Many of our longtime followers will recognize this dog's face, name, and story. Yes, this is our beautiful Kalie. Due to no fault of her own, she rejoined the other animals under FFAA's care September of 2024.
All the way back in April of 2021, Kalie was found taking cover from a storm underneath someone's carport. That's when she joined the FFAA family for the first time. It took an entire 590 days, or 1 year and 7 months, for her to be chosen. The joy and relief staff felt on that day was indescribable. We hoped and believed that this was her final and forever home. We even received updates periodically -- she was settling in amazingly and her new family adored her. In our minds, she was a success story who we no longer needed to worry about.
To our dismay, earlier in September, we received notice from her adoptive family informing us that they were moving very soon and would not be taking her with them. She had been with them for 650 days -- longer than her first stay at the shelter, and just 3 months away from what was supposed to be her 2nd "Gotcha Day" anniversary.
As with 99% of our dogs, Kalie had been adopted out with the understanding that she was an inside dog. However, when she arrived back, we discovered that within just a few months, she'd become an outside only dog. When she left us for the first time, she was crate trained and housebroken. She continues to keep a clean kennel, so we are hopeful that she will not need to be re-potty trained.
Kennel life greatly affected Kalie's mental health for the negative during her first stay here. We had to keep her in the intake hall permanently because even with only one day spent on the adoptable dogs hall, her reactivity and stress increased so significantly. Not only does this mean that she is seen less by potential adopters, it also means that we unable to intake as many dogs due to her having a permanent spot in our intake hall.
She's been back for about a month now, and just as we suspected, she is already struggling. Our fear for her is that this time around, her stay will be even longer. We are terrified that she may not be able to recover from the permanent affects that kennel stress has on an animal's mind.
Our hope is to find a foster for her - we would prefer foster-to-adopt or a long-term foster, but even a short-term foster who will get her out of the shelter and practicing her living-with-human skills would be invaluable.
According to her original adoptive family, Kalie has been around adults, teenagers, and toddlers, and she has done well with all of those ages. She still remains fearful of adult men, but male children and teenagers she is friendly toward and not fearful of. In the past, Kalie was listed as dog selective - we recently re-tested her and found that she is dog neutral. This means that she is not unfriendly to dogs in her space and will even be tolerant with pushy behavior. We are working on slowly and positively introducing her to other dogs in hopes that she will start forming friendships and enjoy the companionship of other dogs instead of just ignoring them. However, absolutely no cats in the home for Kalie!
In her owner surrender form, Kalie was described as: a couch potato, playful, friendly, enjoying physical affection, protective, always at your side, and occasionally nervous around men and loud noises. She knows "sit," "stay," and "come." She loves walks, hikes, going to the creek, and chewing on bones. She seems to prefer to entertain herself much of the time rather than begging for attention or for human playtime. We were told she travels well and that she's comfortable dressing up and wearing clothes. We asked her original adoptive family if there's anything they think her future owner should know; they said that "She needs a person or family that can give her a lot of attention, that is active, and that can spend lots of time with her. She is very sweet and loveable."
Please share Kalie's story with your friends and family -- Kalie doesn't deserve to stay for another year and a half or more of her life in a shelter environment, especially when nothing she did landed her here. Our pet animals already have such short lifespans -- their unconditional love and acceptance demands that we make each day they have with us meaningful, joyful, and precious beyond measure.
Email adopt.ffaa@gmail.com if you'd like to meet Kalie or have more questions about her.
