Adopting A Special Needs Dog
A while back I was speaking with Dogster member Ron about his pup Takoda, a special needs dog. I asked if he would like to do an article on what it’s like to adopt a special needs or older dog. What you bring to their lives, and the unbelievable joy they bring to yours.
I recently received Ron’s response and it seems like the perfect post as American Humane’s Adopt-A-Dog Month comes to an end.
I guess you could say that research started when my wife and I adopted Takoda. Like Logan, he was a stud dog in a Puppy Mill, used and abused for the first three years of his life and then ready to be tossed away, along with four other Dobermans, when the people who owned the Mill decided they were no longer of use and were ready to toss them to a Kill Shelter. Thank God a Rescue Group heard about that and promptly rescued them all. If that hadn’t happened, we never would have known how much love a Rescued and Adopted dog, be it a Senior or Special Needs, has to give.
I wanted to really be able to tell you exactly what was needed to adopt that Special Needs, or Senior, dog so I joined several different groups to see what others had to say. I just wanted to read the posts and see what was being said from the heart, not from the mind. What I wanted was their feelings and comments that were spontaneous, not thought out. Those reasons and feelings that came from deep within.
I’ve been visiting, reading and taking notes for quite a while now and just knew a pattern would start forming rapidly. Well, after all this time that hasn’t happened. From what I read in all those posts, there really wasn’t anything specific about the people who adopted a Special Needs or Senior dog, they varied from young to old, from those with the ability to give the best of care to those who would have to scrounge a little to take care of their pet. There just didn’t seem to be anything specific that was needed.
