“She hid behind the volunteer, in the shadows, anywhere she could think of to get away from us.”

So that wrapped up our volunteer responsibilities for the weekend, and we had a little time left before we had to go home. We still had some dogs we wanted to check on, and we wanted to stop back at the welcome center which closed at 5. Since we were right next to The Garden, we thought we might be able to head over there and see Sassy. We drove over and went into the octagon where she had just been moved to a couple days before, and there was a tour going on and the place was full of people. I identified Sassy's run quickly, and we waited for the tour people to leave. The caregiver left to go to the other building, so we followed her and asked her if it might be possible for us to see Sassy.

She told us Sassy was very shy, but they might be able to get her on a leash and bring her out. The volunteer she seemed to get along with was there, and she offered to go in and bring her out. So we waited in the main room of the octagon, and shortly the volunteer came out with Sassy. Sure enough, she was terrified. She hid behind the volunteer, in the shadows, against the wall, anywhere she could think of to get away from us. We brought her outside and after some patience and slow movement, I was able to sit on the bench with her leash in hand and bring her just close enough to pet her a little bit.

Zak is able to pet Sassy for a few minutes

She was so pretty, and so shy. She pulled against her leash the whole time, trying to get away from me. She would lean against the caregiver for protection, even when I was just petting her head. I can't even imagine what would cause her to be so scared of people even after living at Best Friends for seven years. That is some serious psychological scarring, and aside from her fear of... well, everyone, she is the sweetest dog. So gentle. It really makes me sad that she hasn't been able to get over her fear of people, because she would have so much to offer any potential owner.

I was really starting to feel bad about keeping her out like that, she was clearly uncomfortable despite sitting up against her favorite volunteer, so we thanked them for allowing us to see her, and we left. There was one more thing I had promised to do before we left Best Friends. We drove over to Old Friends, the neighborhood for the older dogs. I had promised I would go see Thunder, an old coonhound, for a friend of mine at work. She loves this old guy, so I said I'd say hi to him. We were almost too late as it was slightly after normal visiting hours, but since we were volunteers they let us in to see him.

Zak says hello to Thunder

Thunder was by himself in his area, and we just went in and gave him some affection. We petted and hugged him, and he was glad for the company as far as we could tell. He wagged his tail and seemed happy to see us. After spending some time there, we decided we should get going. We thanked the caregiver there at Old Friends, and got back in the car. We still had some time before the welcome center closed, and I wanted to stop by Angels Rest, the pet cemetery, before we left. We had seen it from the van on our tour, but we hadn't been able to get out and see it person, so that's what we did.

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