I’ve been toying with the idea of adopting a dog for some time. My insecurity about having never owned a dog before and never being able to raise a healthy plant, for that matter, had always made me chicken out. But once I finally decided to just bite the bullet, I started researching doggy rescues, namely browsing the adoptable dog selection on Petfinder.com which shows the dogs of rescues everywhere.

I knew I didn’t want a puppy but rather an adult that was active since I like running. Thanks to Petfinder, I was able to specify a search for what I wanted, which is basically a small-to-medium-size dog, an adult and within 100 miles of my location.

Molly going for a car ride.

After a couple of months and several almost adoptions, I finally found the dog I wanted: Molly. Described on Petfinder.com as a 3-year-old Jindo/Shepherd mix, a perfect running companion, and it even said so on her profile.

Molly was actually rescued by G.R.A.C.E. Animal Rescue in El Segundo. They had found her in a shelter. She was dirty, undersocialized and only had one day to live. By the time I got her, she was all clean but still painfully shy. But the rescue told me that if I just take her for one run that she will bond with me. So the plan was for me to foster her for a week as a trial period to determine if I want to adopt her.

I knew things were going to be difficult when on that first night Molly made a break for it. She leapt over my 6-foot fence in the backyard and was on the street. Fortunately, I don’t know how, but I was able to get her to come to me. The key was to not run after her or call after her in a soft way, but rather be firm and say, “Molly! Come here!”

To make a long story short, in the course of five days, even though Molly bonded with me, and I with her, she still managed to escape 11 times. When I kept her in, she became destructive and when I kept her out she’d jump over the fence.

G.R.A.C.E. tried everything to help make my house Molly’s “forever home.” After all, it would have been a nice place for her as it has a big yard and a doggy door so she could come in the house or hang around outside if she wanted to. So the rescue hired a handyman to reinforce my fence. He covered the beams of my gate so she couldn’t use them as a ladder, he increased the height of the fence and he even let me borrow a shock collar to prevent her from getting anywhere near her favorite escape route.

Molly tied to the tree.

But none of the fixes worked; she always found a way out. I even resorted to tying her to a tree in the backyard so that I could see a movie for a couple of hours. I had made sure this was OK with the rescue first, of course.* When I returned, Molly was in my house (which I had locked up) sporting her chewed-up harness. WTF?

Right now, Molly is tied to my tree again. This time the steel cable is hooked up to her dog collar, which I feel really bad about. Since I don’t want a dog that I have to tie to a tree, I told the rescue that I couldn’t keep her. We already did everything we could and nothing seemed to work so they’re going to pick her up today.

However, after this episode they came to the realization that unless Molly gets some training and these escape issues worked out, she will never be adoptable. It’s pretty sad considering she is the sweetest, most obedient and loving dog. She just needs to stop it with the abandonment issues.

Anyway, so G.R.A.C.E. is trying to raise money, $1,500 to be exact, to get her the training and boarding she needs with the hope that I can give her another chance or, if not me, that she will at least be more adoptable to someone else.

If you’d like to help Molly be my dog please donate by clicking the PayPal donate button in the sidebar of the main page of my blog. I’ll make sure any money I receive will go to the Molly cause. Thanks! Hopefully this story will have a happy ending.

PS: Other great rescues in SoCal are Linda Blair’s World Heart Foundation, Karma Rescue and AdoptaPet.com, just to name but a few.

* Apparently it’s against California law to tie dogs to trees for over three hours but what I don’t understand is why, then, do they sell these cables at pet stores?

UPDATE: Molly has just started her training which will go on for three weeks. One of the rescuers actually paid for it out of her own pocket but I’d still like to pay her back for her kindness so any amount you can donate will help a bunch. Thanks!