Cody 's life has not been easy. Purchased as a young pup from a breeder, he belonged to a city official down in California. At 7-8 months old his owner abandoned him at a no-kill shelter. The shelter put Cody in with a bonded pair of beagle littermates who attacked him so severely he required emergency care and still carries scars from the attack. Afterwards he was placed by himself in a tiny pen and rarely handled by the staff because he would growl at them. He lived this way for over 3.5 years until the city decided to defund the no-kill shelter and new placements had to be located for the dogs. A wonderful, generous woman took him in as her foster. He stayed in her backyard and learned to love her, her husband, and her kids. He progressed through the trauma of being in the shelter for so long but continued to have some reactivity issues. His foster mom has anywhere from 12-21 dogs at a time, mostly fosters, and so she did her best but had limited time she could train him. After staying with her for 7-8 months he was placed on a transport and sent from Fresno, CA to Federal Way, WA. It is no surprise that he feels he has to growl, snap, and charge anyone who comes near him.
My state coordinator, Janell, held him for me from Sunday night through Tuesday night. She generously offered to keep him through the weekend, but the best thing for Cody is moving as quickly from her to me rather than him settling into her house and then being yanked away in a week.
Cody is a nervous guy right now, and gets scared and overwhelmed when he is touched. He responds to this by growling and snapping, but he gives lots of warning signals and as long as his vocalizations are respected there is little risk of a bite. Since he isn't comfortable with being handled, I have him staying in my downstairs bathroom right now.
He is in the bathroom, with a crate sitting just outside the room and a baby gate on top to prevent him from getting out. I created a buffer zone between Cody and my girls using a play pen. Cody seems to love other dogs his size or smaller, but just to prevent any negative interactions they are being kept apart right now. As you can see above though, Maya and Sappho are very curious about this new visitor!
His set up in the bathroom is sparse. He has food, water, a comfy bolster bed, blanket, and a bully stick. I don't plan on him having to live in the bathroom long, but in the mean time this allows him to live in a small space that is entirely his without intrusion from other dogs, cats, or people (besides me.)
Stay tuned to see how this beautiful boy settles in and learns that the world has a lot of love and fun to give him. He came in like a lion, but with time he will head to his forever home like a lamb!
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