Wednesday, March 11, 2009

DOG OF THE MONTH for MARCH

Greetings Readers,

The Dog of the Month for March is a special pup who found a new home with some loving parents in The State of Qatar, far from our shores, near Saudi Arabia. Dog lovers unite! Homes for homeless pets are needed all over the world. Similar to the case of March's Dog of the Month, Jacob, some of those homeless animals are victims of abuse or trauma and have special needs. Very large and selfless are the hearts of those who are willing to open their homes to these special needs pets.

In honor of Jacob and his journey, as well as the loving parents who have given him a home, here is March's DOG OF THE MONTH, Enjoy!

"We have a new family member. His name is Jacob and he has blonde hair, brown eyes and four legs. We don’t know a lot about him – how old he is, where he came from or if he’s ever lived with a family before. The only thing we know is that he’s been in our house for less than 24 hours and he’s already part of the family. Truthfully, I think he became family about 30 seconds after we put him in the truck and he drooled all over my arm and the back of the seat. Yes – Jacob is a dog.
As far as anyone knows, his history started a few weeks ago when he was found, horribly hurt, and then taken to the Qatar Animal Welfare Shelter (QAWS) for care. They don’t know exactly what happened to him, but they think he was hit and then dragged by a car.

We met Jacob when we went to QAWS to take a tour to see the dogs and find out how we could best help as volunteers. At that time, he was pretty sad looking with a “lampshade” around his head to keep him from chewing and licking his wounds. Regardless, he came up to the front of his kennel and tried to lick our fingers through the mesh. Once, like the goof he is, he got stuck in the doorway of his kennel because he couldn’t get his head through! But he kept smiling that doggie smile and wagging his tail.I just kept thinking about him and when QAWS put his story on their website, I knew we needed to find out what it would take to bring him home with us. The QAWS staff had received many calls about Jacob in the 48 hours since they posted the feature. I think a couple of things weighed in our favor for adopting Jacob – we were previous dog owners and had seen both of ours through several surgeries. We weren’t put off or scared that he’d been hurt and would never be a physically perfect dog. But what I think clenched it is that we’d looked at all the dogs and had a hard deciding on the first one that we wanted to adopt. Most people who called only wanted Jacob because he’s at least part Retriever. No doubt, Labs are my favorite dogs, but we would have probably taken half a dozen if we thought we could…So Jacob’s at home now acting as though he’s been here all his life. As I write this, he’s lying here on the office floor with his head on his sock toy –guarding his precious possession. In a little less than a day, he’s played outfielder in our son’s backyard baseball game, tipped over his water bowl outside and in the guest bathroom, pooped on the office floor, been given his first of many baths, tried to make friends with the neighbor’s cat, feasted on his food, taken a short walk around the compound, chewed on one of my sandals, tipped over my husband’s drink on the front porch and taken off with the book I’m reading.

We’ve forgotten what it’s like to have a baby in the house, but we’re quickly remembering – put things away, move all glass items to a higher location and be suspicious, very suspicious, when it gets too quiet. And, of course, give lots of hugs, kisses and cuddles."

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