Hey! TJ here from The Gibbons House. Welcome back to the blog. If you’re new here, hello!
If you’ve ever owned a dog, you know the term man's best friend is a true description of the relationship between human and dog.
All dogs are awesome and unique, but rescue dogs are even more precious.
It’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get, as Forrest Gump once said.
I mean most rescue shelters put as much information as they can on their websites, and they give you as much information as they can when you meet the dog, but they are never going to fully know the dog like we will when they get home and settled in.
In 2022 I rescued a German Shepherd cross Siberian Husky. This is Anayahs story.
The clock ticked as minutes went by whilst I waited in the reception area of Worcester Animal Rescue Shelter (WARS). One of the members of staff (lets call her Keira for the sake of this story) had gone to get Anayah, then known as Bella, from her kennel and bring her to meet me.
A thousand thoughts raced through my head.
Was this a good idea? What if she didn’t like me? Would I be enough for her? Would I be able to handle her? Was I just getting her hopes to let her down, like other families had done so before me? I was the 4th person to show interest in her, the others had all walked away due to circumstances.
I was trying to make conversation with the lady at the desk, just to stop from talking myself out of it before even meeting her.
And then she bounced on her back legs like a kangaroo through the doors and instantly all of those doubts disappeared. She was stunning: almost pure German Shepherd colouration except for her face and front legs, and that tail definitely belonged to the Husky side of her! Anayah didn’t acknowledge me at first, instead she found one of the life size dog teddies that most rescue shelters have, bit it around the neck and flung it across the room.
The staff were mortified, Keira muttered “You’re meant to be making a good impression, Bella.”
I was in hysterical laughter. This was the dog for me.
It was at that point Anayah noticed me and bounded over for some energetic ear scratches. She didn’t stay long though, everything was just too exciting and she couldn’t stay in one place for long. Like someone else I knew (me!).
Kiera told me that she wanted me to take Anayah for a walk whilst she accompanied me to check that I could hold her on the lead as she was a puller. She explained that they had been doing some Halti training, but Anayah hadn’t gotten used to it enough yet to use it on walks.
So we took her for a walk around the grounds. Anayah was like Tigger most of the time, the only time she walked with 4 paws on the floor was when there was an interesting smell that caught her attention for a split second.
I knew I was going to have my hands full with her, but I also knew that she was a highly intelligent dog that, despite WARS best efforts, she was never going to get their full attention due to the high amount of animals the staff had to look after on a daily basis. She needed something to direct that energy towards, something to stimulate her brain.
During our walk, Keira told me Anayahs history.
She had been born not long before Covid hit the world, lived with a couple who did no socialization or training with her other than the basic sit and lie down, and then the couple split during lockdown and Anayah ended up living with the man in a car for 12 months before he decided that keeping her was not in her best interests.
She was dog reactive and had a super high prey drive.
She had been at WARS for 4 months at that point.
So, for her entire 3 years of life, she had never had the stimulation and socialization that she so desperately needed. No wonder she was as energetic and uncontrollable as she was.
The families who had seen her before me had all turned away at that point, knowing that she was going to be a lot of work.
Not me. I saw her as a challenge. And I saw a dog who needed to know what a good home felt like.
After the walk, Anayah and I were given some time to get to know each other in one of the play pens where I gave her a turtle teddy I had bought for her to keep with her in her kennel.
Apparently she was quite the destructive dog when it came to toys, but she never destroyed this one. It’s still alive today, and one of her favourites.
I tested her trick knowledge and found it was limited, but she was super smart and was picking up on things easily. There was some agility equipment in the pen, and I got her doing some of that. She loved it, and I was in hysterics because she was goofy and always found a way to avoid the task I was giving her.
In true ADHD fashion, in the following days after visiting her I did nothing but research training tips, how to socialize a dog, how to stimulate a dog and how to reduce her pulling on the lead. My Mum and Step-Dad Neil had agreed to come with me to meet her, as I still lived with them and she would be joining our family, not just mine.
I couldn’t stop talking about her to anyone who would listen, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I looked for names that would suit her, because she deserved a new name to go with her new start. I found the name Anayah, which is Indian and means care giver or receiver of care, and it just worked.
Every time I went to bed I thought about her alone in her kennel, next to dogs who wouldn't stop crying because they were alone too. Again, WARS do an amazing job, as do most rescue centers, but they were snowed under with the amount of cats and dogs they had, so each one couldn't get the full attention they needed. They were doing their best, and I take my hat off to them because I would not be able to do the job they do, I would just want to take all of them home.
The day finally came where Mum and Neil would meet her, and I was even more nervous for this visit because I had already made my mind up about Anayah, I would have been devastated had they said they didn’t want her.
But Anayah fell in love with Neil instantly, playing with him and trying to bite his feet every time he moved (which I now know is something she does when she gets over excited, as she still does this now but only when super playful) and my Mum could see her potential. They both warned me that it wouldn’t be easy, that Anayah was going to take a lot of time and energy, but I assured them I was prepared. I had researched her breeds and knew what I was getting myself into.
They agreed that I could rescue her, and we arranged to pick her up soon. Leaving her that day was awful, she was whining as we walked away, and I promised her that we would be back, that she was coming home with me.
The weeks before we were going to pick her up, I made Anayah a collar and lead, a raised food and water bowl holder and set up her crate space in my room.
Then she was home, and my entire world had shifted on its axis. I knew I could go through hell and be okay, so long as she was by my side.
When we went to pick her up, Kiera had explained that Anayah might sleep for a few days as she decompressed from the kennels, she would likely not want to play or cuddle as she would be unsure of her new surroundings. She warned that Anayah might not settle during the night, and that by the end of the week she would have started to settle in.
That was not the case.
The moment she was through the doors, Anayah was jumping in the little kiddie-pool I had filled up for her in the garden and attacking the football. She stole an empty drinks bottle and sat on the sofa to destroy it, she wanted nothing but attention. And when it came to sleeping, she slept the entire night on my bed on her back, belly on full display, as if she knew exactly where she belonged.
Since then, I have discovered her love for training. Tricks and scent training mostly, but she also enjoys a mess about on an agility course.
She’s scarily smart, but also stupidly dumb at times too, and the combination makes me laugh on a daily basis.
She now walks with 4 paws on the floor, and though she still pulls, she is nowhere near as bad as she was when she first came home.
She has dog friends, and her best friend is my Mums rescue dog, Cookie.
Anayah is a lot less reactive to dogs, too. It turns out the reactivity was not from aggression, but more excitement and wanting to play. After a lot of training, she can now mostly walk past other dogs without reacting. Mostly. There are a few dogs on the estate that she does not like, no matter how much I train her, but we all have people that we don’t like no matter how hard we try, right!?
We have been travelling together in a van, twice, once around Ireland and once around Scotland. She goes everywhere with me, even to work where she sits in the crate in the van and barks at the cats as they run by, and during breaks she comes out on the long lead and gets attention from the people I work with, and she has a couple of dog friends at work, too, so she gets to play with them.
She is goofy, playful, loving and cuddly. She is also stubborn, loves to have an argument and will shout at me quite often when she disagrees with something. She loves water but hates swimming, and is the most beautiful dog I have ever seen, her face markings are so unique. I know I'm biased, but still.
In December 2023, Anayah tore her right ACL, and then in Feburary 2024 tore her left one. After a long 6 months of no walks, crate rest and surgeries, we are out the other side and she is slowly regaining her movement and strength, but we have a long way to go yet!
Anayah is my soul dog. I never understood the term Soul mate until she came into my life, but she has helped me grow so much as a person, has taught me so many things about myself and about life. She helped me find my love for dog training.
Dogs are more than just pets, they are family, whether you have a family dog or a working dog, they become a huge part of your life.
I get that they are a tie in some people's minds, they restrict where you can go on holiday or require kennel boarding if you go away, but I wouldn’t go anywhere I can't take Anayah, because that would defeat the point of me having her in my opinion. She is my companion. I would miss her too much if I had to leave her behind!
Do you have a rescue dog whose story you want to share? Contact me and we can discuss the possibility of you sharing that story via The Gibbons House Blog!
Comment below or connect with me on social media, I would love to hear from you!
Facebook:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_gibbons_house/
Enjoyed reading this? You may also like:
Top 5 places to visit in Scotland -
Things I've learned as a solo female traveller -
What an amazing and heart warming story. So happy you found each other:)