Introducing Lizzy

I have had a lot of easy, or at least quick, adoptions lately.  I decided it was time for a difficult foster dog.  Well not really - it just happened that way.  I saw this dog at an adoption event on Saturday, and asked about her.  It turned out she was adopted out as a puppy and returned recently, and since no one had room for her at the time, she's been staying at a shelter for the past month. I thought she was beautiful and since all of my foster dogs except Delta are adopted now, I offered to take her. They said yes! so I brought her home on Saturday afternoon.

You may wonder why a dog as beautiful as Lizzy would be a difficult dog to adopt out.  She's a Border Collie mix, and I love how the tip of her tail is white while the rest of her is mostly black.  She loves other dogs (even gets along with Noelle!), does fine with cats (fortunately for my cat Merlin), and is very intelligent and well-mannered.  She's 11 months old, already house-trained and knows basic obedience commands.  She also gets a lot of attention from people at adoption events.  The reason she hasn't found a home yet is probably because of how she was raised.

Lizzy was adopted out as a puppy to a family who didn't socialize her much.  She was never around children or other adults.  She didn't learn as a puppy that people aren't scary, and that when children run to pet her, they don't want to hurt her.  So now all people are scary to her.  Especially children.  And unfortunately almost everyone out there wants a dog that will be good with children.  Even if they don't have small children of their own, they may have neighbors or grandchildren or nieces and nephews who visit often, so they want a dog who is good with kids.  So I am afraid that Lizzy may take awhile to find someone who doesn't have young children at home, and will be patient with her and help her to learn that not all people want to hurt her. 

I can relate to Lizzy - as someone said to me at PetSmart today - I trust dogs more than people too!  And I know that as quickly as she learned to trust me, she can learn to trust other people as well.  So I'll try to work with her and help her to learn to be braver, and hopefully someday she will find her very own home.