Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Sophie's old history


Sophie was a poor, scared, super shy foxhound mix. She was a stray and brought to a rural VA shelter. Homeward Trails was able to rescue her and you would think that that would be the start of a happy story for Sophie but no, there was more in store for our heroine.


Sophie's first foster was not a good fit for her and until another foster could be found, Sophie went to a vet in Hyattsville, MD for what was to be just a few days of boarding. Unfortunately, someone was not super careful and left the latch to the yard at the vet open and off Sophie went, bounding into the greater world.


Sophie's great escape happened on May 2 2008. Because she was so shy and had not yet formed a bond to anyone at Homeward Trails, it was difficult to lure her. We had parties of people going looking for her and we saw her almost every day but we've never had enough people on the ground to be able to catch her. We called a dog detective in and he helped us set up traps. Finally this paid off


On May 19th, Sophie was found at 7:00 am in the trap outside of a home in the neighborhood. Sophie had been visiting Keith's house for about a week. We originally put the trap near the creek on the far side of Rigss Road. We then moved it to Langley, then back to the creek location. After Sophie had been visiting Keith for almost a week, we moved the trap to Keith's driveway. She finally decided that morning to check out the tasty tidbits in the trap. One of our volunteers transported the trap, with Sophie still in it, to the All Dogs Club (a cageless daycare facility in College Park). We didn't want to run the risk of Sophie getting lost again, so we did not open the trap until Sophie was safely inside. Sophie came out of the trap wagging her tail

Sophie was a little thin and alot dirty but other than that, just fine!


On May 28th, Sophie was in a wonderful foster home. Sophie now lives with two other dogs who are her good pals. Thanks to the TLC from her foster "mom" and "pop" and the companionship of resident dogs, Sophie has come so far and is no longer the super shy dog who lived on the lam for weeks.
Sophie is housetrained, walks well on the leash, is great with other dogs and is a super sweet and very pretty 55 lb foxhound mix. She would love to find her forever home!