At PAWS, we love each and every dog that walks through the gate, the ones who end up in our care because an owner has sadly passed on and there's no one to care for them anymore or their owners' circumstances have sadly changed and a dog no longer fits in with their life, the ones that have been so badly treated, perhaps overbred until no longer useful or faced with harsh demands that they were no longer fit for, starved or beaten or sometimes worse. The ones that that were dumped when they outgrew the puppy stage and were no longer wanted, the ones that never knew love and cower in the corner that take a little extra time to come into themselves, the ones that were found straying, skinny and shivering with the cold and all the shapes, sizes, characters and personalities in between. The one thing that's certain when a dog shows up at the PAWS gate is, every single one has their own story. Sometimes etched on their faces with sorrow or sometimes evident in other ways, their struggle to understand what's happening or their big, bouncy personalities. All of them have the sane trait in common, they are all in need of a new home. One they can call their very own, where they feel comfortable, are allowed be themselves, be loved, have all their needs met and are met with understanding and TLC for, like every shelter dog, they are now rescue animals. Heck, some have been through hell and back and are still willing to give their all to a loving owner and return that love ten times over, if they are just given the chance. All of us here at PAWS and always ready to give you our understanding and all the info we have on each and every dog. We do try our best to match each dog to the potential owners willing to adopt them. All these dogs need is a chance as, unfortunately, so many of our dogs can get overlooked or passed by so easily. We can certainly tell you now, sometimes the dog that's judged unfairly is the one with the sweetest soul underneath the underdog appearance, they just need a little extra time spent with them to show you! Often dogs gets overlooked time and time again due to no fault of their own. It is often down to their tough start in life that makes them shy or nervous and people don't pay much attention to them or they bark from excitability and people think it means they have a behavioural issue, sometimes it could be down to their breed or colour. Over the passed few years some of these dogs, that we had called our long termers, have been given that chance and their day has come where they found that forever home, which often results in full on celebrations from the PAWS staff. Dogs like our Pancho the lurcher. Pancho was in PAWS for almost 3 years before he got adopted by his lovely owner and frequent volunteer dog walker at PAWS, Katja. Pancho had started life straying with his brothers and doing his best to survive before he came to PAWS. He didn't trust many people and would be fearful and do quite a lot of barking whenever anyone walked past his kennel. This resulted in him getting overlooked for years. In fact, it was Katja that managed to get him out of shell and take him on walks with his buddies. She did this weekly, building up his trust and confidence before she adopted him and he now spends his days living as a very much loved dog with two other rescue dogs with Katja in Kilkenny.
Louis, an American Bulldog, was just 18 months old when he arrived at PAWS. He was surrendered as his owner moved abroad and the people who were caring for him could no longer look after him. Poor Louis spent another 18 long months at PAWS before he found his forver home with a PAWS staff member! He was loved and often people stopped to admire his devilish good looks but he was so often over looked due to people not understanding his breed. He now lives as a very spoilt dog who is very much loved and doted on.
Teddy Bear was a blurry black and white bundle of energy who arrived at PAWs in need of quite a bit of training having missed out on a lot of socialisation and training as a puppy. The PAWS staff worked closely every day with Teddy Bear to help him through some basic lead and behaviour training until the day came he was adopted by a lovely lady in Dublin. He now lives a very happy life filled with tonnes of beach walks and has been a PAWS Calendar cover star two years running!
All the PAWS dogs at our shelter are very loved and very special but we will ask that you take some time to give someone a little extra time and understanding as, who knows, your very best friend could be just waiting for that special chance.
