Owner surrender. Those were the two words used to describe why my dog was left in the animal shelter feeling confused and alone. According to the woman I spoke with on the phone, you didn’t want him because he was too nervous, too hyper, and had “behavioral issues.” I don’t know what your circumstances were, or how it felt for you to drop him off at the shelter. I don’t know if he was a cute little impulse buy from a mall pet store or a well thought out plan that just didn’t pan out the way you expected. I just know that when I first laid eyes on my dog, he was in a small kennel, shaking and scared to death. He was sad because the person he loved decided he wasn’t important anymore.
The dog described to me, and the one you gave up on was not my dog. My dog knows every basic obedience command in the book. He looks to me before doing anything, silently asking permission to get on to furniture, enter rooms, or get up after I’ve told him to lay down. He is protective when need be, but calms down when I ask. He is ridiculously excited when I come home every day, and cuddles with me like a human when we go to sleep at night. He is hyper and full of life outside, but knows that my small apartment is more suitable for napping than anything else. My weird little dog loves me, the life I’ve given him, and Cheez-Its (probably in reverse order). I took a chance on him, and he has surpassed my every expectation.
My dog is also scared. He hates car rides, because you taught him that he might not come back home. He has separation anxiety; he hates when I leave the house (or even go into the bathroom without him) because when he lost sight of his last owner, they never came back. He is always surprised when I tell him he’s a good boy, and terrified when I raise my voice for any reason. After you left him, he didn’t eat for two months. He is now finally coming out of his shell, but what you did greatly affected his outlook on life.
While I hope you feel terrible when you think of what you did to him, I also wanted to say thank you. Thank you for giving me a chance to bring home my best friend. Thank you for realizing you couldn’t handle the responsibility, and giving him a chance to find someone who could. People say that in rescuing a dog; you save yourself, too. My dog came into my life at a time when I really needed him, and for that I could not be more thankful. College has been the time of my life, but my dog has made this time even better. He is my favorite thing about coming home from work, class, and a night out. He makes me feel loved, worthy, and needed. He makes me smile when everything else is going wrong. He is the best thing that has happened to me in these four years of college, and I have you to thank for that.
