I Will Never Get Used to It

This is Luke's foster mom.

First of all, some of the requests for info on Luke have been interesting. There are situations that I think he'd fit better in than others, but of course there is no way to know until the meet-and-greet. We have to take people on a first-come-first serve basis. Everyone must get a fair chance to become Luke's forever family!

Peeps, last night Luke had a freakout, a total panic. He was sleeping in his kennel (where he'd put himself voluntarily- door open), had a nightmare or something triggered him, and he sat bolt upright out of a dead sleep and just ran. He banged his paw on the way out of the kennel and wound up curling up near the table and just juddering violently.

He never made a sound or an agressive move, but he turned in on himself and tried to disappear. His whole body was shaking like someone was actively hauling him around. It wasn't just shuddering, I don't even know how to describe it. It was like an earthquake contained in a small doggie body.

I immediately got down and gathered him up and started speaking softly to him and petting his head. It took five full minutes of soothing before he started to calm down. After about seven minutes the shaking was slowly replaced with tail thumping, and after ten minutes I had him all putty and calm on my lap ready to be snuggled back to sleep.

Peeps, I've seen this before. Bruno went through something like it. We get dogs who have been hurt and abandoned and neglected. Dogs, like children, can't change their situation or help themselves. They have to live with whatever their lot is; they have to live with the most awful, unlivable things.

The aftermath of that is so ugly. This dog, who is an ideal dog in every way, who should have been blissfully adored all his life and the trusted family hound, was obviously hurt very badly. Hurt so badly that in a second he can be mentally taken right back to that abuse and his only response is to shake and make himself as small as he possibly can.

I will never, ever get used to seeing this, Peeps. It will never, ever do anything but break my heart and make me so angry I can't even see. There are so many horrible people out there.

Poor Luke. I'm going to be making sure he's going to a family where they won't even raise their voices to him. He deserves the opportunity to sleep without fear. All babies do.

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