Update (3/21/24): Dawson has a great home lined up. Further updates to follow.
Meet Dawson
We learned about Dawson in New Bern, NC about 3 weeks ago. He was found as a stray and no one came looking for him. The shelter was at capacity and we needed to get him out of there as soon as we could. Although we thought we had a long term foster home lined up for him, things fell through and we were in a bind. Fortunately, long time fosters and parents to Blue Ridge alumnus, Olaf’s Warm Hugs – Adopted, reached out and generously offered to take Dawson in temporarily. He has now been with them for a little over 2 weeks. We got him in for some initial vetting and would like to find him either a longer term foster home or a foster to adopt home. Here is what we know about Dawson at this point. He is extremely sweet and the only thing he asks for is pets and love. He is currently 48 pounds. Unfortunately, when he was found, his eyes were a mess and very goopy. He apparently had dry eye that was never treated so it has caused some scarring and caused some vision issues mostly in regard to depth perception. That doesn’t stop him though and he gets around just fine. His eyes are already looking so much better since he started to get daily eye drops. He does have some arthritis in his hips and has started meds to help with that. He would probably do better with a fenced in yard for a few reasons. According to his foster dad, Dawson’s version of leash walking is keeping on the end of the leash and orbiting whoever is “walking” him. He doesn’t pull but just will go around in circles, which doesn’t get anyone too far. He also seemed to think the leash time was play time not potty time, which led to 2 potty accidents in the crate. As soon as the family started to let him have more time in the fenced in yard, he has not had any accidents since. We are unsure of his age, the vet at the shelter estimated him to be between 6 and 7, the vet that he saw with his foster family estimated him to be 4. Although he puts up a little bit of stink initially to go into his crate, once he is in it, he settles in it and gets cozy. He has been indifferent to any dogs he has seen. We would be okay trying to have him go to a home with a calm, lower energy dog of similar size or bigger where they could co-exist. Since we don’t have any information about how he is with cats and smaller animals, we will err on the side of caution and say no cats or small critters. He has been around children and done well so kids 10 and older as long as they have grown up around dogs, know how to properly respect a dog’s space and have been taught how to interact with dog’s appropriately. We still have some more vetting that will need to be taken care of and we will cover those costs. If you live within 6 hours of Wilson, NC (or further but are willing to drive extra) and can offer Dawson the home he needs, please either message our main inbox or Lisa Taubman Blount directly.
