Daycation – Diana

You would’ve thought that I learned my lesson when I brought Tuve’ home to participate in our animal care and control’s kennel enrichment program and was never able to bring him back.

I’ve been sprung from the big house and I’m never going back

BUT I’d been getting some pressure from a friend of mine that wanted to give it a try. So when my riding lesson was cancelled yesterday due to wet conditions, we found ourselves at the kennel’s customer service counter asking to walk through the sad heart wrenching kennels to search for the dogs eligible for the program.

We made our choices and I soon found myself loading sweet, gentle “Diana” into the back of my car for a trip to the park.

It was a sunny and warmish Saturday afternoon and as I pulled into the very crowded parking lot of an urban park I started asking myself what I was getting myself into. I didn’t know anything about this dog. How is she with strangers, other dogs, children, what are her leash manners? We were about to encounter it all and then some.

Diana soon put my mind at ease as she was friendly towards strangers, curious about other dogs and really enjoyed just strolling along and taking it all in. Her favorite was when I would stop and sit on a bench or the ground and just love on her.

Sadly the dog my friend selected didn’t work out as well. The park environment was all a little too much for him. He barked, whined and lunged at everything and everybody. He had no leash manners and dragged my friend around the pond. Diana found him completely overwhelming and would cower back to me anytime he tried to get near her. His daycation ended up being cut short and even though that was sad, we knew this was valuable information we could now give the county about this particular dog.

Diana and I spent three enjoyable hours together out in the sunshine. Kennels are tough on dogs and I was grateful to be giving this girl a break from the stress of that environment.

As I knew it would, bringing her back SUCKED. When we got there she hugged my leg as a scared toddler does to its mother. I choked back the tears and handed her over. I filled out her “report card” telling them all that she did that day and how she handled it. Great information for her future adopters. I got home and posted her all over social media, sharing the pics and describing her positive traits. Her forever human is out there somewhere. Let’s hope they come get her quickly.