Felicity in a rare moment of non-movement...
If you live anywhere in Northern New Mexico, and if you are involved in animal welfare in any way, shape, or form, then you've probably heard of The Edgewood 48. This being the Southwest, that sounds like the title of an old Clint Eastwood movie, but I digress...
In early April, a group of forty-eight dogs from an alleged animal hoarding case were seized as evidence and transported to the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society. The shelter's intake facility and adoption building were already busting at the seams with stray, transferred, and owner surrendered dogs, cats, bunnies, and other critters waiting for their second chance at a forever home. Due to the lack of accommodations, the dogs currently in the intake facility were temporarily transferred out to local boarding establishments to make room for the hoarding case dogs. Felicity is not one of The Edgewood 48 - she is a stray, she is an American Pit Bull Terrier, and she is black.
Santa Fe Tails Dog Academy, Daycare & Resort is a local enterprise, well-known for their training classes, doggy daycare and boarding services. Dogs of all breeds, shapes and sizes love their time at Tails, as it is affectionately called by the dog's guardians* (I try to refrain from using the term "owner"). From the early days of opening their business, Santa Fe Tails has aspired to give back to their community and in doing so, has been a staunch supporter of the local shelter. From implementing the Tails Taxi service which transports shelter dogs to and from the daycare for some much needed change of scenery and socialization time, to sponsoring activities and events such as the Barkin' Ball and Paws for a Cause, Santa Fe Tails walks the talk and wags their tails on behalf of the dogs of Santa Fe..
Unbeknownst to most Santa Feans, Santa Fe Tails opened their boarding kennel doors to over 30 dogs from the shelter in order to make room for The Edgewood 48. After assessing their affability with the "regular" day care attendees, the shelter dogs were made welcome and they began to acclimate to their new, temporary digs, For how long their stay would be, only goD knows. Felicity was one of those such dogs. I was unaware that Tails had so many additional dogs in their care, and by the time I contacted them to see if they needed any dog walking help, all but four of the shelter dogs had returned to the shelter at Caja Del Rio.
Sweet Felicity. As I approached her kennel, I could hear soft whimpering and tap dancing from behind her metal door in anticipation of attention and human contact. I'd never met Felicity. I knew nothing about her other than she was a "shelter dog". I slowly opened the kennel door a few inches, and as she nudged her face through the crack, I slipped a harness over her head and snapped the buckle underneath her girth. Suffice it to say, there wasn't much of a girth to snap a harness buckle under...However, what she lacked in weight, she made up for in enthusiasm. It wasn't easy adjusting the harness of a dog doing her best impression of the spin cycle on a washing machine. When I knelt at her eye level, I realized that the width of her big ole head obscured the rest of her body. Sadly, it was impossible to not notice how thin she was and that she'd probably had a litter of puppies not all that long ago. Sigh...
The old adage, "strong like bull" certainly applies to Felicity - and any dog for that matter - when the opposition reflex kicks in. Even with the leash clipped to her Easy Walk harness and to the ring on her collar, she was like a locomotive on a mission. Serendipitously, after taking three right-hand turns from the Santa Fe Tails parking lot, we were on the Rail Trail. And then everything changed.
Felicity became really quiet, her body motionless yet somehow still in motion. Her periscope-like head scanning every possible visual; her forehead showing more wrinkles and creases as she enveloped the packets of information sent to her on the wind. She held her ears both back and upward at the same time as if she could ice cream scoop the flavorable sounds right out of the air. I began to wonder if things were looking and smelling familiar to her - could she have come from this area or someplace similar? Was she getting her bearings? When we would move forward, it was with purpose. When she would stop, it too was with purpose. I didn't care how long it took; this wasn't about stellar leash walking skills. This was her walk and it could be whatever she wanted it to be. I talked quietly to her, telling her what a good girl she was while she chowed down on blades of early spring green grass as if they were individual slices of filet mignon. She reminded me of the ubiquitous cow in a Gary Larson cartoon - when her head was up, she was scanning the horizon; when her head was down, she was eating grass. I knew that the grass would inevitably pass from either one end or the other when she returned to her kennel, but for now I was content watching her enjoy the tasty tendrils; so was she.
I noticed that a man was heading our way, so I made kissy noises and moved her several feet off the trail where she was happy to watch the man approach, snatch a blade of grass and intermittently sniff the air. The man was wearing a heavy military-style coat, a baseball cap, and had a large backpack over his shoulder. He was moving at a relatively fast pace, so not knowing much at all about how Felicity would respond to a) a man, b) a man wearing a baseball cap, c) a man wearing a baseball cap and a backpack and d) a man wearing a baseball cap, a backpack and moving fast, I chose to feed her yummy treats (I probably could have used grass, poor thing...) and mark her calm behavior with an enthusiastic "Yes!" as the man got closer. She did fantastic! I was thrilled! I briefly glanced at the man during my rapid-fire treat fest, half expecting an appreciative acknowledgement; a raised eyebrow; the slightest of smiles - something. Wishful thinking on my part... As he passed by and lowered his gaze first on Felicity and then on me, I felt as if I were in a slow motion scene from The Matrix - you know the one; the shootout between Neo and Agent Smith. I was so stunned by the look on his face that I almost forgot what I was doing. Not a word passed his lips but his face said it all. Disdain? Disgust? Contempt? Antipathy? Hatred? Fear? Pretty presumptuous on my part for sure, that I could derive what was going on in this stranger's head from a split second of eye contact. As a professional dog trainer, heading down that slippery slope goes against everything I've learned about the practice of behavior analysis. And yet there I was getting sucked into that proverbial vortex of labeling, making assumptions and anthropomorphizing. Yikes...
I literally took in a humongous deep breath as he passed, and in a louder than necessary voice declared, "YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD GIRL!!! YAY! GoOOoOOD GIRL, FELICITY!" Of course I got a look from Felicity as if saying, "Um...you alright lady?" We simultaneously looked in the direction of the man, as we both heard him mutter something. Probably not a compliment, but who knows? We took our leave and shortly thereafter, we encountered a runner on the trail. Again, we moved off the pathway and so did the runner - in a BIG way. There was a wide enough birth for a circus to pass between us, but this time instead of eye daggers being shot our way, we got a breathy, "Thank you! Good job!" which of course prompted another round of, "YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD GIRL!!! YAY! GoOOoOOD GIRL, FELICITY!" from me. We simultaneously looked in the direction of the woman, as we both heard a giggle. Probably was a compliment, but who knows?
I don't know what will become of Felicity. I won't know until the morning if she is still at Santa Fe Tails. Joey spoke of reminding the shelter that she was still housed at their facility; not that he was complaining. But there's that elephant in the room or in this case, black pit bull in the room that is out of sight/out of mind. She's doing well at Tails and is a favorite among the staff for her sweet personality and wiggle butt ways. Above and beyond what the staff and owners of Santa Fe Tails are giving her, and the once a week outings with me, she's not being seen by potential adopters and given the chance to maybe, just maybe, have that shot at a forever home, Along with hundreds if not thousands of American Pit Bull Terrier and pit mixes, Felicity faces a daily uphill battle against breed specific discrimination and the simple fact that she is black. Ridiculous, I know, but unfortunately there is such a thing as black dog syndrome (more on that topic in an upcoming blog post). I think of her every time that I look at my stocky, purebred black Labrador whom I was told by the breeder was hard to sell - black and a female. Huh? Damn, we are a messed up society sometimes...
I saw a post by a professional dog trainer on Facebook last week, stating that it bothered her when she heard people say that all a dog needs is love. Putting it in context, she was referring to comments made about dogs in shelters - that if somehow we would all just provide love to shelter dogs, it would break them free from the confines of their kennel and they might then live happily ever after in a forever home. I wish it were that simple, and yet it is. I can relate to her frustration; it takes a lot more than "just love" to provide for everything a dog needs and deserves. Whew...don't get me started...I certainly do not look at Felicity's fate through rose colored glasses, thinking that love alone will wipe away all that she faces, but I've got to start somewhere. Felicity is an English feminine given name meaning "happiness". It is derived from the Latin word felicitas meaning "luck, good fortune". I wonder if the shelter person assigning a name to the sweet black pit bull now known as Felicity knew anything of the name's origin. No matter; it fits.
I'm going to think happy thoughts and hope that I see you tomorrow, Felicity. If not, I wish you only good luck and good fortune. And yes, love.
In early April, a group of forty-eight dogs from an alleged animal hoarding case were seized as evidence and transported to the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society. The shelter's intake facility and adoption building were already busting at the seams with stray, transferred, and owner surrendered dogs, cats, bunnies, and other critters waiting for their second chance at a forever home. Due to the lack of accommodations, the dogs currently in the intake facility were temporarily transferred out to local boarding establishments to make room for the hoarding case dogs. Felicity is not one of The Edgewood 48 - she is a stray, she is an American Pit Bull Terrier, and she is black.
Santa Fe Tails Dog Academy, Daycare & Resort is a local enterprise, well-known for their training classes, doggy daycare and boarding services. Dogs of all breeds, shapes and sizes love their time at Tails, as it is affectionately called by the dog's guardians* (I try to refrain from using the term "owner"). From the early days of opening their business, Santa Fe Tails has aspired to give back to their community and in doing so, has been a staunch supporter of the local shelter. From implementing the Tails Taxi service which transports shelter dogs to and from the daycare for some much needed change of scenery and socialization time, to sponsoring activities and events such as the Barkin' Ball and Paws for a Cause, Santa Fe Tails walks the talk and wags their tails on behalf of the dogs of Santa Fe..
Unbeknownst to most Santa Feans, Santa Fe Tails opened their boarding kennel doors to over 30 dogs from the shelter in order to make room for The Edgewood 48. After assessing their affability with the "regular" day care attendees, the shelter dogs were made welcome and they began to acclimate to their new, temporary digs, For how long their stay would be, only goD knows. Felicity was one of those such dogs. I was unaware that Tails had so many additional dogs in their care, and by the time I contacted them to see if they needed any dog walking help, all but four of the shelter dogs had returned to the shelter at Caja Del Rio.
Sweet Felicity. As I approached her kennel, I could hear soft whimpering and tap dancing from behind her metal door in anticipation of attention and human contact. I'd never met Felicity. I knew nothing about her other than she was a "shelter dog". I slowly opened the kennel door a few inches, and as she nudged her face through the crack, I slipped a harness over her head and snapped the buckle underneath her girth. Suffice it to say, there wasn't much of a girth to snap a harness buckle under...However, what she lacked in weight, she made up for in enthusiasm. It wasn't easy adjusting the harness of a dog doing her best impression of the spin cycle on a washing machine. When I knelt at her eye level, I realized that the width of her big ole head obscured the rest of her body. Sadly, it was impossible to not notice how thin she was and that she'd probably had a litter of puppies not all that long ago. Sigh...
The old adage, "strong like bull" certainly applies to Felicity - and any dog for that matter - when the opposition reflex kicks in. Even with the leash clipped to her Easy Walk harness and to the ring on her collar, she was like a locomotive on a mission. Serendipitously, after taking three right-hand turns from the Santa Fe Tails parking lot, we were on the Rail Trail. And then everything changed.
Felicity became really quiet, her body motionless yet somehow still in motion. Her periscope-like head scanning every possible visual; her forehead showing more wrinkles and creases as she enveloped the packets of information sent to her on the wind. She held her ears both back and upward at the same time as if she could ice cream scoop the flavorable sounds right out of the air. I began to wonder if things were looking and smelling familiar to her - could she have come from this area or someplace similar? Was she getting her bearings? When we would move forward, it was with purpose. When she would stop, it too was with purpose. I didn't care how long it took; this wasn't about stellar leash walking skills. This was her walk and it could be whatever she wanted it to be. I talked quietly to her, telling her what a good girl she was while she chowed down on blades of early spring green grass as if they were individual slices of filet mignon. She reminded me of the ubiquitous cow in a Gary Larson cartoon - when her head was up, she was scanning the horizon; when her head was down, she was eating grass. I knew that the grass would inevitably pass from either one end or the other when she returned to her kennel, but for now I was content watching her enjoy the tasty tendrils; so was she.
I noticed that a man was heading our way, so I made kissy noises and moved her several feet off the trail where she was happy to watch the man approach, snatch a blade of grass and intermittently sniff the air. The man was wearing a heavy military-style coat, a baseball cap, and had a large backpack over his shoulder. He was moving at a relatively fast pace, so not knowing much at all about how Felicity would respond to a) a man, b) a man wearing a baseball cap, c) a man wearing a baseball cap and a backpack and d) a man wearing a baseball cap, a backpack and moving fast, I chose to feed her yummy treats (I probably could have used grass, poor thing...) and mark her calm behavior with an enthusiastic "Yes!" as the man got closer. She did fantastic! I was thrilled! I briefly glanced at the man during my rapid-fire treat fest, half expecting an appreciative acknowledgement; a raised eyebrow; the slightest of smiles - something. Wishful thinking on my part... As he passed by and lowered his gaze first on Felicity and then on me, I felt as if I were in a slow motion scene from The Matrix - you know the one; the shootout between Neo and Agent Smith. I was so stunned by the look on his face that I almost forgot what I was doing. Not a word passed his lips but his face said it all. Disdain? Disgust? Contempt? Antipathy? Hatred? Fear? Pretty presumptuous on my part for sure, that I could derive what was going on in this stranger's head from a split second of eye contact. As a professional dog trainer, heading down that slippery slope goes against everything I've learned about the practice of behavior analysis. And yet there I was getting sucked into that proverbial vortex of labeling, making assumptions and anthropomorphizing. Yikes...
I literally took in a humongous deep breath as he passed, and in a louder than necessary voice declared, "YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD GIRL!!! YAY! GoOOoOOD GIRL, FELICITY!" Of course I got a look from Felicity as if saying, "Um...you alright lady?" We simultaneously looked in the direction of the man, as we both heard him mutter something. Probably not a compliment, but who knows? We took our leave and shortly thereafter, we encountered a runner on the trail. Again, we moved off the pathway and so did the runner - in a BIG way. There was a wide enough birth for a circus to pass between us, but this time instead of eye daggers being shot our way, we got a breathy, "Thank you! Good job!" which of course prompted another round of, "YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD GIRL!!! YAY! GoOOoOOD GIRL, FELICITY!" from me. We simultaneously looked in the direction of the woman, as we both heard a giggle. Probably was a compliment, but who knows?
I don't know what will become of Felicity. I won't know until the morning if she is still at Santa Fe Tails. Joey spoke of reminding the shelter that she was still housed at their facility; not that he was complaining. But there's that elephant in the room or in this case, black pit bull in the room that is out of sight/out of mind. She's doing well at Tails and is a favorite among the staff for her sweet personality and wiggle butt ways. Above and beyond what the staff and owners of Santa Fe Tails are giving her, and the once a week outings with me, she's not being seen by potential adopters and given the chance to maybe, just maybe, have that shot at a forever home, Along with hundreds if not thousands of American Pit Bull Terrier and pit mixes, Felicity faces a daily uphill battle against breed specific discrimination and the simple fact that she is black. Ridiculous, I know, but unfortunately there is such a thing as black dog syndrome (more on that topic in an upcoming blog post). I think of her every time that I look at my stocky, purebred black Labrador whom I was told by the breeder was hard to sell - black and a female. Huh? Damn, we are a messed up society sometimes...
I saw a post by a professional dog trainer on Facebook last week, stating that it bothered her when she heard people say that all a dog needs is love. Putting it in context, she was referring to comments made about dogs in shelters - that if somehow we would all just provide love to shelter dogs, it would break them free from the confines of their kennel and they might then live happily ever after in a forever home. I wish it were that simple, and yet it is. I can relate to her frustration; it takes a lot more than "just love" to provide for everything a dog needs and deserves. Whew...don't get me started...I certainly do not look at Felicity's fate through rose colored glasses, thinking that love alone will wipe away all that she faces, but I've got to start somewhere. Felicity is an English feminine given name meaning "happiness". It is derived from the Latin word felicitas meaning "luck, good fortune". I wonder if the shelter person assigning a name to the sweet black pit bull now known as Felicity knew anything of the name's origin. No matter; it fits.
I'm going to think happy thoughts and hope that I see you tomorrow, Felicity. If not, I wish you only good luck and good fortune. And yes, love.
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