Wayne (dog) and I are currently on an organic exotic fruit farm in Northern Queensland. Maybe you have heard of WWOOFING (Willing Workers on organic farmers) where you do work on the farm in exchange for food and board. It’s a beautiful property with freshwater creek and lots of Australian native bush.
Wayne and I went for a lovely walk around the property today. He loves the life of a country dog; he has complete freedom to walk when he wants. He explores and sniffs and goes off on his own, though most of the time we hang out together. There are quite a few spiky bits on the ground that one has to watch out for on the feet so I find a couple of times a day I have to take them from one of Wayne’s paws. And that’s the small miracle.
When Wayne first came to live with me 5 years ago I was doing a course in small animal massage. Wayne had been living at a no kill shelter called Monica’s rescue in Sydney and on their website it said he was in need of a foster home as all the other dogs were picking on him so he was in a cage by himself. On the first day at our home he sat in front of the heater just shaking and he wouldn’t have any interaction with us. He appeared not to notice we were there, he was just so frightened. On day 3 he came up to the bedroom to say hello and he became a bit friendlier. He also started to show that he had an aggressive nature; he would bite me if I touched him in certain places, moved suddenly or anytime he got a fright. He would also bite kids if given the chance. At this time the only part of his body he liked being touched was his neck, possibly a bit further down his spine and the top of his head. Touching his ears, legs or paws definitely resulted in being bitten. Practicing for my massage course was impossible and it certainly made life difficult trying to check him for ticks.
So today, after taking out a spike from his paw, I ran my hands down his legs and touched each of his paws, and then I gave his ears a rub and gently felt inside them, and touched his tail. I have been giving him full body massages which he just loves. And I just thought how I never could have imagined being able to touch his paws. It has taken years for that to happen and I just thought it was just so nice that a dog that who had been abandoned and treated cruelty by one particular man, could gradually let down all his defenses and now be so trusting and loving.
He is really sweet and really enjoys being with people now. Just yesterday we went for walk and he quite happily ran over to three young kids to say hello, and the young boy threw his arms around Wayne for a huge cuddle.