I read about Terry (a white shepherd) in our local newspaper. He was shot in the neck during an attack on his home when four armed robbers attacked his owners.
A neighbour alerted the police and the robbers were forced to flee. After the attack C and R, although shaken by the attack, started looking for their dogs. The four small ones were fine but no sign of Terry… he was nowhere to be found.
Terry arrived home some twelve hours later with a gunshot to his throat. It was thought that he was shot while protecting his family.
His owners could not afford the necessary veterinary treatment and after hearing what had happened our local animal welfare society stepped in as they felt strongly that such an animal deserved a fighting chance.
Apparently Terry was extremely lucky as the bullet missed his neck vertebrae, trachea, nerves, veins and the oesophagus and was lodged near his shoulder. It was decided that the bullet would not be removed as it was safer for Terry to leave it there.
His owners were relocating and could not take him with them so he was looking for a new home. But…
Now Terry was terrified of objects held in the hand. The trauma of that night was still with him and would be for a long time to come – that was the view of a spokesperson from the welfare society.
I knew when I read about Terry that I had to help him. So the next day when I was out walking I tuned into him to see what could be done.
He was very interested and wanted to “give it a go”. We started by talking about the bad thing that happened… and he felt he was a failure as he had not stopped the bad men from coming into his home. Lots of tears for me (Terry) and it took quite a while before he (me) could actually say anything as he felt so bad about the whole thing. I just kept tapping on my collarbone point to help calm him down. I explained that he was (only) a dog and they had guns and dogs did not have guns and he really did do everything he could – that is why they shot him because he was doing such a good job.
We then tapped on him feeling like a failure… we quickly reduced that to zero and then we worked on his fear of “things” in people’s hands… also who could he trust to be a good person now. He seemed to relax when we had finished that round of tapping – he is a very intelligent dog and really enjoyed the tapping!
He did not seem to be bothered at all by the fact that his current owners were not taking him with them… either he understood that he was too big to go or it didn’t bother him – I did not ask him about that as it did not “come up” when I tuned in to him.
He said he was fine now and ready to trust again. I let a day or two go by and then contacted the welfare society to find out how he was doing. I was told he was originally extremely frightened by anything in anyone’s hands. But he was now much calmer and rushed to the door of his kennel “raring to go” were the words used.
He has found himself a new home and moves there at the weekend. I wish him well with his new loving owners and three new canine playmates – all shepherds!
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