Daily Archives: December 30, 2012

Simbas Story

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Simba, Sim’s, Big Brown dog, Lovey she goes by many names.
We first met Simba about 5 years ago, she was a very different dog then.
She was the skinniest thing I’d ever seen with beautiful shiny fur and the most beautiful brown eyes.
She was taken from her “home” I use that term loosely from our local Humane Society.
The people who were supposed to be caring for her chose to leave her tied up outside and thought also that maybe she didn’t need food and water to survive, not to mention the love she deserved.

When they first brought her into the shelter, she would only crawl across the floor if that, she was terrified to move and would cower when anyone came near her. We spoke with the woman who had gone to rescue  from her hell and she felt at that time that she may not be “adoptable”. She was 4 when she was rescued and being fed puppy food, so that she could gain her weight back gradually and not upset her system.
I truly believe that the penalties for animal abuse should be tougher in this country and others. Fining someone or taking their animals from them is not enough.

When we first met her it was during the winter, she had been at the shelter for quite some time, the staff at the shelter had taken a lot of time with her as they do the other animals they care for, but she was their “special needs” dog. When we arrived at the shelter to meet her they let her out of her enclosure and she just started running as fast as she could running circles around us rolling in the snow, she was out of control, in the process she knocked my older daughter Meghan who at the time was 8, down to the ground and stood over her gave some kisses and then took off running again. Many people would have decided then that this was not the dog for them. But not us!
We filled out all the necessary paper work and waited. We finally got the phone call that we could “foster” her, well this was better than nothing…we brought her home.

She followed me around for the first few days, literally on my heels, kept pushing her nose between my legs from behind, I was getting a little annoyed by day 5 of this…she still follows me everywhere I go without the nose 🙂 and thinking back now we should have renamed her Shadow…

She would pee as soon as we came in the house, or if anything distressed her, we had weekly visits from the woman who runs the shelter to see how she was doing, often unannounced.  By this point we were all so attached to her, and I prayed they’d let us keep her. Which thankfully they did. We finally adopted her 1 month later. We still had visits after that for about 2 months, all the staff at the shelter had taken a personal interest in our special girl. I still after 5 years give them updates on her life and weight. Simies is a little overweight not by much but she deserves it she and is now our full figured girl. It has been said that people soon start to resemble their animals and well I am also becoming a full figured girl, both Sims and I have added more exercise and less indulging in food as our New Years resolutions 🙂

She loves the girls and other kids as long as they are quiet, there can never be any “rough housing” when she is around, our neighbour Emily was running in the yard when Simba came up from behind her threw that nose of hers between Em’s legs and lifted her right of the ground, no one was hurt and it has become a long-standing joke at our house, the day that Emily was rhinoed by Simba, that being said Emily still never runs when Simba is around. She is part Border Collie and German Sheppard, she has a very protective instinct and loves to herd the kids. Often when the girls are playing outside we need to keep the big dog inside. 🙂 For myself I never fear for my safety when she’s around. Don’t get me wrong I trust her completely she has been around babies and small children and even has two cats and a small dog as companions. She is a gentle soul you just don’t want to take advantage of her good nature. 🙂

It was also suggested that she be in a “one dog” family, we already had the big orange hunter Murphy which was great and they became fast friends, I then found Scamps at the shelter about a year later and could not leave him there, I  filled out all the necessary  papers again, not so many this time though and brought Scamps home that day.  They had made an exception, usually you need to fill out all the paperwork and wait a week or two until you are approved, but we’d just been through all of this with Simba and they knew us quite well.  The first couple of weeks were a bit of a trial, Scamps is a small dog with big attitude, we call him the 5 pound Rottweiler  but as with Murphy, Simba and Scamps are the best of friends and I’m not sure what one will ever do without the other, they are very similar to those cartoon dogs Spike and Chester.  Scamps running around Sims and Sims giving him a quick bark as though to say “knock it off punk” 🙂

The video below is so much like them, just makes me laugh every time I see it.

She has turned out to be the best dog and companion a person/family could ever have. I would highly recommend getting a dog/cat from a shelter, not only are you saving a life but your gaining a wonderful faithful friend and family member.