BIG RED DOG

Selecting a worthy shelter resident going into my ninth Bark on the Boards - one that means a lot to me personally, while representing the amazing work of the Brandywine Valley SPCA - is always both humbling and rewarding. How to choose among the hundreds of worthy souls that come into the care of the Animal Rescue Center? Ours, the campus that shelters all of Delaware's large scale cruelty and hoarding cases year in, and year out? For this year's campaign, I chose Groucho. His story encapsulates all that is good about the work that we do, and the phenomenol team of ARC Angels that does it.

Groucho was seized with a number of other dogs on August 1st. The dogs were in thick, ugly collars on thicker, uglier chains. They were malnourished, filthy and injured, physically and mentally scarred, and so very frightened. The big red dog that came off the animal control truck that night would not make eye contact, but he told me that he'd once been someone's baby before he'd ended up in in his living hell. I could see it in his demeanor. He hadn't always been tortured. I bellied down in his kennel on the concrete and he slowly crawled to me and kissed my nose. It was a start. 

It didn't take long for the rest of the staff and volunteers to see what I saw, and most everyone on the team would spend time sitting in his kennel with him, hand feeding him, babying him, re-kindling the spark that had nearly extinguished in his soul. He began to stand up, solicit attention, walk on a lead without pancaking at every step. Then, one day, he started to play! He chased a ball - a monumental step for him! While a hand over his head is still scary for him, he has begun to nudge the hand that has discontinued stroking him, offer sweet kisses and has a pretty good leg lean. 

While the stories of physical healing are a great part of what we at the Brandywine Valley SPCA are legendary for, there are just as many stories of emotional healing. The stories of quietly sitting, hand feeding, unconditional loving and most importanly, infinite patience that can't be captured in images. Groucho moving from the darkness to the light is one of those stories. Time, patience and love are as cathartic as any healing we do. Groucho is proof.