Samara came into my life last Tuesday from Foothills Animal Shelter in North Carolina. She has been badly abused and her very basic needs have been neglected. I am thankful to the shelter for taking her in when others would have put her down, thinking her too damaged to be adoptable. The man who owned her chained her up in his yard, planning to use her for dog fights. Considering her timid nature, I am sure she would not be the winner. She was bait. Luckily for her a tree fell down across her chain. She was terrified enough to get out of the collar and run away. The man tried to get her back but she wouldn’t come. Finally he called Animal Control to catch her. The authorities confiscated her and took her to the shelter where kind and loving volunteers worked with her.
She has the most expressive eyes. Talk about windows to the soul! All I could see in them was terror. Then gradually, terror morphed into apprehension, she was sure that at any moment I would turn on her and beat her. Wednesday night I saw waryness in her eyes and today it seems as if that’s fading too. She has a long hard road ahead of her, but with kindness and patience I hope to show her that life can be wonderful for her.
On the way home, she was fine until we got to Daniel Boone High School when she upchucked all over her crate. Then again last night after I gave her a chicken breast.
I took her out to pee, but all she wanted to do was make a bed in the dead leaves and stay there. As it turned out, getting her to pee would be a challenge. By Wednesday night I was getting worried about her not peeing. Jessica asked if she was drinking but she was not. She thought that if she was dehydrated, she wouldn’t need to pee. She wouldn’t drink from the bowl, I think because she had a tag on her and it would clang against the stainless steel bowl and scared her so I got a big fat syringe and gave her water that way. I took the tag off and put water in a plastic bowl for her and she must have drank a quart! At 4am, she got up out of bed and went into the bathroom. When she heard me get up she ran back to her bed. I took her outside and she must have peed for five minutes! We will work on the poop next! I think the key here is for me to learn to read her signals. Then, hopefully, all will be well!