street Moonshine, but anyone else in our yard or on our walk and she goes nuts like she wants to kill them. It's strictly protection, but its overkill. No one else would be able to handle it. Sometimes she turns the aggression on us, but not often and she is scolded immediately.

Nikki is nuts, but at the same time is loveable. There is something in her that makes her sweet even though she's crazy. It's so hard to explain because it just is the strangest thing. She's only 2 years old but has passed hands seven times... 1. Family she was born to, 2. family she was sold to, 3. given to a neice, 4. given to the shelter, 5. adopted, 6. returned to the shelter, 7. fostered and adopted by us. All before she was 2...so it explains her issues. She may never NOT be psycho...

She went back to the shelter with me to get her nails done...she tries to kill us if we do it...I was told that the work we've done has made a huge difference. The person who failed her with the testing before was the one to do her nails and said that where before she could not even look in her eyes and give her affection, Nikki was allowing the affection and returning with kisses. I was told we were successful with her. But I know how she is at home, and I know I would not feel safe adopting her out to another family...not many people would be willing to handle her. I see the 'perfect' animals come in - Shih Tzus (what I really wanted), sweet little border collies (I also love them) and I think, man, thats what I really wanted! But then I come home to an affectionate, very crazy little girl who stole our hearts and raises our blood pressure regularly. That's what its like having a psycho dog!