Scottie – My Accidental Wild Card

A guest blog by Christina England…

My name is Christina England and I have a total of seven dogs and I share the care of another dog with my friend. I am not a rescue or a charity. Everything that I do, I do out of love and compassion for dogs that others prefer not open their hearts to. Most of my dogs are either ill or have disabilities and today I am going to write about my eighteen year old dog, Scottie, who is now blind with dementia.

Scottie, is what I call my accidental wild card. At the time that Scottie came into my life, I had three dogs and had been a fosterer for around ten years.

In 2020, just after the lockdown, I received a message from the rescue that I fostered for, asking me if I could possibly do an emergency foster, as several of the new arrivals from Romania had nowhere to go. As I had no fosters in at the time, I offered to take one. I was shown a photo of a sweet looking dog that they said was around two years old and I agreed to offer him a placement.

Why I agreed to foster Scottie, I will never understand because like many others I had never been too keen on black dogs. I suppose that it was because the rescue had stressed that it would only be a few weeks and the poor little dog was arriving from Romania with nowhere to go.

When Scottie arrived, he appeared to be very different to his photo. For a start, he was the scruffiest, smelliest and thinnest little dog that I had ever seen and he was definitely a lot older than two. Nevertheless, I brought the other dogs into the garden to say hello and as he was handed to me, I checked his microchip against the paperwork and as everything was correct, I signed the papers.

As I had a friend interested in adopting him, she was also in the garden to meet him. After my friend and my dogs had said hello, I carried him inside and put him down on a soft bed that I had prepared for him. However, instead of settling down or exploring his environment like my previous fosters had done, he just sat there in one position shaking from head to toe.

I knew from experience that many street dogs have never been inside a house before, and therefore I was fully aware that the whole experience of travelling thousands of miles on a van, and then being handed over to a complete stranger before being taken into a house, is often a really stressful and overwhelming time for them.

As I went over to him, he looked absolutely terrified and backed himself into a corner as far away from me as possible. It was so sad to see him so frightened. I had never seen a dog that was as shut down as this little boy, he was just so terrified of humans and my heart went out to him. I decided to put some food and water near him and leave him to decompress on his own for a while.

After about twenty minutes, I went back into the room and he just sat there bolt upright, staring at me with his sunken terrified little eyes. For a while his eyes just followed me around the room and every time I took even one foot closer to him, he shrunk back into his corner absolutely terrified. I was pleased to see that he had eaten his food and had managed to drink a little of the water that I had left for him.

I decided to leave him on his own to get used to his surroundings, but just as I was about to leave, he suddenly got up and went over to the wall, lifted his leg and proceeded to do the longest wee that I had ever seen followed by a large poo, right there in the middle of the lounge. I just smiled at him and said to him gently, I bet you feel better for that don’t you? He just looked up at me wide eyed as I cleared up the mess and put some puppy pads down.

I decided to take him and my other dogs into the garden. Fortunately, they didn’t appear to be too bothered by this somewhat strange little dog with massive ears, invading their space and left him alone while he walked round sniffing. It wasn’t long before he once again cocked his leg for another wee. Since that very first day, Scottie has always continued to relieve himself outside and absolutely loves going into the garden to explore.

I never planned to keep Scottie, but somehow no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t find him a suitable home. He was just too nervous and backed away from anyone who went anywhere near him. Sadly, my friend who had originally wanted to adopt him decided that he was not suitable because he did not get on with her other little dog.

It took me weeks to get a collar on him and even longer to get a harness on him. He was just so frightened of human touch, that most of the time just getting anywhere near him, was virtually impossible. One thing that I had noticed was that Scottie scratched continually from the first day that he arrived. His skin was very red and sore and he smelt awful. As he was so nervous, taking him anywhere including the vets, was going to be very difficult and therefore I decided that I would get Meg, my wonderful groomer, to groom him at home.

I was thrilled to see that after some gentle tender loving care from Meg, he really did appear to enjoy his first groom, although I must admit getting him into a bath was not easy. He certainly appeared a lot more comfortable after his groom and everyone had to agree that he did smell a hundred times better.

After about ten weeks or so, a lady from the rescue came to see how Scottie was settling in. Obviously, the plan had always been to find Scottie a home, however, even she had to agree that he was too terrified of everything to be adopted, so it was agreed that he should stay with me for a few months. She said that the rescue believed that he was actually around the age of eleven and had been found roaming the streets. The photos of him just after his rescue, were heart wrenching. He just looked so matted and scared.

I will never forget his first walk, even getting him to go to the gate, was near on impossible. However, once I carried him across the road and onto the grass, he began to relax a little and eventually began to enjoy his first adventure, although he definitely was not a fan of the lead.

It was after I had had Scottie for around four months that I began to see him beginning to relax around me. He would never come over for a cuddle, but sometimes he would come near enough for me to reach out and pat him and occasionally he would even give me a little kiss on the hand.

As hard as I tried not to fall in love with this strange little dog, I began to soften towards him. One day, I was on the beach with my friend, when she asked me why I didn’t just adopt Scottie. I said that it was because I didn’t really want another dog. She said, ‘well, if anyone can help him, you can.’ I said that I was not sure if I could help him because I believed that he was far too damaged to be completely rehabilitated. She said, ‘I believe that you can.’

I thought about what she said for a few days, and decided that it would be very unfair to try to rehome him and that moving him would probably damage him even more, so I decided to apply to adopt him, and give him the best life that I could. So that’s how I became another failed fosterer and adopted my accidental wild card.

Over the years, although Scottie gradually adapted to living his life in a house, he has made it very clear that he does not like living in the countryside and he absolutely hates treading on dry leaves, twigs and getting muddy. I have always thought of him as more of a town dog, a bit like the dog Tramp, from the Disney film, ‘Lady and the Tramp.’ I can just imagine him hanging around the local cafes and bars waiting for the owners to throw him left over scraps.

He really has embraced life since being adopted and has enjoyed many adventures over the years. Each and every day, I began to see little improvements and gradually over time, he became the little dog he was always meant to be.

Sadly, around a year ago, Scottie began to develop early signs of what I believed to be dementia. He began to get confused and pace around the room bumping into the other dogs. He would also get lost in the garden and appeared to lose all sense of direction. The vets confirmed that he was indeed suffering from the early stages of dementia and he was also practically blind. I was asked if I wanted to have him put to sleep but I decided I would persevere, and care for him for as long as I was able to.

Although, he continues to pace around the room endlessly, he is still clean. He loves going out for walks and knows exactly who is with him and gets so excited when friends come in. He loves his food and knows all his routines and exactly when it is treat time.

For now, I am giving him the best life that I can. We are currently completing a bucket list of things we want him to experience before it is our time to say goodbye.

One thing is for sure, I will definitely never forget my funny little dog with the sticky out ears.

And as for adopting black dogs and senior dogs, Scottie has taught me that all dogs deserve to be loved and I would definitely adopt a senior dog or another black dog in the future.