Sunshine Pembroke Corgi Rescue led the way but Parker chose to stay on my lap on his own accord without restraining him. I just massaged his ears. He had the chance to walk away. He didn’t. I love him for that.
As we walked in from bowling last night, he was curled up in his crate. I opened the crate to let Parker out. He was snug and decided to stay inside of it.
This time he stayed there because he was tired and comfortable. In 2008, it would have been because he was afraid to come out.
Parker has given us joy as we have watched him grow, mature and trust. We’ve given him the opportunity to feel that people can be kind. He has given us the opportunity to feel loved and amazed by his enduring love of life and the desire to give love everyday.
Parker has confirmed my belief that you can’t let your past keep you from loving yourself and others around you. I think we have a connection and did from the start. I think he felt that I could heal his pain because I had the life lessons to help him move on and be loved by real humans not monsters from the moment he decided to sit in my lap. I allowed him to stay there on his own initiative without controlling him. He stayed there as long as a little as he wanted to and just stroked his back gently. We formed a bond at that moment and earned his trust. I never want to disappoint him because he always deserves love and respect as a living creature. Humans controlled his life before but they didn’t extinguish his spirit for life and loving relationships. He was abandoned gambling someone would take him in. Luckily,someone did. A few people did give him a quality life. I believe we have been able to turn that possibility into a reality.
I think the fact that he loves to offer his love and affection at all to any human after such harsh and inhumane beginnings is a miracle. It’s also amazing that he was and is willing to trust humans enough to learn and follow obedience directives. He seems to want to please people and has learned to overcome his fear of the outside world. He could have turned into a fearful aggressive dog as our dog trainer, Sara Donadei-Blood said but he is a little handsome boy who wanted to be loved and give love. Has done that in an enormous way. He fills our life with love, joy and humor everyday.
I love him, I never pitied him. Thank you for our connection to Sara Donadei-Blood. As you once said love is not enough. We knew that, we needed guidance and training. We received that with the patience and strength of Sunshine Corgi Rescue and our ”Dog Angel” Sara too.
I’m so thankful to each of you for helping us get this far. Parker is a happier, healthier and on his way to being a more serene dog. Sara referred us to a herding coach for him. As you know, we took him for a herding instinct test last week. We are glad we gave him the opportunity to let him experiment with his instinctual heritage as a working breed. He deserves to be a dog. (You have the video to prove he made it to the next step in his growing and healing process.)Now, he has the chance to learn to kick in his instincts of being a herding dog. We want him to exercise and stimulate his doggie brain if he enjoys his heritage of being a herding dog.
I can’t finish this note without a heartfelt expression of love and thanks to Helen Bowman and her Mom, Jane Cain. Their endurance, patience, expertise, and loving care provided the opportunity for Parker to live. He wouldn’t be alive without them. They nursed and nurtured him back to health literally from the brink of death. They taught him to live in a house and socialize with humans. He had no idea what it was to live inside a home with loving people that wanted to heal him both physically and emotionally. Parker’s rehabilitation is directly attributable to their dedicated efforts as Foster Corgi parents. They were essential to Parker’s life line and his transition to our home. He wouldn’t have made it with the medical attention they were able to provide and the proper nursing care that he needed. A generous and compassionate veterinarian I never met enabled Parker to heal inside and out.
Helen told me Parker provided her inspiration. She phrased it this way, She admired Parker’s love of life and spirit. Every day was a new day no matter how much pain he endured. He woke up ready to start the day with a love of life and energy and left the pain behind.
Dogs are often better about detecting, decoding and responding to emotions than humans- It is an ability we can’t explain or quite understand completely. They often “listen” with all five senses which can include their hearts. I believe this to be very true. I’ve experienced it watching my husband and Parker bond and the way that Parker is able to sense when someone needs him next to them. My husband was very distraught over the loss of his beloved best canine friend in April of 2008. He and Parker had a very delicate adjustment process because of Parker’s primal instincts to be leery of the dominant alpha male. He and Parker have worked through that transition phase and are growing to be best buddies. Parker hasn’t replaced our previous beloved companions but he has enable my husband to accept and let a new love grow in his heart again. He was able to heal my husband’s broken heart and they have learned to heal each other. Parker has begun to learn to trust men as a result of their bond to each other. I heard my husband in the background as I write these words call to Parker, after they returned from a walk in the rain ” Come here so I can wipe your footies.” Parker is his pal and provides now provides a smile in his heart.
He provided his trust in all of us with his little doggie heart. Now he has gained an enriching life with many people that are willing to accept the love he so desperately wanted to give. We are there to accept what he had to offer.
That’s the beginning of his story but that’s truly not the end of his tale. He is not just a dog or a pet. He is a family member of ours, Corgi Rescue and everyone’s life that he has blessed with his love, spirit and willingness to forgive.
I love him, I never pitied him. Thank you for our connection to Sara Donadei-Blood. As you once said love is not enough. We knew that, we needed guidance and training. We received that with the patience and strength of Sunshine Corgi Rescue and our ”Dog Angel” Sara too.
I’m so thankful to each of you for helping us get this far. Parker is a happier, healthier and on his way to being a more serene dog. Sara referred us to a herding coach for him. As you know, we took him for a herding instinct test last week. We are glad we gave him the opportunity to let him experiment with his instinctual heritage as a working breed. He deserves to be a dog. (You have the video to prove he made it to the next step in his growing and healing process.)Now, he has the chance to learn to kick in his instincts of being a herding dog. We want him to exercise and stimulate his doggie brain if he enjoys his heritage of being a herding dog.
I can’t finish this note without a heartfelt expression of love and thanks to Helen Bowman and her Mom, Jane Cain. Their endurance, patience, expertise, and loving care provided the opportunity for Parker to live. He wouldn’t be alive without them. They nursed and nurtured him back to health literally from the brink of death. They taught him to live in a house and socialize with humans. He had no idea what it was to live inside a home with loving people that wanted to heal him both physically and emotionally. Parker’s rehabilitation is directly attributable to their dedicated efforts as Foster Corgi parents. They were essential to Parker’s life line and his transition to our home. He wouldn’t have made it with the medical attention they were able to provide and the proper nursing care that he needed. A generous and compassionate veterinarian I never met enabled Parker to heal inside and out.
Helen told me Parker provided her inspiration. She phrased it this way, She admired Parker’s love of life and spirit. Every day was a new day no matter how much pain he endured. He woke up ready to start the day with a love of life and energy and left the pain behind.
Dogs are often better about detecting, decoding and responding to emotions than humans- It is an ability we can’t explain or quite understand completely. They often “listen” with all five senses which can include their hearts. I believe this to be very true. I’ve experienced it watching my husband and Parker bond and the way that Parker is able to sense when someone needs him next to them. My husband was very distraught over the loss of his beloved best canine friend in April of 2008. He and Parker had a very delicate adjustment process because of Parker’s primal instincts to be leery of the dominant alpha male. He and Parker have worked through that transition phase and are growing to be best buddies. Parker hasn’t replaced our previous beloved companions but he has enable my husband to accept and let a new love grow in his heart again. He was able to heal my husband’s broken heart and they have learned to heal each other. Parker has begun to learn to trust men as a result of their bond to each other. I heard my husband in the background as I write these words call to Parker, after they returned from a walk in the rain ” Come here so I can wipe your footies.” Parker is his pal and provides now provides a smile in his heart.
He provided his trust in all of us with his little doggie heart. Now he has gained an enriching life with many people that are willing to accept the love he so desperately wanted to give. We are there to accept what he had to offer.
That’s the beginning of his story but that’s truly not the end of his tale. He is not just a dog or a pet. He is a family member of ours, Corgi Rescue and everyone’s life that he has blessed with his love, spirit and willingness to forgive.
R
I relate to his willingness and desire to overcome other people’s past behaviors and not let it stop you from accepting love from others and live a fearless life with the opportunity to learn to love again. Everyone deserves the chance for joy and love from others with the right to have the serenity of a healthy relationship. You have to be willing to push past your own baggage and be open and willing to not take the blame for what someone else did to you. It wasn’t his fault. It’s also important to take responsibility for your own growth and development and learn to love again. It sometimes take years but it’s worth living with love and trust again the right way. Parker is doing that in his own little dog life. He is taking responsibility to learn to be a dog when he never had that chance. It was taken away from him to learn to live the right way and it’s not his fault.
Parker licks my face to wake up me, greet me no matter how long I’ve been away and fall asleep. He kisses both me and my husband goodnight every night and then settles down to the ottoman at the foot of the bed that he has made into his resting place at night. I feel safe when I sleep because of the comfort of a canine friend and the comforting kisses of my loving companion Parker.