Acacia Comes Home
How I chose this one to foster and (hopefully) train
She didn’t need to be this pretty or this young.
But bringing home a younger dog was the only way I could think of to safeguard against losing her too soon.
Because every dog dies too soon. And it breaks me every time.
Even so, this was only going to be temporary. Being picky about my first foster dog didn’t make a lot of sense. I did have a few basic notions. The dog I was looking for:
Had been at the shelter at least a month, so as not to take one that would likely have found a home soon, anyway.
Wasn’t presenting well in kennel — the jumpy, barky, mouthy stuff people often misread as aggression.
Was kenneled successfully with another dog, a sign of at least some rudimentary social skills.
Of the 50-plus available dogs at Front Street Animal Shelter,* that left me with about a half dozen, which I narrowed down to two on a walk through the shelter.
Acacia, a 10-month-old shepherd mix picked up on the street near the end of May, was actually the grumpier of the two.
She barked at me through the fence, but her body language was soft. Once I stepped inside her kennel and knelt down, she leaned in and started to relax. Good enough to make the list, for sure.
I actually left the final decision up to a couple of my favorite shelter staffers, who thought Acacia needed the break. (Turns out the other dog was adopted later that day).
Here’s what I didn’t know:
Her go-to move when nervous is to pancake — drop her whole body to the ground and stay there.
What sets her off? Doors. Stairs. Smooth surfaces.
My guess is that until the day I brought her home, she had never been allowed indoors.
Luckily, I can still lift a 45-pound dog when I have to. And her reluctance to coming inside was overcome by her intense interest in small pieces of hot dog.
We focused the first couple of days on bonding, letting her get comfortable in her new digs.
In no time the rowdy, barky dog from the shelter was gone, replaced by one who sensed she was somewhere she could find some peace.
Welcome, Acacia. Glad you could join us.
(*The views expressed here are entirely my own. I do not speak for the Front Street Animal Shelter or the City of Sacramento.)