Owner wanted dogs put down, shelter says. Now ‘paralyzed by fear,’ they need homes
Two puppies saved from being put down are now “paralyzed by fear” in a North Carolina shelter, the facility said.
“The request for euthanasia was denied and here they are,” Kristin Marion, a volunteer for the Forsyth County Animal Shelter, wrote Sept. 1 on Facebook. “Chonky, little land hippos who have never known a gentle hand or kind word until now. They were absolutely terrified. Inside the shelter they have been too afraid to walk.”
Meriweather and her canine sister, Fauna, need homes after getting a rough start to life. When the 6-month-old dogs were surrendered, their owner reportedly asked that they be euthanized.
The shelter believes the owner didn’t want the pit bull pups, because they have entropion eyes, a painful eyelid condition. The shelter will pay for a surgery after the dogs are adopted, director Kirsten Briggs told McClatchy News in a Sept. 3 email.
After the pups’ lives were spared, the shelter said they will need separate homes. The two can’t be adopted together due to “littermate syndrome,” the belief that puppy siblings who are raised together won’t get along.
At the shelter, the puppies have been friendly around other dogs. Marion thinks the two sisters would do well in homes with canine friends and patient new owners.
“They of course will need all the basic puppy training,” Marion wrote. “And some grace to go along with it. They really are the most precious souls.”
As the pups struggle in the shelter, they have cowered in their kennels and peed from nervousness. But after a few days, the two already are showing signs of growth in the shelter environment, Marion told McClatchy News in a phone interview.
“Meriweather was the cutest discovering what is most likely her very first toy today,” Marion wrote in a Sept. 2 Facebook post. “She carried it around all afternoon like a treasure. We called it her emotional support stuffie. Fauna discovered that the wind feels so good when it blows on her face and she’d lift her head up to feel it while laying in my lap.”
The puppies, described as playful dogs who “long for the safety of your lap,” love attention. They arrived at the shelter with their father, who later was put down. A third sibling, Flora, has a pending adoption.
But of Sept. 3, Meriweather and Fauna were still in need of homes. More details about the Winston-Salem shelter’s adoption process can be found at forsyth.cc/animalshelter.
“They deserve love more than any two dogs I’ve ever met in my life,” Marion said. “I’ve met a lot of dogs.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2024 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Owner wanted dogs put down, shelter says. Now ‘paralyzed by fear,’ they need homes."
