Lessons from a Pound Pup

I met Elliott when he had been in a cage for six months, give or take a few days.

A beautiful bronze-colored Chihuahua mix with huge ears that stuck straight up, people came in to the shelter and awed at how cute he was, but everyone ended up walking past him in the end.

Maybe it was the fact he had been returned to the shelter twice: once by a young woman who realized a dog was too much responsibility for her, and another time by a guy who tried to grab him too roughly and got a caution bite. Maybe it was because he didn't like big dogs. Maybe because he was five years old. Regardless, it was starting to look like Elliott's home might always be the shelter.

I started taking Elliott home a couple nights a month just to get him out of the shelter. Each time he became a little more at home and from the very first moment, he would snuggle in tightly at night, staying warm under the covers.

He loved being out of the shelter - he'd sprint across the lawn, play fetch endlessly and sit in our laps every spare second; he met big dogs and he liked them, and he never stopped wagging his tail - he took it all in.

Brandon and I eventually decided to foster Elliott. At this exact moment he's at home, proudly carrying around a pink boa constrictor stuffed animal - throwing it in the air every few seconds to entertain himself while I type.

After almost a year in a shelter, he has been in our home for two weeks and you would never know that he had lost 1/5 of his life to a cage.

In the first day as our foster, he learned to sit, lay down and roll over. He greets us excitedly when we get home, he never stops playing, he empties the toy box like it is his job, and he still never stops wagging his tail.

My message isn't only that shelter dogs are the best dogs - that you can save a life and find an incredible, loyal, amazing dog ... but also that perhaps we as people, should learn a thing or two from these incredible animals.

I can't help but think that if I were under those same conditions and stresses of shelter life that Elliott faced for a year, I wouldn't have recovered so quickly. I would be resentful to the family that dropped me off at the shelter, I would feel entitled to something incredible for the pain I endured.

Not Elliott. 

Elliott is like many shelter pups I've seen and holds a strength in his soul that I hope to some day gain the wisdom to have.

He is grateful for every second he has.
He loves the good people in his life.
He forgives and and forgets the bad people who were in his life.
He takes time to play, to snuggle, and to run around like a crazy man.
He empties the toy box, but then figures out what he wants.
He lives for the moment.

Mostly, for everything he has been through, he just loves his life.