Very soon after Nan arrived in Durham, she began to volunteer at the Animal Protective Society of Durham. The APS is the dog shelter for Durham County. It also shelters cats and rescues many other animals. They even had a domesticated pig up for adoption at one time. As long as I've know Nan,she owned dogs. Will and Tuck were part of our family when we wed. Both have moved on to doggie heaven.
Nan began as a dog walker at APS. She wrote an op-ed piece for the Durham Herald Sun which was very well received. Last Spring we began to foster some of the dogs that were having a hard time living in the kennels at APS.
Petunia, now known as Zara, was our first foster. She was so afraid to come out of her kennel that we had to drop a trail of treats to get her to the door. Once home however, she blossomed into a loving and energetic pet. She has been adopted and we've become friends with her new owner. She's doing great.
Our second foster was Finley. This was also a dog traumatized by life in the kennel. We had to carry him out of his cage. He is a very submissive dog. Little is known about his past as he was found wandering downtown Durham. He has many scars around his throat which leads us to believe he had been in some battles. At home he is quite docile, but on the trail his fox terrier roots come alive. We adopted him about two months ago and shortened his name to Finn..
Our third foster is Bella, soon to be know as Hattie. She is a cocker mix. We were asked to foster her because when she was surrendered her prior owner indicated that she was unmanageable and had nipped at the prior owner's boyfriend (perhaps Bella was making a judgment call that her owner should have considered). The woman in charge of the dogs, Alison(who has a great Scottish accent), asked us to work with her. It turns out that the prior owner worked in health care and had long shifts. We believe that Bella was crated all day and then probably most of the night. She gets very defensive when something out of the ordinary occurs and we're working with her. Otherwise, she is a loving and affectionate(if insecure) dog and she hasn't nipped me yet. We'll probably adopt her as well.
Having two dogs again does restriction spontaneity - you just can't drop everything and go to the beach for a weekend. But to think that all these dogs were on death row makes one glad that they'll have a shot at life. It also help with our physical conditioning. For instance this AM 3 miles around the Al Buehler X-country trail and another couple of miles this PM.
Oh, by the way, Nan has been named the APS volunteer of the month.
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