/post picture here/
Hi. My name's Riley. I'm a 3-year old Silky Terrier who lives the life fantastic. I like to chase balls, chase birds, eat food, and have people pet me. My life is never boring, so prepare to be amazed!
My story starts on May 2, 2006. That's the day I got taken to a shelter. Somehow, I lost my humans. I'm not really sure what happened -- it's all a little hazy -- but a nice lady tried to help me them. No luck. So there I am, chilling at her house, and these men in blue jumpers pull up in this truck full of scary barking dogs. Before I knew what was happening, they had me collared and stuck me in the truck. By the sound of the other dogs, I *knew* they would hurt me if they could, so I was scared.
/picture of shelter/
We arrived at this place called
The Animal Shelter. That place was even more scary. Big dogs were barking everywhere. I couldn't tell if they were loose or not, or where the barking was coming from, and it freaked me out even more. I, for sure, knew that I was going to get eaten. So I tried my best to be invisible in the metal box they stuck me in, because at least in there I was safe..
It didn't work. A man came and opened the door to the metal box. I tried to get as far away from him by pushing myself as far as I could go into the back of the box. I even tried to bite him to warn him to stay away from me, but he hooked me with the collar thing again and I had to go where he took me.
Mean dogs were everywhere! They were jumping against the doors of their metal boxes and shouting death threats. I didn't want to go anywhere. The guy in the jumper was saying nice things, but everybody knows that humans can't outrun dogs. So he mostly drug me to a new metal box, which they called a 'cage.'
The next few days are a blur. I got fed, which was good, because when I was lost it was really hard to find something to eat. I got lots to drink. And *some* of the time, those dogs were quiet. It was the worst at night, because none of the humans were there.
After I'd been there a bit I realized that some of the dogs were barking at the humans who would come look at us. They were begging to get out of their cages. "Let me out! Let me out!" they kept barking. But most of the time, the humans would just look and walk away.
The dogs that seemed to get the most looks were the puppies. The humans would coo and 'awe, aren't they cute' at them, and sometimes they'd take them home. After few days, I noticed this lady. She smiled at me and made nice noises. It wasn't until after she left that I remembered that she had been there the day I'd been brought to
The Shelter.
She came back a while later. She had an older human with her. She came up to my cage and I just looked at her. Nobody had bothered to even try to meet me on the day I was supposed to get adopted, and I was feeling pretty sad. I was sure that she would just be like everybody else. Plus, a couple of the big dogs near me were mad that they were stuck in their cages. Even though I was just looking at her, she was smiling.
Then I felt something on my leg. She was petting me! That's when I started paying attention. She was talking to the older human, which I now know is her mom, about me! She liked me and wanted to take me home. While they were looking, the shelter people announced that the shelter was closed (whatever that means). And then she walked away!
It was another long night.
The next day, though, she was back! And she came with the same lady human and brought a man human, too. One of the shelter workers came and took me out of the cage and put a leash on me. And I went and hung out with them for a while in a place that smelled really interesting.
The first thing I did was sniff around for a place to go to the bathroom. I didn't like having to go in my cage because then I had to smell it, so this place seemed like the best idea. So I sniffed around and found a good spot next to this cage with a rooster in it. And then I got to sniffing. I sniffed everywhere. Because there were so many interesting smells. And the humans' conversation was boring. The humans petted me once or twice and the 'vet' lady looked at my teeth. They were discussing my age. Like it was really important. I think. Like I said, I wasn't really paying attention. If it wasn't about getting out of there, I wasn't interested.
After another few minutes, the humans picked up the leash and I was excited. Maybe I missed them deciding to take me home!
But instead they took me back to the cage. And they left!
I was so sad. I was so close to getting out of there!
Then she came back and said that she would see me tomorrow and then left again. Now I was confused. Was she taking me home or not? I barked at her to come back, but she didn't. She did stick her head around the corner and smiled at me but she still left. And I was still confused.
Later that day, toward the evening, humans came and took me to another place with dogs. It still had cages, but this place was better. All the humans were friendly and so were most of the dogs.
The next day, I was operated on. I found out later that they did it to make sure that I couldn't make any puppies, but I am okay with that. I wouldn't get along as well with my female friends if they hadn't. But it wasn't the funnest thing in the world.
When I woke up, I smelled. It turns out that while I was asleep, I peed on myself. Plus, I was sore. My belly hurt a lot. And I just had no energy. I didn't want to really do anything. The nice lady humans tried to clean me up, but they were concerned about messing up my belly and my stitches, so when my new human came to pick me up, I still smelled. It was a little embarrassing.
Did I say that my new human, that nice lady who petted me, came and picked me up? She was really nice and petted me hello! I liked her at once. Or at least I think I did. Like I said, I wasn't feeling that great so I just mainly felt yucky. Yucky and a little scared because I wasn't sure what was going to happen. But she and her mom wrapped me up in a jacket and took me to my new home.
All the way there, my new human said nice things to me and patted me to make me feel safe. When I got there, the first thing that she did was give me a bath. She didn't put me in water, because of my stitches, but she soaked me down with a sprayer and then scrubbed my fur and skin with some shampoo. It was so nice to get clean! I mean, I was pretty smelly and my fur felt really yucky before that.
After the bath, she blew dry my fur. That took a while since I hadn't had a haircut in a while. But I waited patiently for her to finish.
Finally, she was done. She opened the door of the bathroom and showed me her house. I followed her from room to room. The place smelled great! I mean, not only did it smell nice, but there was a girl dog that lived there. I was going to have a friend! I sniffed all over for her, but I didn't find her.
/a picture of me sniffing around/
After a while, we were introduced. Her name is Sable and she is a Pekingese. My human, whose name is Elisa, took me outside and Sable was there. We smelled each other, sort of. She smelled me a bunch but didn't want me to smell more than her nose. After a bit, my human made her stand still so that I could get a proper smell. That was nice, wasn't it?
I spent the rest of the day sniffing and getting used to my new home. And I got petted a lot! I liked that. And they fed me a bunch of food. I mean, a bunch. It was more food than I'd had in a while! And it tasted good, too. Almost like being in heaven.
I got to sleep a bunch. It was strange how tired I was, but I was. My nice new human would pet me and let me sit next to her, or let me just sleep wherever I wanted. She gave me a a nice blanket and fixed me a place to lie down. And even though I couldn't get comfortable because of my stitches, I did get to sleep.
My human's dad came home later in the day and I wasn't sure about him. He was big and had a loud voice. He was friendly, though, so after a while I wasn't so scared.
The only part of the day that I didn't like was when I had to go to bed for the night. Instead of sleeping with my new human, on her bed, I had to sleep in my box in the garage. It's big and shaped like a dog house. My human put my blanket in the box so I could be comfortable. But I didn't really want to sleep there. But she closed the door and turned off the light.
The next day, I got to meet my other new friend! Her name is Brandy and she is a Shepherd-Akita mix. After I got up, my new human let me go outside into the backyard. Then I knew I was someplace really great because it huge! There's a patio and a rose garden and a vegetable garden and still a bunch of room to run! It's fenced so that no bad dogs can get in.
My new friend, Brandy, lives outside. She has a real dog house and bones and she is lot of fun! We play every day. My human decided to try and play catch with us, but Brandy and I changed the rules. Instead of us racing each other to get the ball, I chase the ball and Brandy chases me. Sometimes I bring the ball back, but sometimes I don't. My human hasn't figured out how to convince me to bring it back every time, but she still sometimes plays it my way.
All in all, I have a pretty good life now.
