Mr. Higgins had several homes before connecting with his forever foster parents as a 7-year-old in 2020. We know his birthday is in 2013, and we know he was at a Colorado shelter in 2015, adopted but then surrendered in 2016 for financial reasons. He was returned to the shelter with sensitivity issues that he had not been assessed with a year earlier. SWESR placed him with a foster parent who’s heart was in the right place, but they couldn’t provide him the exercise he needed. He was also suffering from separation anxiety, so it was clear he needed to find another foster home. His new foster said she wanted to adopt him and she was planning on moving to a property with a fenced yard. As many readers know, a 3-year-old English Setter in apartment living is difficult due to our breed’s energy levels. Fast forward to 2020. His adopter did move, but the location still wasn’t appropriate. She changed jobs and took Mr. Higgins to work with her on a property, letting him run loose, and unfortunately he bit someone. Clearly this was not the home for him. SWESR worked to find the right place for him to land, but it was tough for a dog with a bite history to find the right person. Out of the blue, SWESR got a call from an animal shelter in Oklahoma, where Mr. Higgins had been found as a stray. His microchip was still registered to SWESR. The former adopter was contacted, said she’d “lost” him, and didn’t want him back. Mr. Higgins spent his first month back with SWESR living with and receiving intensive training with a skilled dog trainer in the Dallas area. He absolutely was touch sensitive on his hind quarters, but it was clear Mr. Higgins was also an intelligent and loving dog who hadn’t yet been in the right home for him. Robert and Arlys had owned five Setters previously: Irish, Gordon, and English Setters. They understood the breed. They also had hearts as big as Texas, the state where they lived. They drove to get Mr. Higgins from the trainer in Dallas. Given his history and some medical issues, he came to them as a Furever Foster, rather than being adopted, as he was going to have life-long veterinary expenses. On the way home, they stopped at a rest area to let Mr. Higgins stretch his legs. Well, he wandered into a bunch of sticker burrs, and one got stuck in between his toe pads. Robert lifted the paw to remove the burr but Mr. Higgins said with a nip “I don’t know you, and you haven’t earned the right to touch my sensitive areas, so LET GO.” As a proper English (Setter) gentleman, Mr. Higgins needed to get to know and trust Robert on his own time schedule before he’d allow such intimate contact. Robert and Arlys got Mr. Higgins to their home and introduced him to his fully fenced half-acre yard, where he immediately claimed every rock, stick, and blade of grass as his own. Within one week of his arrival, Mr. Higgins began to trust Robert and Arlys. So often in cats and dogs, what we interpret as aggression is really fear, or the dog is trying to tell its human they are doing something the dog doesn’t like. Mr. Higgins was very smart and quickly learned the rules of his new house. Amazingly for an English Setter, he loved to play fetch, and he loved the water! Mr. Higgins warmed to his new parents, who were then allowed to call him by the more relaxed name of just Higgins. He’s been with them for six years now, and he goes out with them socially to restaurants and bars. He loves women, flirt that he is. He is highly emotionally intelligent, and he knows if a person doesn’t like dogs and will stay away from them. He gets to decide if he wants to meet other dogs, and half the time he does, and half the time he doesn’t. Higgins communicates this clearly, so his parents know to ensure he has his space. It’s highly probable that the behavioral difficulties in his past were a result of him communicating in dog language what he needed, but the humans around him didn’t understand what he was saying. Robert and Arlys understand his non-verbal cues and can respond appropriately. Higgins has had a great life with his parents, but he’s also had his health challenges. He has chronic bronchitis and needs nebulizer treatments multiple times a day. You can’t comfortably put a mask on a dog, so instead they settle him down and place a tube in front of his snout so he can inhale his medication. Last year he became quite sick, throwing up and not eating. He lost a lot of weight. He had been a big boy, once weighing in at 60 pounds, but he got down to 39 pounds. He’s recovering, eating his food, and is now up to 42 1/2 pounds, but he’s lost a tremendous amount of muscle mass and gross motor coordination. He has kidney disease and has to eat a special renal diet. He sees a vet that specializes in internal medicine, as his health history is complicated and he needs this specialized care. Higgins has recently been diagnosed with a bulla, which is an air-filled space around his left lung, which causes it to lose elasticity and efficiency. The risk is that this bulla, which can be compared to a fragile balloon, will burst, collapsing his lung. Given his advanced age, the location of this bulla, and his other medical conditions, surgery is not an option. What is important to Robert and Arlys is Higgins’ quality of life, which he has, for now. He knows he is loved, and he loves his foster parents in return. Robert can touch Higgins’ paws anytime he wants. He can pet his rear end. Higgins wants to be the spry and prancing dog he once was, but his hind legs don’t allow that anymore. Higgins wanders around his neighborhood, completing a slow but sedate half-mile walk every day. One neighbor was heard to mutter under her breath “that poor dog” when she saw him recently. Robert and Arlys want the neighbor and all of us to know “that poor dog” is happy, and he will walk around his block again tomorrow. |
| All of our dogs have a story and every dog’s story deserves to be told, from intake through adoption and everything in between. SWESR Storyteller will feature any SWESR foster or adopted dogs. Email us a story and at least one picture to be included in future Storyteller posts. Or, we can have our Chief Storyteller contact you to get the information and she will write the story. |