Valuable Advice From An Adopter . . .
It’s been a while since I have written about Bojangles. As most of you know, Bo came into rescue and spent 584 days before he was adopted, by me and my husband David. I want to give all of you an update on our journey with him:
This story is for those who can lose faith or feel lost and defeated in adopting the not so perfect bulldog or any dog for that matter. I’m a three time adopter from LSBCR, my first two came into our home and settled in with the pack with barely any issues. This doesn’t mean they didn’t have baggage, they did, but theirs was so much easier to overcome. Bo’s was much more difficult and we went into this knowing he had problems.
Bo didn’t come from an abusive home. His was very loving. His foster mom gave him space to settle in and loved him unconditionally. Our official adoption of Bo was May 31, 2022 and so excited to add him to the pack. We gave Bo time to adjust to learn the routine here. The first week he was wonderful. Then he began to start lashing out, happy one moment, then angry or confused the next. I couldn’t explain the trigger other than Bo had his “quirks.” I enrolled him in training and he completed it successfully and graduated with flying colors. Even with this he would suddenly start a fight or growl and bite at me or my husband.
We tried to start Prozac to see if he would do better. Well he got worse! I was in tears. I reached out to my adoption coordinator, Renea and Bo’s foster mom who calmed me down. They both told me to call the vet tell them the issue I was seeing. We immediately took Bo off Prozac and at the vets recommendation started him on Paxil. Within a week we saw Bo’s fuse get longer. The vet reminded me give it time it can take up to six weeks to see the full effect. So we waited patiently and kept working with Bo. Bo did get better as time went on, but there would still be outbursts. So back to the vet we went to have conversations on next steps. I told them I thought Bo hurt or was having some type of pain at times. They were wonderful and said, let's add Gabapentin to the regiment. That has been 30 days now and all I have to say is I have my amazing companion who runs to meet me, who wiggles head to tail, he wants to go chase the horses with the rest of the pack, he sleeps in the office and on the couch with all of us piled in.
Am I still cautious right now—yes. Has this been a journey—absolutely. Would I do it again—without a doubt. I learned how much patience it takes to help these dogs who don’t come as a perfect little smush faced puppy. I have learned compassion and have grown into a better pet parent. It made me realize I have friends and people who are here not only for the dogs, but for the adopters and each other. I now am Bo’s world as he is mine. I can see the love in his eyes and not the confusion. It has been a 6 month journey and I cry as I type this. Thank you to LSBCR and Bright Star Vet Clinic for being the rocks I needed to make this be the wonderful outcome I wanted and to tell people, don’t give up. It isn’t alway easy but the reward is so worth it.
—Charlene, David, Bojangles & The Pack
