Scooter's Journey Pt. I

By Julia C.

Scooter may have had a rough start in his new home, but Julia is determined to give him the help he needs to live his best life!

“I do not love this dog,” I cried on the phone to my mother. “I can’t love someone that destroys everything I own.”

In December of 2021, my boyfriend and I decided to move into an apartment after two years of being together. One thing about me is that I always take pride in the state that my own space is in, making it clean and presentable. Things changed until my boyfriend started pushing for a dog. I honestly did not want a dog because I felt like we wouldn’t have time for him. We both work full time and long hours during the day. After a lot of pleading from my boyfriend, I finally caved. Due to my employment at Stream Valley, I had access to daycare if necessary. We could make it work.

It took one look at “Bro” on Petfinder.com to fall in love. He was a two year old rescue, and waiting for a new loving home. My dog growing up was a young adult rescue too, and she was the best dog I have ever met. Because of my experience with her, I truly thought I knew what I was getting myself into. On a Wednesday in February 2022, we hopped in my car and drove down to Fredericksburg to meet and pick up “Bro.”

He settled in instantly. The next couple days after we brought him home were great. We named him Scooter and he learned his new name very fast. He wasn’t quite housebroken yet, but that was easily fixed. Then, his first day of being alone at home quickly arrived. He was so well behaved that we thought that he would be okay in the crate. I put him in his crate that morning and left for work. About halfway through my work shift, I received a text from my boyfriend saying that Scooter had escaped his crate and tore down all of our blinds.

After I showed Dr. Corey what was happening, I started bringing him to work for daycare so that he wasn’t home alone during the day. This was not a sustainable solution, however, and the behavior problem still was there. We couldn’t go out for a couple hours for dinner without stressing the whole time because we knew he was trying to destroy something. Something else needed to be done.