Smokey

There were some collie/shep/lab puppies available there too. I found out that they were all adopted. Someone from another BB I'm on, who lives close to me and TLC shelter went to check on the pups and Smokey. She said that Smokey was a little skinny, but was a very calm dog. She said he has the biggest ears (that didn't show up on his web pic). She said he was beautiful!

After checking the weekly update on Smokey, I found that he was still there.

Yesterday I did just what I should not have done. I went to visit Smokey and Butch.
My daughter and I went with doggie goodies in hand and hardened hearts. All the doggies were being very good dogs when we got there. It was quiet. The bad part was that it was QUIET, there were no potential adopters there. Usually there are quite a few, but yesterday, none. So sad. Well, as a lady on the other BB who lives near me who went to check Smokey out said, Smokey is just beautiful. He is a black and silver (reminds me very much of Phred's pup). He is thin. He would not eat any of the goodies we offered, but boy did he want to be petted!! My daughter obliged. I went around and kept passing out goodies to all the dogs. I would have taken any one of them home. They were all so gentle in taking their goodies. I then went over to talk to Smokey and he did that precious head tilt thing that dogs do when they are listening. He jumped up on the cage and pressed against it. Maybe his last owner looked or sounded like me. It broke my "hardened heart". I told my daughter to keep petting him and give him a lot of attention. I went over to visit with Butch, who is black with a little rust color on his feet. He was very gentle and beautiful, too.
However, the sight that crushed me was the young Akita in the corner. Beautiful dog!! Simply terrified! So heart-breaking. I don't even know if it was a he or a she. He was glued to the corner of the kennel and looked so scared! My daughter and I talked to him and he watched us, but would not leave the corner of the cage. Maybe this was his first day of being abandoned. I wish his people could have seen how devastated he was. It took all of my will power not to cry. The shelter worker would come over to him and open his gate and feed him a little food (which he wouldn't touch until the worker closed the cage). That was the saddest thing.
My daughter and I finished passing out most of the bag of goodies, talking to each of the dogs (petting Smokey), left the remainder of goodies and walked out.
I haven't been able to forget the visit since. Well, I can't save all of them and I would like to. I hope that soon someone comes to adopt them. At least they're in a kill shelter that only kills on last resort. I will, however, be watching the website and maybe taking another visit in the future to see if any have been adopted.......

Sue

Oh Sue, I'm so sorry you had to see that. I know EXACTLY how you feel because I see those type of dogs all the time at our shelter who just stay glued to the back corner. The good news is, they usually perk up and feel a lot more comfortable. It is so scary to be abandoned. Smokey is just a doll and I immediately thought of Phred's Smokey! Hey Phred, do Cinder and Smoke need another sibling? :D Maybe Killian and Shiloh need a Smokey brother?? How about Felice, Zeus, and Hercules? Can they use a brother? Reece would like a brother but we have a full house right now, as I'm sure the rest of you do. I just really hope Smokey gets adopted soon. It is heartbreaking how many abandoned animals there are that are really wonderful pets.. it's the "owners" that are ROTTEN! Sue, thanks for being so strong and giving some love to the shelter dogs. I know they appreciate it!

I would adopt him in a second but my mom would kill me. also I don't know how Herc and Zeus would feel about another male

Aly, you are right. Some of the dogs need a little attention to get them unafraid of their surroundings. At one time, there was another GSD at that shelter. He was very scared and wouldn't come near people. My mother and I took him around and walked him and visited him a few times. The shelter owner thanked us for bringing him out of his shell. He was adopted by a family with kids. I was so glad! Aly, I really appreciate what you do. It must be so very very hard.
Sue

Ohhhh Sue. I'm looking on the map to see how far Lockport is from me. Even if it was close, I don't know when I'd be able to drive there.

He's soooo adorable. Such a sad face. :(

Kim S.

Kim, the distance is difficult when you have to bring another dog to introduce. Lockport is about 2 hours away from Buchanan, MI (we used to have a house there on Clear Lake). I don't know where in MI you live, though. It may take a few visits before you can be sure that there probably won't be any problems. He sure is a beauty, though.

[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: Sudilar ]