Hairy Pawter: the Dog Who Lived

The Rescue Group I volunteer with, Paws On Parole, is currently training their 36th 'Academy'. Every 8 weeks 8 dogs are selected from hundreds at Animal Services. Those dogs are then trained, 6 by the male prisoners at the Work Camp and 2 by female inmates at our Alachua County Jail. After two weeks of intensive one-on-one training the dogs are taken out to their first Meet & Greet where perspective adopters bring their families and sometimes their other dogs to meet our dogs. Volunteers, like myself, handle the dogs at these outings since the prisoners obviously can't.

Each 'Academy' has a theme. This one's is: Hairy Pawter. All the dogs are named after characters in those immensely popular novels. I was honored today to be asked to handle Hairy Pawter, the 'star' of the pack. Hairy is a young male Boxer, probably around a year old, who was surrendered by his owner after someone probably tried a 'home remedy' on him to try to control fleas. It burned his back very badly. The injury is healing but he will carry an ugly scar on his back for the rest of his life. Interestingly enough, as the wound heals the fur that is growing back is white!

A very sweet family with 3 young children is adopting Hairy. The kids absolutely love him and, needless to say, Hairy adores them back! So...it's all good!

When looking for you next Best Friend, please consider adopting a rescued/shelter dog!