I know people say dogs don't get PTSD, but I don't believe that - I feel that traumatic events DO affect them and Boots is almost in a 'shut down' mode right now... Here and there I see glimmers of her potential personality when her life is not being turned upside down, but she's going to need time to get beyond what she has encountered in her life recently...
Yesterday a rescue friend and I went to a couple of the shelters and we found a Chi with her head in the corner at the back end of a kennel run, rear facing outwards and in the final stages of shutdown mode... She was an owner surrender when the owners lost their home... As I sat in the acquaintance room, my thoughts kept heading back to Boots - 'for there but the Grace of God go I' thoughts kept going through my head... Had Boots gone to a shelter and spent the same amount of time, Boots could very well have turned into that same 'emotionally non-descript' version... Had I an available foster spot, I would have pulled that Chihuahua and given her the time and TLC to come back out of that protective shell she'd built as a survival technique... She's labeled as a 'BH' which means when the shelter runs out of space, she'll be killed to make room for more highly adoptive dogs... sigh...
Unfortunately, they are killing Chihuahuas by the hour in the various shelters and we can only save so many... In Boots' case, she was one of the few lucky ones and we at TLC will give her all the time she needs to readjust and get past the traumatic past she's had...
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