Last October, we found an angel wandering around our subdivision. That’s the first time seeing her here in our area. She got a purple collar and for us, that’s enough evidence that she has an owner, and she did not grow up on the streets. We tried to approach her but she’s elusive and kind of protective to herself. So, we just let her. We thought that she just slipped from her leash, and her owner will find her later on.
However, days passed, and we still see her wandering around, not just in our subdivision but also in the neighboring village. She seems lost, finding someone, finding her home. This is where my mom and I formulated some possible scenarios that might explain why this dog is here. The two possible scenarios that make sense are, first, her owner dumped her, or second, she just originated from somewhere and got lost while doing her doggy thing.
Knowing my mother as a woman who’s very compassionate to dogs and other animals, I am not surprised when she kept on talking about this dog. Sometimes, I’ll just chuckle when out of nowhere she will babble about it. Hays, I love her.
Later on, the topic of adopting this dog was opened up. I am not against with the idea, but it will be challenging since the dog is running away when we’re nearby. This is maybe she doesn’t recognize us as her owner, or she has a bad experience with humans. I told my mother that if she was persistent with her plan, we should do something to get the dog’s trust. And thankfully, we already have an idea how.
Food is the charm
Every late in the afternoon, we go outside to have a walk with our dog. At the same time, my mother brings a handful amount of food to feed the dog she’s planning to adopt. Dogs are like men; the way to their hearts is through their stomachs 😆.
This is our only plan and was quite confident that it will succeed. Well, we feed several stray dogs before and we’re able to get their trust with the continuous feeding program so we are hoping that this will work again this time.
At first, the dog was hesitant to approach the food, but eventually, she took a try and then ate a decent amount. A few moments after, she went away and didn’t finish it. We understand that maybe she’s still uncomfortable with our presence, so we let it be.
Days go by and we are finally seeing some progress, my mother can finally pet her on the head. But we still need to do it slowly since she doesn’t let her guard down, and any big movement would probably scare her.
“Should I and Should I not?”
With consistent effort and a lot of patience, the dog finally gave us a try. There was one time that she followed my mom until she reached our home and eventually entered our property. Sadly, she left and run away after a few moments. I understand that she might be nervous and just trying to observe her new environment so maybe she felt uncomfortable and immediately left. We all know that trusting again after experiencing a lot of bad things can be traumatizing, but this dog still tried and let her guard down a bit to give us a chance, and we are thankful for that. She’s courageous.
However, there was a point where my mother feels hopeless, and she thinks that the dog is not willing to be part of our family. But I encourage her to continue because the dog’s still adjusting and I believe anytime soon, we will get her to stay at our house. I said that she should look at our progress and where we are now. Before, the dog is untamed but right now she’s letting us approach her, to touch her, and now she’s showing signs that she’s letting us adopt her. Let's just look at the dog’s perspective on the situation; “should I trust them and be part of their family or should I not trust them because they might hurt me?” We, the humans, should give her a reason to trust us.
It's adoption time!
I saw a continuous relationship progress between us and the dog. My heart flutters with joy when she started wagging her tail at us. Anyone in this world would see that as a good sign. We also removed her old purple collar and she seems grateful about it.
Days followed and she finally decided to stay in our house for the whole night. Most of the time we will watch her on our security camera, so we won’t startle her, and it warms our hearts to see her comfortable and peacefully sleeping on the rug.
The days became weeks. She’s slowly adapting to our routines — from the time when they will go for a walk and the time for their lunch and dinner, and even the time for sleeping.
Maybe she’s part of the family now? I guess so. We already named her ‘Mimi’ and I don’t know why my mother calls her that way. Maybe ‘Mimi’ suits her quiet and shy personality? But I like it, and that’s easy to pronounce and remember.
My father, who’s the primary decision-maker in the family, accepted our newly adopted dog despite telling us previously that he won’t allow us to add a new dog to the household. He said that the dog looks like Moshi, our dog who passed away recently. He even said that ‘Mimi’ is the reincarnation of ‘Moshi’, lol.
Right now, Mimi and the other members of the fam were still adjusting to each other. We are figuring out the perfect harmony between the human and dog relationship. There are times that if we didn’t touch her carefully, she will growl, maybe as a warning to stop because she’s uncomfortable. She’s also eating too much, but I saw that as an opportunity to train her. To anyone who’s familiar with the reward system, you got the idea.
Despite that, I believe this is normal because we are not the original owner of this dog, and it may take a while before we got used to it.
PS: We tried to ask several Facebook groups around our area if they know someone who has a dog missing. But we don’t receive any replies. I also checked if someone is finding a missing dog, but I didn’t find either.