We have had Skye for a few years now - I wrote this Blog a little while ago and have to decided to carry on with it now and update it as I go along. Please like and "Follow" this Blog to keep up to date with Skye as the "From Rescue To Domestic Dogess" Tales.
Please see the first Post in the Archive on the Left.
This is Skye and the rest of her pack. They were literally found like this on the Streets in Romania by a lovely lady called Michaela Ad White. She took them into her home (all nine of them) initially until obviously they needed to go into a rescue centre. Michaela and I have spoken a few times and she remembers Skye from day one, she remembers all of these Dogs and loved them all. She fought for nearly two years to get them all a "forever home".
Can you even imagine what it must be like to walk down the street and find a pack of puppies like this? Can you imagine walking by them? Well Obviously Michaela can't. But there are so many Dogs on the Streets of Romania and Michaela has told me that it breaks her heart to see it. Skye's Mam was so terrified of people that she couldn't be rescued, apparently she still lives outside in a Shop Doorway and she gets fed by kind people there. She has also been neutered so she doesn't have the worry or horror of having Puppies on her own again.
There are reasons that the Dogs are so many, and that they are so terrified of people, but I don't want to get into this. Partly because this is not a political Blog, partly because I can't bear to hear about it. I once started to read the history of that awful announcement that was made that dogs in Romania could be culled by anyone in anyway ...... Yep, see that's enough. We won't go into the history and if you are easily upset over animals I suggest you don't google it either. I am not judging anyone, it's a difficult situation and to see large packs of aggressive dogs as you wonder along must be quite frightening.
So let's look at the positive side to all of this. I only mentioned the above because many people including my old Vet, I say old, but I mean Ex Vet !! have accusingly asked me why I have rescued a Dog from Romania - So the answer is partly to do with the fact that there ARE so many dogs living on the streets and so it is very difficult to get rescue Dogs re-homed over there. Basically, they need us! All or most Animal Charities help each other out from Country to Country, and from region to region.
My Life in England So Far.
Does this look like a Dog that is terrified of everything? Well she was!! It took us two months to get her through the doorway in our front room, and another week to get her to look out of this window. After this she wouldn't go near the window again for another two months, yet look how alert and excited she is here!
Having said that, I didn't particularly look for a Romanian Dog to rescue - or Foster Actually, I was supposed to just be Fostering, for four weeks, before our holiday abroad. I couldn't get over loosing Max, our Lab/Collie Cross. We had him for 15 years. We got him at a very sad time, we needed something to take care of, not just something, we decided but, a Dog, we decided to rescue a Dog that day!! So we had Max before we had our Children. 15 years - well you could say obviously you are upset because you had him so long, but really we were very lucky because we had him with us so long.
Look at Skye here - does she look like she loves me? Trusts me? That was six months ago and she still sometimes runs away from me if I smile at her, or look at her in a certain way, or if I move too fast. (The smile thing I will come back to - body language is a funny thing).
So the tables turned and Max became the thing I was sad about, I missed him so much, my Husband was away - I cried all day I cried at night when the kids were in bed. I knew I needed to give another Dog some love and that the Dog would help me back in return. I had a very close bond with Max, we understood each other's body language, I knew what he wanted or needed all the time and he knew how to get me to get it for him!!
It's just for four weeks I told Paul, it will help me and the kids. We are off abroad on holiday so we will have to have her in a position to be adopted by then I said?? That was in May 2015 - we actually picked her up on 28th May.
So here she is in her Rescue home in Romania with her Brother to the left and her Sister to the right. Yep she is that little bundle of cuteness in the middle. She looks like she is about 6 months old here, do you think? Her Sister to the right was Adopted by Suzanne Sayers who runs the GSD Rescue Angels Charity. She is a very dedicated and knowledgeable Dog Lover. When she picked up Skye's sister she said she felt really guilty leaving Skye behind. Eventually, a little while after Skye's Sister had nipped off to England Suzanne arranged for the GSD Charity to also take Skye in. Unfortunately though
Skye was 20 months old by then so she had spent the first year and a half of her life in Rescue, this is why Suzanne took her in under the Charity Wing before it was too late for her. After two years of not socialising with Humans on a regular basis, not living in a home the Dogs can become institutionalised, or almost Feril which then makes them not fit for adoption. Or not to your average Dog Lover anyway.
A Feril Dog needs lots and lots of time and attention and expertise. On top of that Skye is a very, very nervous dog, and in the beginning showed aggression because of her nervousness. So we really did get her in the nick of time I think, to be a long term Fosterer I mean. I am the only person who saw her in the early days who never had any fear of her biting me. Well actually I knew she wanted to, I just knew how to avoid it. Please note, I said an expert is needed to look after a Dog like Skye, I am NOT an expert which is why I want to share my experiences with people who might find themselves with a Dog that they are not sure they are capable of helping. I must say though that Suzanne and the Charity give all the help and advice you ask for. You are not alone.
So this was it, the very first pictures I saw of Skye. Doesn't she look gorgeous. These pictures are the reason I decided to bite the bullet and actually Adopt a Dog, Oh did I say Adopt? I meant Foster!!!! Fraudulent slip maybe?? With the thought of helping it to be re-homed to a "Forever Home" !!! I saw the picture on the right first and I just couldn't get her out of my head. Then I saw the picture on the left, normal looking Dog right? A dog without issues?? Mmmm Never judge a book by its cover.xxx. She just happened to have really good Foster Parents at the time who knew how to handle her and who had looked after her immediately from getting off the Plane from Romania. I will do a Blog about that for Skye's story next.
Isn't she a cutie, this is an early picture. I am surprised now when I see these pictures because of how terrified she was then and how normal and unaffected she looks in some of these pictures.
I haven't got any photos of her cowering in the corner in her own excretion because someone moved towards her, or looked at her or tried to get a lead on her. At the time it wouldn't have crossed my mind to take pictures of a Dog that was as distressed as she was, but now, I wish I had taken some. The point of this Blog is to help people like me, to let them see the different behaviours of the Rescue Dogs that are particularly nervous. She was a fighter though, she never shut down. She hadn't been mistreated she was institutionalised, she couldn't remember being in a house for a short while when she was a puppy of 4 or 5 weeks old. She didn't know what a door was, a garden, fridge, she saw Strange people walking in and out of the house, talking in a language that was totally alien to her - Oh yes she had to Learn our language too!
So we will leave this now on a happy photo!!! She claimed our Conservatory, and the most comfortable settee in hour house and for two months it was her link to the outside world. We had the door permanently open so she could come and go as she pleased, but of course she was too terrified to just get up and walk so she didn't move at all until we made her.
To Be Continued ;---------
I can't quite work out which of these puppies is Skye, I can't see the black and white dog there, maybe this was another set of puppies but the same story and rescued by the same Lady, she has taken in more than one set of puppies, a lot more. She kindly gave me this photo from her archives.
Thank you for checking in. We will be back soon.
From Sam the Mam
And Skye - the Domestic Dogess. Xx
