Hallo to you all at Scooby, volunteers all over the world and to you the reader,

I was so saddened to read the plea from Scooby about the problem surrounding the adoption of male dogs at Scooby on your site and the sites of the helping organizations around the world. It saddened me so much I decided to write down the story of Arlo to let others know that male dogs are just as loving and they also have the wish and hope to live in a new caring home:

Arlo was one of the very timid Scooby dogs that came with one of the transports to GINN in Holland around Christmas time 2006. My boyfriend, son and I had applied for adoption and where just waiting for a sign from GINN that there was an available dog for us to come and see.

In January of this year (2007) we received the call. We were asked if it mattered if the to be adopted dog were male of female, which of course didn’t matter at all.

On January 20^th on a terrible stormy day we drove for 4 hrs to the home base of GINN in Nederweert. We walked into the large living-room quarters where the dogs were and were met with wagging tails, hand sniffing wet noses and licking tongues. All except one……..the beautiful fawn male who stood in the corner barking occasionally and trembling. It was love at first sight!

I tried to approach him slowly being careful not to make any eye contact with him as this will put pressure on a dog. He turned and shot out through the plastic curtain to the outside paddock and disappeared. All the other dogs in the living quarters where getting plenty of attention from my son and boyfriend but I was intrigued by this beautiful fawn boy.

I sat on the floor with one of the GINN volunteers Kim while she told me what she knew about him. Every few minutes he would appear with just his nose through the curtain but would disappear again. He was obviously trying his best to make contact with us but was uncertain how.

After about 10-15 mins he put all the courage he had into his strong fawn body and there he was standing just inside of the curtain. He sniffed my hand and slowly and gently I could stroke his neck and side. He had over won himself. His courage and determination and gentleness was what made me fall in love with him…….he had chosen us out to be his owners. The 4hr drive back home was tiring for him but he was amazing. He snuggled up to me and put his head on my lap and looked up through his dark brown eyes as if to say “thank you”.

The first few days in his new home were spent exploring around and getting to know us, the other dogs and coming into contact with one of the young cats. It was obvious that he was more scared of the cats than they were of him so we decide to build this up very slowly. Arlo literally had a fear of moving from the one room to the other. To get him over the threshold would take about 10 minutes not to speak of getting him back into the house on the leash, but still this was so rewarding to do as he was working with us as a team. All he needed was someone to trust to give him that small lift that he needed to overcome his fears. He followed us around the house and would cry if we were out of sight for a few seconds. I can only interpret this as a good thing seeing that he was bonding already in such a short time. A dog that is trying to bond with the owner is also giving you his attention, and attention from a dog is needed for the owner to help a dog become himself.

We worked together intensely with Arlo for many weeks and we watched him grow day by day. I have never seen such a trusting dog especially after what he must have been through before he came to Scooby. It still amazes me that these wonderful dogs still have faith in us humans.

After almost 7 weeks of hard work from both us and Arlo we took him to a very quiet secluded beach with one of our other dogs. We knew how much he relied on us and stayed close to us wherever we were, so we decided it was time to reward this wonderful boy for all his hard work in those past weeks. It was time for him to run and feel the freedom and safety he had truly earned.

We trusted Arlo and he trusted us, so with one click of the leash he was free to fly but although he was off the leash he continued to walk next to me. Our other dog was already running and jumping through the water but Arlo stayed close to my leg and kept looking up at me. I bent down towards him, cuddled him and kissed his nose and whispered gently to him that this was HIS moment, HIS reward, HIS new life.  I could swear that I saw a smile on his face and at that exact moment my other dog literally came to fetch him. My other dog was calling him to come and play and gave Arlo the signal that this is what dogs are supposed to do and that it was alright to do so.

The next few seconds I will never forget and still now, while writing this, I have tears in my eyes remembering THAT picture that has remained with me ever since that one tiny second and one that always will be there as long as I live.

Arlo slowly began to walk away from me, my other dog up against his shoulder easing him gently away from us, Arlo looked at him and they both knew………it was time. The tempo of their walking speeded up and still shoulder on shoulder they started m0ving faster and faster…………Arlo was running!!  Within what seemed seconds he gathered full speed and literally flew over the sand towards the edge of the water.  As I watched the huge leaps of happiness as he galloped through the water together with his fellow dog friend I could feel the tears running down my face. I was so happy for him that our beautiful boy had done it! We had all worked together as a family and now we were complete.

I cannot say enough how wonderful these dogs are, and it really doesn’t matter what the sex of a dog is at the moment it is born. It can’t help being what is it. Male, female, timid, secure, mix breed, Galgo or greyhound in my eyes they are all the same.

Our next Scooby galgo should be arriving next month, a male dog who I understand is even more timid than Arlo was but just as much in need of a loving home. One thing that I do honestly believe in is that a dog will choose his owner and crosses someone’s path for a very good reason. We think that we as humans choose the dog but from my experience I think we may just have that part wrong.

Too all at Scooby, thank you for caring and please give Riquelme a big hug and kiss from us and let him know he’s going to be just fine here.

Thank you!

All good wishes

James, Bas, Hilary, Jari and of course our wonderful friend Arlo.