Pawsibilities Unleashed

From Un-adoptable to Life Saver
‘What are we going to do about Castor?’  This question had  come up in numerous meetings at the PAWS shelter in Paris ,KY.  Castor, a young male border collie – spaniel mix, had  been in the shelter for 5 months in May of 2005.  The shelter workers knew he was a good dog, but he acted so  crazy in the shelter that nobody had shown much interest in adopting him.  The PAWS shelter, like so many others, is  often overcrowded and difficult decisions sometimes have to be made, but Castor’s life had been spared.

Castor finally got a foster home in May of 2005.  He went home with Lori Woodward, and he was so happy to run around on 5 fenced acres and play and wrestle with his doggie foster sister.  He had absolutely no manners – he jumped up on people, he took things off the kitchen counters, and he wasn’t potty trained.  But Lori could see that he had great potential.  He was very friendly and outgoing with strangers, he got along great with other dogs, and he was smart. 

Lori started working with him on his manners and on basic obedience and he soon learned to sit, down, stand, wait, and heel.  He also learned very quickly to go potty outside.

Lori also volunteers for Love On A Leash, which is a therapy dog program.  Lori takes her own dogs to weekly continuing education classes with Liz Norris, the LOAL leader, and she started taking Castor along to class too.  Liz evaluated Castor and found that he had a great temperament and would be great in therapy work or service work.

A few weeks went by.  Lori and  Castor continued to work hard on his obedience training, and PAWS continued to look for a permanent home for him.  A few people showed some minimal interest, but nobody much looked his way.  Then Jennifer and Melorah came along….

 Our search for a service dog started in March 2005, when we found our 4 year old daughter, Melorah, not breathing due to a seizure. Her neurologist had suggested getting a seizure dog for Melorah in the past but we had not really pursued it. At that point, we decided we needed a service dog for seizure response as well as for companionship since Melorah had developmental delays which affected her confidence level. We spent hours on the internet looking at service organizations. Most of them would not place a dog with a child that young. The few that would place a dog with us required fees that ranged from $4,000 to $25,000. Even after we paid that fee, we were told to expect a wait of 2-3 years. That was too long for us. We went on to “Plan B” which was to get a dog and train it ourselves. So, we started talking with various trainers in our area. No one wanted to take on this type of challenge. Well, that left us with trying to figure out how to train a dog using various training books. At that point, I started looking at Petfinder.org in order to learn more about dog breeds. On July 1, Hobo’s profile came up when I was looking at the border collies.

Castor is a border collie/ pointer mix who was being fostered in Central Kentucky. His foster mom, Lori Woodward, had been working with him in obedience training and thought he would be great for either therapy or service work. We decided to inquire about him but didn’t get our hopes up. On July 4, his foster mom and I talked, so I could learn more about Castor. He sounded very promising. We decided to meet the next day and see how Castor  responded to Melorah. He took to her immediately and was so well behaved. Needless to say, we came home with him. The first night, he responded to one of her seizures. She had stopped breathing and he raised a ruckus in his cage.

Castor now has a new name – Hobo, which is much easier for Melorah to say.  We have only had Hobo a short time, but we are seeing many benefits that Hobo brings for Melorah. She attempts to say more that she has in the past. She also has demonstrated more confidence in public. I am taking him thru obedience classes that Liz offers so that I can learn the commands he already knows. We will also be teaching him commands specific to Melorah's needs. This has been an awesome journey so far. We now take Hobo everywhere we go and he behaves like a perfect gentleman. The success we are having with Hobo is due to the tireless work of PAWS, of Lori (Hobo’s foster mom), and Liz. I cannot express my thanks enough to these two women who took the time and energy to give a death row dog a chance.

 Hobo has a great life now.  He is sleeping in Melorah’s room every night  and they are spending as much time as possible together.  Hobo goes everywhere with Melorah and her mom – to the bank, to the grocery store, to the dentist’s office, to her classes, and to church.  Jennifer and Melorah are continuing Hobo’s obedience and service training with Liz.  Within the first couple of weeks, he started alerting  Melorah’s parents when she stopped breathing at night.  

Hobo is learning how to be Melorah’s service dog as well as her best friend.