My name is Luigi-DEAF!

Introducing Luigi.
Feel free to rename him, he’s deaf 🧏 He won’t answer to anything anyway.
His entire existance is a story of human irresponsibility and a cautionary tale of why our aggressive spay/neuter mission is so important.
His parents were brother and sister Jack Russell/maltese mixes purchased from a breeder. Their family was not planning to breed them, but did not have them spayed/neutered so of course accidents happened. Twice actually, there were 2 litters of puppies totally 7. Because inbreeding is never a good idea no matter the species 🤢, several of the puppies died soon after birth, and another died young from seizures.

Luigi was one of the lucky ones who survived in fairly good health, other than hereditary deafness since birth, and some on and off skin allergies and ear infection. The family kept him and his also deaf sister until now, when they are almost 4 years old. They still never had any of them spayed or neutered, and were instead keeping the males and females separated which was stressful for the people and the dogs. The females were calmer and the family favorites for sure, while the males spent most of their time crated and ignored. After the arrival of a new baby in the household that the father dog didn’t adjust well to, the family was overwhelmed with caring for so many dogs and finally decided to rehome the 2 males. They contacted the local animal control and we stepped in to take them to avoid them having to be in the scary shelter. They were not abused and clearly loved, but not given proper medical care, grooming, socialization or enough attention to meet their needs. We will introduce you to dad separately very soon…

Luigi is a sweet boy, a little nervous at first but loves attention, was reported to love the kids and other dogs in the home. He was never walked on a leash, housebroken, or socialized outside of the home so will need some patience and training. He loves being with people and craves attention, and sleeping alone in a crate was very upsetting for him. His nails were severely overgrown, and ears and skin severely infected and uncomfortable from untreated allergies. He went right to our vet for a long overdue neuter, and will be on some medicated baths and a special diet to treat his skin. It’s hard to tell he’s deaf as he watches people so closely and follows the other dogs.

We have offered, as we always do in these types of situations, to spay the mom and sister remaining in the home for free to help prevent any further accidents in the future and so they can be healthier and the family is receptive to help after education on the many benefits of their beloved girls being spayed. We always seize the chance to break the cycle and prevent future litters of homeless dogs.

Thanks to your generosity today and all year long, we were able to immediately step up to provide a safe place and medical care for Luigi as well as provide assistance to the rest of his relatives. Many people believe there are only certain breeds and large dogs in need of homes in our area, but we take in little dogs like these every week from our local shelter and homes where they aren’t able to be cared for properly, and always have extremely high medical bills to prepare them for new and better lives.

Email njwoof@cs.com to meet Luigi in Northern NJ once he’s ready, and thank you for making our #GivingTuesday campaign a success!

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.