Pulling Heart-Strings

I know that working at the Wake County Animal Center (WCAC) is going to tear my heart out at some point. It can’t not. I’m also sure that I’m going to want to bring lots of them home with me. Okay, so they already got me on that one with Tippi. And then there was Shelby the little Chow Chow with the Beagle coloring. Oh, and we can’t forget Kesha, a Pit Bull mix, the first Pittie that I ever considered owning.

These two guys from last week’s Paparazzi shift struck a chord with me. Both of them were sweethearts and just wanted loves. Max was so insistent on being next to me that I was barely able to get a good photo for the website. Lucky for him, little dogs, like Yorkies, are the quickest to be adopted.

Max had been there a few days, was available for immediate adoption and didn’t have the “I’m being adopted” sticker on his kennel. That was a little strange, so despite the fact that I expected him to be adopted at any moment, I went ahead and took his photo. He was a sweetie and was just looking for someone to pet him, but yuck. I know that sounds harsh, but those little white specs in the photo are not dirt spots on my lens. Max had one heck of a case of dandruff and he was greasy. He was surrendered to the WCAC for financial reasons so I don’t know who gave him his proper Yorkie haircut, but he needed some serious bathing. Once I was done taking his photo and didn’t have to worry about keeping my camera clean, I sat down on the floor with him and stopped worrying about my hands.

Dennis got to me for other reasons. He was a little unsure of me coming in to his kennel and pointing my camera at him, but a well placed Pup-Peroni® soon brought him around. Dennis was on meds for a neck injury; one of the other volunteers said something about it being from a collar or chain. He had lots of little scabs all over his head. I’d seen that before, from where wood ticks had been pulled off. It wasn’t until later that night as I was processing photos that I noticed Dennis’ torn nostril. I looked closer and realized that he had slits in his ears and some of those scabs on his face were old and elongated. The poor little guy had been in a scrap or two in his short life. What was his story? What does he have to tell us?

Maybe PEDIGREE®’s Heroes commercial says it best:

Shelter dogs aren’t broken

They’ve simply experienced more life

If they were human we’d call them wise

They would be the ones with tales to tell …

Stories to write

The ones dealt a bad hand and responded with courage

Do not pity a shelter dog

Adopt one

http://youtu.be/5v5Ui8HUuN8