Rory
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Rory Has Been Adopted!
Hi! My name is Rory and I am a heartbreakingly sweet and gentle, 6 year old, 75 pound, extremely handsome (they tell me!) male Collie/Great Pyrenees mix! I am a very gentle soul with a very sweet heart and a calm, quiet, soft manner that I am told is absolutely and totally lovable.
I was rescued from a life of living outdoors 24/7 in a small pen in KY with a bunch of my siblings. I spent the first 6 years of my life there until my owner had to be moved to a nursing home and since none of her relatives wanted us, they scheduled to have us all euthanized. We are all the nicest boys, and healthy and only 6! A wonderful rescue lady heard about it and saved us all, sending 3 of us (me, Romeo and Charlie) up to Ithaca to join the Cayuga Dog Rescue foster program. Romeo was adopted and Charlie and I are in different foster homes learning how wonderful people and indoor living is!
I must have been treated unkindly by some people in the past, because I am very “hand shy,” meaning if you quickly (or even at normal speed!) reach out to pet me I dart backwards in fear. I am much better about this now than when I first got here, but I am still learning to trust people. If you reach out v-e-r-y slowly to pet me, and I can watch your hand coming, I am delighted to be petted or get a chin scratch or take a treat! And I really like my treats! The rescue folks say it’s incredibly rewarding to pet and love and spoil me because it seems clear that I have not had that kind of positive attention from people in my former life. I am sure to get less fearful over time, but these things change slowly. I am so grateful for how gentle and calm and “slow reaching” all the people around me are willing to be--they are so kind and I appreciate it so much.
In addition to discovering how wonderful people can be, I have made another incredible, unbelievable, happy-happy-happy discovery. Dog beds! Holy cow! I have never felt anything so comfortable and enjoyable as a , thick dog bed! I lay on them every chance I get, seemingly making up for the last 6 years of sleeping outdoors on the uncomfortable hard ground all the time.
I am fantastic with other dogs and am great with cats as well. There are 2 other dogs (and 1 cat!) in my foster home and I am having a terrific time running around the fenced yard with them and learning how to play! In that little pen where I spent my first 6 years, there was no room to run, so it’s new for me and I find that I like romping so much!
I love going for leashed walks with my foster dad, and am happy to trot right along as long as he is next to me or in front of me. I am still pretty wary of what might happen if someone is behind me, but I am learning every day to trust people more and more. I know I will keep learning to trust, and I am, you just have to let me do it at my own speed. I don't need a lot of exercise, just a nice 15-20 minute walk a couple of times a day, and then if I get to be around you and lay on a comfy dog bed, I am utterly content!
My foster mom took me to her family's house over Christmas, and there were lots of kids there. At first I was very wary of them but by the time we left, I was laying in the middle of them all and happily taking treats! So kids are probably ok, as long as they are the calmer, quieter type of kids. I would do best in a home where there is at least 1 other dog. I really take comfort in the presence of other dogs and also watch and learn from them all the time.
I am told that I have a beautiful, thick coat! With this kind of luxurious fur, I do need regular brushings. I was pretty scared about being brushed when I first came here, but find that if you go very slowly (like only a few minutes at a time) and one person feeds me treats while the other gently brushes me, I do ok! I am scared of loud noises, so need a generally quiet home. For instance, my foster mom only vacuums when my foster dad has me out for a leashed walk and I am down the road because the noise scares me so terribly, they can’t bear to do it while I am in the house! They don’t even vacuum when I am in the yard, because it will be hours before I work up the courage to come back in the house, where that scary noise was coming from! It breaks everyone’s heart to see me so scared of things, but it’s incredibly encouraging to see how far I have come in the months that I have been here, and everyone knows that it will just keep (slowly) getting better and easier for me over time.
My foster parents want you to know that I am a lovely, gentle, sweet boy, and am really no trouble at all to have around! I am very low maintenance and very easy going, other than my fears. And I am beautiful and sweet! And while I am not the most affection-seeking dog around, you can tell that I am very happy and grateful to just be near kind people and living a safe, comfortable, sweet life.
If you think you'd like to adopt me, please fill out an online adoption application and live close to Ithaca , Syracuse, Binghamton, or Elmira. We do home visits on every applicant, and can't do home visits where we don't have local volunteers.
