I met my friend, a new volunteer at the shelter, on Thursday, she took me out for 2 nice walks and sat and played with me and let me give her lots of sloppy kisses. I could tell she really loved me. She gave me lots of belly rubs. Then some kids from the special school came, one of them had Downs Syndrome, but I didn't care, he patted me pretty hard, but I understood, and he gave me belly rubs too and let me give him sloppy kisses. The teachers thought it was so wonderful and they took lots of pictures. When my friend said goodbye to me that day she said she loved me and would be back in the morning to play with me some more.
My friend went home and contacted all her animal friends and told them about the 2 sweet rotties she met at the shelter (my friend has 5 rescue dogs, 3 of which are rotties, so she knows rotties). She told them she thought I would be a great therapy dog, explaining my interaction with the challenged children. She asked them to spread the word to all their animal friends so that my sister and I wouldn't have to stay at the shelter very long, she thought we would be safe there for awhile because we were so sweet.
Now comes the sad part. When my friend got there Friday morning she came looking for us, but couldn't find me or my sister. She got nervous and asked the staff where we were. They said we were going to be euthanized because supposedly we didn't pass some sort of temperament test. My friend ran and tried to get them to release us to her, as last resort, she was frantic, but they said no. She pleaded with them, reminding them of how I was with the children, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. It was too late. My friend was heartbroken. She's cried every day since and promised me that she would find a way to help all my friends still trapped in shelters and all those who might end up there. She's doing her best, but she's new at this advocacy thing. She loves all animals very much and wants to do everything she can to help. She hates to go back to the shelter, but she does it for the other dogs. If the volunteers didn't take the dogs outside, they may never see a blade of grass or a tree again. It's a very sad and scary place to be.
Even though we only had a few hours together, we bonded forever. I want to help her try to make people aware that although other animals have no voice or no choice, they have emotions and feelings just like human animals.
