My name is Princess Piranha!

Officially introducing Princess 👑 We may have to rename her Princess Piranha 🐟, but we will give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

Her photos mostly tell her story better than we could. But there’s a long history and cycle of neglect that’s been going on with this little dog at the hands of multiple people in her life. She’s not going to be an easy dog to find the right home for, but we have to give it a try…

We first met this 3-4 year old Shih tzu back in October and she was almost as badly matted. She had been surrendered to the local pound due to divorce, was reported to not be so friendly and the wife didn’t want her after the husband moved away. Almost immediately when the husband found out she had been dropped at the shelter he reached out to them, was horrified by her condition at the hands of his ex, and wanted her back, but had moved to Florida. A local coworker was willing to take her in and make arrangements to get her back to him. We assisted by getting her a sedated shave down, spay, shots updated and a health certificate so she would be ready to fly. There were some bumps and her tough attitude made her recovery take a bit longer- the people watching her were unable to remove her cone or clean her and she got a skin infection from it and was a difficult patient. But last we heard arrangements had been made and she was flying back to her rightful owner who “loved” her.

Recently, she was brought back to the pound severely matted and in even worse shape than before, with feces matted and obstructing her ability to go to the bathroom. We learned that she never ended up flying back to her owners after all and had remained with the coworker who struggled to care for her with her attitude issues at times. Her owner did finally come back to NJ to get her but when reunited she didn’t seem to remember him (or maybe she did and it was bad memories) and he didn’t want her back after all that. She wasn’t letting anyone groom or bathe awake or pick her up and would panic for too much handling, and so she ended up homeless and neglected yet again.
She seemed to remember we had helped her before and was a bit calmer and even came over to be petted once we got her out of the kennel, but still with a feisty streak.
So once again it was off to the vet for a fully sedated shave down. Her back end was very irritated and painful and she had skin infections from sitting in urine and feces caked mats for so long 😡
She’s settling in and making progress, has some very good qualities, but also has her limits and will need a special adult only home that respects her space and limits and is willing to compromise and meet her in the middle.
She gets along with other dogs for the most part and even has started to play with some as long as she can approach them when she’s ready and they don’t crowd her, and she prefers to eat alone. She’s been pretty good about housebreaking and follows all the dogs out into a fenced yard. She does an adorable cute little groundhog begging pose at mealtimes. And she will come over for petting more and more, though always watching and suspicious to make sure you aren’t going to try to scoop her up or anything else she doesn’t like. She isn’t the type to run up and chase and attack people, just justifiably defensive of people trying to grab her or mishandle her after a lifetime of neglect and we suspect some physical abuse as well at the hands of many people. She’s a classic example of people getting dogs who should never have had dogs, especially non-shedding dogs who need to get used to regular grooming in a positive way from a young age.
We are hoping the right person will come along and give our little Princess, who has been treated like anything but royalty, an unconditionally loving home even if she doesn’t always reciprocate. Someone that doesn’t expect her to be a snuggly cuddly lapdog and will let her adjust at her own speed. Mostly someone that will just leave her alone and not touch her until she’s ready without her consent. And likely sleepytime meds and sedated shave downs rather than just waiting for her to turn into a giant walking mat 🤦‍♀️
Email njwoof@cs.com to meet Princess in Northern NJ

Because of your continued support and donations, we are able to give local dogs like Princess, who have no other options a chance at a comfortable pain free life where they will be understood, and time to let them go at their pace and learn to trust again.

Since COVID-19, we are no longer holding our Sunday adoption events until further notice, but we are scheduling meet and greet appointments with a specific dog or dogs at our meeting spots in Northern NJ. To streamline adoptions, all communication before, during, and after the adoption process is done through email only: we have limited volunteers able to return phone calls. Submit an application from our website www.secondchance.petfinder.com to speed up the adoption process and email any questions to us at njwoof@cs.com. Please check your email regularly for next steps. All our dogs reside in foster care in Northern NJ until adoption and we do not have a central shelter location. We are a small all-volunteer organization focused on rescuing local dogs from area shelters, as well as accepting some surrenders and puppy mill rescues.