Sometimes They Come Back

Volunteering, supporting charities or committing any noble deed has become a sort of social trend. It shows the individual in a good honourable light. A society that is eager to change for the better is more prosperous than an apathetic one. Contributing towards and participating in animal welfare is in this same category of doing good, and is highly important for many of us. However, I’m going to shatter this perfect illusion just a little bit. 

This May, the news virally spread across the internet, that Lana, who had previously got publicly known as the saddest dog of the world, was returned back to shelter life and unless there was going to be a new adopter, she would be put to sleep.
I don’t know whether euthanasia as a solution was a marketing trick, or who and why thought her to be the saddest dog ever, but that is how media works. Get used to it!

Protecting, rescuing and fighting for a better life for animals is very ‘in’ at the moment. Just like adopting abandoned animals who deserve to have a better life.
There is a basic need and urge within most of us to feel that we are good, valuable, and socially accepted. Moreover, there is also a kind of social expectation to react towards stray animals with empathy.

You can find plenty of these success stories. Facebook is full of the marvellous tales about dogs used to have an extremely miserable life, but at once everything turned into a fairy tale when the new family appears.
Lana was completely unable to fit into this kind of script. She growled at her first adopter, and the second one claimed that she hadn’t been able to be pet and play with the dog the way she had expected.
The story of Lana not fitting into the happy-ending scripts is not unique or rare at all. She is not the only one being returned to a shelter after a while.

To keep a dog is a really nice thing indeed. The same is true when you are doing something good and noble for someone in need.
Though the regular fairy tales usually miss one important piece of wisdom: being honourable also requires sacrifice, not just glory.

Moreover, please remember this essential information: that dogs are dogs. Those who end up in a shelter are frequently mentally injured due to having been through traumas, or have not been socialised at all since their birth. All these can lead to many different behavioural issues.

Everyone is aware of these issues – or at least, they say they are. I assume the two people taking Lana home considered themselves to possess this knowledge. Especially when the news that this dog is deeply introverted with some further flaws became widespread; thanks to the internet everyone now had that information. But real life and fairy stories can be wildly different.

Adopting a dog is not solely about feeling like a good and warm-hearted person, or having a new, topical theme to provide multiple pictures for our Facebook and Instagram profile.
To take home a dog with an absolutely unknown past from a shelter includes a huge amount of uncertainty, in some cases even the possibility of disappointment.
It takes enthusiasm and a willingness to understand our new companion. And most of all: it is necessary to accept our new dog as he or she is.

It is good that the „homecoming” of Lana went viral, but it would be even better if people could see the moral of the story as well: adopting a dog in reality is not equivalent to all those emotional (and sometimes overreacted) fairytale snapshots we see everyday where everyone and everything is so joyful that we want to hug the whole world while everyone is clapping their hands in a massive round of applause.

Adopting a dog from a shelter is not simply a noble act, but it may be a real challenge. There are many more uncertainties, responsibilities and unpredictable difficulties than we would expect and be prepared for. And if we underestimated the task we were facing, it would only be fair to take the challenge and face the consequences as well, instead of choosing the easiest ride: getting rid of the dog. Again.

Everyone has their own expectations about dogs. A dog needs to fit into this idea.
Sometimes it works out smoothly. Other times it happens gradually. But it can even happen that our particular dog will never be able to keep up with all the overall expectations of our ideal picture.
But such a dog still has values and still needs to be cared for and loved. It will even be thankful on its own way within its own ability. It might just be a bit different to the script we have written for our dog to play.

Lana had not been a happy dog during walks. Before her first return to the shelter, that was the reason she lost the trust and care of her human.
Lana was incapable of accomplishing her duty to present herself for the general public as a happy, cheerful, rescued dog, thus she failed to meet the requirements of her function.

Adopting her was not really about her, not about leaving the shelter behind for good and having a better, happier life.
It was about a person who wanted to feel better about themselves as a person. Both with doing something noble and good, excluding further difficulties or complications, and with having a dog that fulfilled a certain new function.
The former plan was successful, the latter was not.

The Rescue Dog Match announced that meanwhile Lana had found a new adopter and hopefully a new home, where she is going to be taken and accepted as she is.
I wish her all the best from the bottom of my heart!

Image: Dreamstime