Two weeks before our wedding in August of 2011, Alec and I drove up to North Sacramento to adopt a young brindle Mastiff-Rottweiler mix that would become the newest member of our family and would safeguard both our new home and the members of our family. After our honeymoon, we returned to the breeder's home and picked up our growing bundle of fur and paws that sat on my lap the entire ride home, quietly licking my arm. From the first moment I fixed my eyes upon hers, I was in love. This little puppy quickly became part of our family and with each passing day, she would grow. However, after a couple of days, we noticed that she was lethargic and was not growing as much as a puppy of her size should and later found out through a horribly NSFW moment that she had developed stage 4 ringworm and was dangerously near death had we not have adopted her and gotten the urgent medical care that she needed. After a strict regimen of medicine, the formerly lethargic pup transformed into a ball of energy and enthusiasm- running through the corridors of the house. After we moved from the house in South Sacramento and into my mother's home in East Sacramento, our family became scrunched into the confines of a single room where we had once had the space of a full home. We all crammed into my childhood room and for the next three months, Suri grew in leaps and bounds and while she tested her boundaries. We found excellent obedience training with Blair from
Primal Needs Dog Training . Months passed and we soon found ourselves new homeowners, moving out of my childhood room and into a beautiful home in Natomas. Suri could now play in our notably limited backyard and could be taken to the abundance of parks near our home.
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| 3 month old Suri with her large doe eyes |
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| Suri's favorite hiding place under the coffee table |
Since she was a puppy, Suri has always had difficulty allowing other animals (may they be our two cats, or her smaller canine compadre) near what she deemed as her area. She would often get into fights over treats or wet food that was lying out on the floor and would get into a prison mentality- huddling over the food and resisting any other animal's attempts at it. This is when Blair came in- he showed us how to properly discipline Suri (and ourselves) and how to banish unwanted behavior. For the most part, his training worked and she quickly morphed into a completely different dog. She was obedient and would listen to our commands despite her surroundings. However, every once in awhile, she would become territorial and jump on one of the other animals. During her outbursts, she never physically harmed the other animals but her size as a puppy limited the amount of damage that she could do. Recently, Suri became territorial when our small dog walked past her crate and jumped on top of her. While the same action would not have injured Maia in any way five months before, this outburst did injure Maia significantly and left us with a hefty emergency veterinarian bill and a many sleepless nights.
Despite her action, we still love Suri and as I write this, tears stream down my face as the image of her playing outside in the water conflicts with that of her jumping on Maia. She is an amazing and loving dog who is loyal and faithful but has territory issues and due to those issues, she needs to be in a single pet household. Alec and I have reached out to family, friends, rescue groups, and other animal advocacy groups to try to find a forever home for Suri but have found no such luck. The rescue groups pull all of their animals from local shelters and do not take dogs from their owners. A no-kill shelter that we reached out to in Stockton was overbooked and they could not accept Suri into their shelter. Everywhere we looked, we were rejected and as the local animal shelters have a notoriously high kill rate and given Suri's history, she would more than likely be put down after a couple of days in their facility. For Alec and I, this is not an option. Suri is a loving dog with a lot to give and should not be put down for her territorialism.
In the past couple of days, we talked with Renee at Rotts of Friends, a local Rottweiler rescue group in Woodland, who told us that she could not take Suri from us as she saves the dogs who are on death row at the local shelters but would be willing to take her if we gave a donation to her organization. With that donation, Renee would be able to house Suri in her home and train her in the same manner she trains police dogs along with giving her the ability to utilize all of her resources to find Suri the perfect forever home that would allow her to flourish. This entire process sounded wonderful but after the vet bill for Maia, we found ourselves unable to come up with the money needed to take Suri to
Rotts of Friends.
This is where you come in. With your help, we can place Suri in an environment in which she will socialize with other dogs of varying sizes, learn how to live within a pack, and adopt proper training and obedience skills. We cannot do this on our own and desperately need donations to prevent Suri from being euthanized. These are currently our only two options and Alec and I could not bear euthanizing such an integral part of our family. While giving Suri away will be emotionally taxing on us, we will be able to find solace in the fact that she will be living in a caring environment and will be given the best home possible.
