This month, our Teacher's Pet is Solo Vino! His human is our teacher Nora. We asked Nora to tell us the story of this sweet, beautiful dog.
Pet name(s): Solo Vino
Age: 4 or 5
Background: My boyfriend and I were on a fast, eating no food at all and drinking only water for five days. On day two of the fast, this huge, majestic creature ran into our house from the street. He had no tags or microchip, but was very, very, very excited to meet us and our cats! We looked everywhere for his owners but couldn't find them so we put him in the pound in hopes that his owners would find them there. No one ever came to claim him.
He is over 70 lbs and at that time was sick and unhappy, so in the pound, he was growling. The city believes that these types of dogs pose too great a risk of liability, so they do not adopt them out to people. Since he was not eligible for adoption he was put on schedule to be euthanized and transferred to "doggie death row". Back at home, we were so out of it from not eating, we hadn't thought much about him in the pound. We figured his owners had come to claim him since he is so beautiful, and so expensive - purebred red malamutes cost $10,000 to buy from a breeder. On day 5 of the fast, we finally ate some food and both had a "oh my gosh we need to check on the dog" moment and rushed to the pound.
There are five rooms in the pound - three for dogs up for adoption, two for dogs on death row. The death row rooms are closed to the public, but after not finding our dog in the first three rooms, a volunteer let us sneak into the last two rooms. To this day, being in the death row rooms count as one of the most emotionally difficult time of my life. All dogs there scheduled for euthanasia, most of them taken from fight rings or other abuse. All of them were either wounded, disfigured or sick. All had were very sad. I looked into each cage hoping to see my dog, and was instead was met with imploring gazes from lost causes. We cried and cried and cried as we looked for our dog! We finally made it to the very last cage and there he was - in bad shape, very unhappy, very sick. The cage was 4feet by 4feet. The dogs never leave the cages. They pee and poop in the cages. They eat food in the cages, which is poured into the cage from a little slit at the top of the cage, to protect the workers. They are hosed down in cages every night.
We felt so terrible for putting him there, and resolved to get him out. We didn't want to keep a 90 lb sled dog - we were moving to LA in a few weeks and had three lovely cats, and money was tight. But we knew we had to get him out. Problem was - he wasn't up for adoption, and if anyone who has dealt with the city pound knows, it is not easy to find someone to bend the rules for you. So we camped out there and cried to anyone who would listen. We went there every day for a number of days and begged and pleaded for permission to take him home. No luck. Finally, after multiple days of him being there and us begging to get him out, we met our savior - a woman who was authorized to pull dogs from death row and place them with rescue agencies. She agreed to help us, and to the horror of all of the pound employees who were sure our dog was a lost cause killer dog, she reached in his cage, pulled him out, and he licked her face and howled with happiness! On day 9, he was finally leashed and taken out to the grassy back yard of the pound. On day 15, after paper work after paper work, he was released to us.
It was a long and expensive road to rehabilitate him from his experience at the pound, and an even longer road to properly train him after his former life of neglect and poor training. We couldn't find anyone else who wanted him, so we begrudgingly kept him ourselves, at first, mostly out of guilt for putting him through that pound experience, but slowly, we grew to love him so, so much. Now, he is our favorite and most beautiful family member, and it seems like all we do is gaze at him, tell him how much we love him, and talk about how beautiful he is. He is the best part of my boyfriend and my life together as a unit. He is such a funny, happy, playful, sweet spirit. He has taught me how to be more patient, how to have better boundaries, how to relax, and how to go for very long walks.
Likes: Food, walks, pets behind the ears, cats, people in uniforms, especially construction workers, the beach, the mountains, cabbage, tofu, chicken, his best friend Strider, all of our human friends, he LOVES the namaste crew, especially Bethany , Ani, Sondra and Matthew, going for rides in the car, visiting his buddy Nic in his art studio, hanging outside cafe de leche, taking naps, lying in the sun, and most of all, he loves snow.
Dislikes: Cardboard cut outs of people
Special abilities/tricks: He can howl on command!
Favorite toy: Our cat
Favorite place to sleep: He has a little den - it's a crate where the door is always open and decorated with all kinds of wolf paraphernalia. He goes in there whenever he needs his own space.
Favorite way to be bad: HE HAS SO MANY WAYS TO BE BAD
Favorite way to be good: Sitting and waiting patiently for breakfast or dinner
Favorite words: Breakfast, Dinner
Favorite yoga pose: Do I even need to say it? Downward Dog, duh!
Namaste, Solo Vino!
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