I booted up my computer with the intention of scanning Facebook for the daily news. What I didn’t expect to see was a dog that stole my heart and my sanity. I never expected to learn so much from a dog that had learned so little.
There it was, a little red dog curled up in a barrel with eyes of freight. The head line said ” Needs home ASAP. Owner has passed away and no further information known.” I was not actively seeking another member to the sled dog team but this girl looked straight in to my eyes and said ” I need you.”
I messaged the poster and asked what the situation was and if she had found a home. She said ” no, are you interested?” I hesitated but my heart said she needed you. I told her ” yes, I would like to give her a home.” We began to arrange details of how to get the little red dog from Wisconsin to Michigan.
The trip was arranged and I made plans to go pick up the little girl with freight in her eyes. As I was driving North I was trying to plan how I was going to help this girl. My heart told me she was going to need to be taught trust and how to build a relationship with a human.
I pulled into the meeting spot and the lady that generously helped transport the little girl pulled up next to me. I was excited to finally meet the little dog that my heart told me needed me. The car door opened and she was sitting in a pool of drool, eyes as big as the moon with freight scattered all across them. I sat there and just looked at her. A sense came over me that I had never had with any other dog, a sense of helplessness, a sense of loss of knowledge. I opened the crate door and slipped a leash over her head and she backed up in the corner freighted of me and I gently coaxed her out. Her little legs trembled with fear and her body shook non stop like an earthquake. I could see panic come across her face and quickly re loaded her in the crate in my car and we headed back south to start a new journey, a new journey of trust, love and how one little red dog could teach me so much about such a little thing.
We got home and she immediately started snapping at the other dogs and she was telling the world she just wanted to curl back up in her barrel and be left alone. She wanted the world to just disappear and be left alone. I put her away in a kennel to decompress and let it her new life begin.
What a lesson she would teach me on how love can’t fix a dog but understanding and giving space can build a relationship that you will never forget.
Stay tuned for the next part of how this little picture of a red dog would change how I looked at life. ( and yes, she gets a name 😉
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