Bad Dog's real name is Jacob.
Since today is Love Your Pet Day, this is perfect timing to tell you Bad Dog’s story.
When we moved overseas, Smarty Boy and I spent some time at the Qatar Animal Welfare Shelter (QAWS) walking dogs. Qatar isn’t known for it’s love for domestic animals, so some of these guys were in pretty bad shape. Especially one brown-eyed, blond-furred charmer with a cone on his head.
At that time, he was pretty sad looking with that “lampshade” around his head to keep him from chewing and licking his wounds–a cut on his head and a softball-sized swelling on his leg. Wounds that were filled with maggots when he was brought to the shelter after having been dragged under a car.
We talked to him through the fence on his run because he wasn’t well enough for us to walk him. Believe it or not, he came up to the front of his kennel and tried to lick our fingers through the mesh. Once, like the goof he is, he got stuck in the doorway of his kennel because he couldn’t get his head through with that cone on :-). But he kept smiling that doggie smile and wagging his tail.
Can you spot Bad Dog?
When QAWS put Bad Dog’s story on their website and people began calling because he’s part Labrador Retriever, I knew we needed to find out what it would take to bring him home with us.
And now, over six years later, we’re pretty sure he doesn’t remember life on the streets in a country hostile to dogs. What he does remember, however, is breakfast is now served at 6am, dinner at 5pm and he’s the undisputed king of our house.
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As you already know, today is Love Your Pet Day. So take a few minutes to give your dog an extra belly scratch, your cat an extra cuddle (if she’ll allow it!), your gerbil an extra spin on the wheel or your horse an extra sweet carrot.
