Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
We were all excited. Carlene has been looking at dog rescue pages for quite a while now and we thought this was going to be the one. He was a little different from what we had previously been interested in, but he was so cute. He had a sad history that tore at our hearts. He had been abused and was homeless which supposedly led to aggression issues. He was only recently diagnosed as deaf which could have explained his misbehavior. We were not deterred by his handicap and we were willing to give him a home full of love. We weren’t interested in adopting a male dog because we didn’t want a dog that pees in the house to mark his territory. We were told that he behaved well in the house.
Now I could have just listened to the narrative that fit my desires and edited out the bad stuff. I am capable of such selective hearing, but I rather think that perhaps his problems were downplayed. Our biggest concern was whether or not Sally could get along with him. We talked with his foster family and were invited over to see how it went with the two of them. We took them for a little walk and then watched them play in the backyard while we talked. The foster family was a nice elderly couple just a little older than us. We had a nice visit and decided that this adoption would be a good fit. We made arrangements with the shelter and within a few days we took him home. We had already agreed to change his name to Willy and we put him in the car to take him to his new digs. When Sally saw him before, Willy was at his house and it was a little different when he showed up at Sally’s house. She was a bit cold but not confrontational. She doesn’t like to hear other dogs bark and Willy turned out to be a barker. Sally spent most of her time upstairs by herself. They did go out to the backyard to play and do their business and Willy got to meet the neighbor dogs. The barking was more than we expected but we would give him some time to adjust.
When we took him outside to pee, instead of going to the grass to relieve himself, he made the “mark my territory” tour of every item in the back yard. Again, we cut him some slack figuring we could work on changing that behavior. Between that and the barking, we decided to put a gentle vibrating collar on him to see if we could break him of it. We also were told he likes to take walks, so we put a harness on him and Sally. Strike one was when he viciously bit Carlene as we attempted to get the harness over his head. It was a serious bite but we forgave him because of his fear of being muzzled. We had a hard time mustering up the courage to take that stuff off and he wore it for most of the day. The vibrating collar didn’t work because we forgot to turn it on before we put it on him. I wasn’t about to get bit trying to turn it on. I managed to get both items off later as Willy just pouted and gave us stink eye all day.
He slept with me in the bed and cuddled up with me in my recliner. Carlene and Sally slept in other rooms. We thought things might be getting better, but it didn’t. He fought with the cat and barked incessantly at the sweet neighbor dogs. We were beginning to think his behavior was not going to be easily turned around. He was resting in a doggie bed when Carlene got down on the floor and was loving on him when out of the blue, he bit her again. That was strike two. He had no justification for the aggression this time, so even though the wound was not as serious, the aggressive action was way worse. The next morning, I was lovingly petting him on the head when he turned on me. Another uncalled for action and I saw for myself how vicious the attempt was. I was fast enough to get my hand out of the way in time but he now convinced both of us that he was too mean. That was definitely strike three for us and Carlene and I made the hard decision to take him back. She had never done that before and you would be hard pressed to find a woman that loves dogs more than my wife.
We gave him three days to adjust to a new environment but we were convinced that Willy was not the dog for us. The foster family was glad to take him back and I hope he finds a proper adoption. Carlene and I both spent our professional careers in the mail delivery business. We know a lot about dogs and how to recognize a mean one. We loved dogs when we were delivering mail but we also experienced dogs that could not be trusted. We’ve both been bit before and know a dangerous dog when we see one. Sorry Willy, we tried…
