Bowen
BOWEN UPDATE - March 2021!
He wouldn’t leave his cage. When he finally did, he wouldn’t walk, wouldn’t look you in the eye. He would tremble. He wouldn’t take treats. Safe Humane volunteers had to literally carry him to and from his cage because he would walk a couple of steps, and then something would spook him, and he would completely freeze and shut down. That was our Bowen.
Safe Humane Volunteers spent months working with Bowen trying to get him to trust, and slowly but surely it worked. He would walk a little farther on his own each day. He began to love treats and even started giving kisses. His gentle and fractured soul was easy to fall in love with…. He had puppy-dog eyes that would just pierce you. Our friends at Lulu’s Locker saw what we saw in him: a big mooshie boy with a pure heart who needed time and patience. When it was time for our scared boy to leave (in early 2019), in true Bowen fashion, he had to be carried to and lifted into the car.
When he first arrived in his foster home, Bowen would actually urinate when anything spooked him and that “anything” could be: walking too fast, dropping something, all loud noises, and sometimes even just looking at him wrong. After a few months in his foster home, his foster family realized that he wasn’t going anywhere. He had specifically bonded with one of the dogs in the house, a feral chi-weenie. Now to say that today Bowen is perfectly well-rounded and without quirks would be a lie. He is still shy around new people, and brooms, swiffers, shovels, boards, mops, and doors that touch him when they open are all still very scary.
Unfortunately, Bowen will never truly forget his past and new things will always be a little scary to him, but we think he is doing pretty ok in his new life. He has plenty of doggie friends in his new house and a family that loves him. His mom says his favorite things to do are “going through drive-thrus, sleeping, alerting us two hours before each meal time that it is almost meal time, and chewing bones.” When we asked his mom what she would like other people to know about adopting a dog that has come from a situation of abuse or neglect, here is some of what she had to say: “The transformation from a shutdown, broken, terrified dog has been so rewarding. He’s always happy to see us, even if we only went to put the laundry in the dryer or get the mail. He is precious and irreplaceable.”