09/29/2026
Lola | 2 Years Old | 57 lbs.
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Lola has been here since May.
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For most people, that may just sound like a date.
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For those of us who work in animal welfare, we know what it means.
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It is far, far too long for a dog to live in a shelter.
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And we need to be honest with you.
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It has left scars on Lola.
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She is declining.
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She has been declining for some time.
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Our staff has done everything they know to do.
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Extra time outside of her kennel. Longer walks. Playgroups with dogs she enjoys. Exercise. Enrichment. Mental stimulation. Quiet time away from the kennel. And a whole lot of extra love.
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How could they not?
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At this point, Lola has become part of their everyday routine. They know her moods. They know what makes her happy. They know when she’s having a hard day. They know the little pieces of Lola that most visitors will never get the opportunity to see.
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They love her.
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But loving her isn’t enough.
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And that is an incredibly difficult thing for us to admit.
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Nothing extra we give her can change the fact that when the walk is over, Lola goes back into a kennel.
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Nothing can make the noise stop.
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Nothing can give her a couch at the end of the day.
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Nothing can give her the security of knowing that tomorrow could finally be different.
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We cannot enrichment-toy our way out of what months of shelter life have done to her.
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The only thing left that can truly change this for Lola is a home.
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And finding that home is going to require somebody very special.
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Because the dog you may see when you first meet Lola is not the whole dog.
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Right now, Lola is tired.
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She’s stressed.
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She’s frustrated.
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She’s confused.
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She lives with her guard up because somewhere along the way, that became how she learned to survive change.
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And some days, if we’re being truthful, it feels like Lola has simply decided that these four walls, the barking and the same shelter routine day after day are all life has left for her.
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But we know they aren’t.
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Because we know who Lola was before she came here.
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Lola originally arrived as a stray, but over the months, several people who knew her before the shelter have reached out. Piece by piece, they helped us understand the life Lola once had.
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And it makes the dog standing in front of us today make so much more sense.
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Lola was loved.
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She had a family.
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She had someone she had known for most of her life.
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She lived with other dogs.
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She adored children.
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She loved car rides.
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She loved long walks.
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She was somebody’s companion.
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Somebody’s sidekick.
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Somebody’s dog.
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Then she lost that life.
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Through circumstances outside of Lola’s control, she was separated from the owner she had known and loved.
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And if we had to point to where everything began to unravel for her, we think it was probably there.
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What followed appears to have been roughly six months of instability.
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A different home.
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Then another.
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Then another.
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Lola kept being moved, and from what we’ve been able to piece together, those environments weren’t giving her the stability she desperately needed to feel safe again.
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Then she landed here.
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Another unfamiliar place. More unfamiliar people. More change.
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Except this time, instead of another house, it was a kennel.
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So when we tell you Lola doesn’t want a stranger walking up and immediately becoming her best friend, we need you to understand why.
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She doesn’t know that the stranger standing in front of her kennel might be the person who changes everything.
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She doesn’t know that letting you into her circle might mean sleeping beside you someday.
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She doesn’t know your car could take her somewhere good.
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She doesn’t know your front door could become her front door.
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All Lola knows is that people and places have changed over and over again.
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So now?
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You have to earn your way in.
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It probably won’t happen during your first visit.
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It may not happen during your second.
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But come back.
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Sit with her again.
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Let her see you.
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Let her remember you.
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Give her absolutely no reason to be afraid of what happens next.
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And little by little, those walls start getting shorter.
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We know because she has done it with us.
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Lola has formed tremendous bonds with the people who care for her every day.
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We know this girl is capable of loving.
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Not halfway, either.
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Lola loves hard.
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Once you are hers, you are hers.
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That dog—the happy, loving, smart girl who desperately wants to be the center of somebody’s world—is still in there.
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We see glimpses of her.
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But we don’t believe she can fully come back while she remains in the environment that is keeping her stress so high.
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Lola was adopted once during her stay with us.
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She went into a loving family with children and another dog. At first, she was scared and needed patience.
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They gave it to her.
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And for a little while, we got a glimpse of the Lola we’ve been fighting so hard to get back.
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Lola rested.
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She played.
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She cuddled.
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She loved.
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She slept hard.
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She began decompressing.
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For a little while, she got to stop being a shelter dog and simply be someone’s dog again.
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But we learned something important from that adoption.
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We underestimated just how much healing Lola still has to do.
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A busy household, children, the unpredictability that naturally comes with family life and another dog sharing the home meant there was still too much happening around her.
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It wasn’t a lack of love.
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It simply wasn’t the environment Lola needs right now.
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So this time, we want to give her less.
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Less noise.
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Less pressure.
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Less competition for attention.
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Less happening around her.
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And so much more peace.
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We believe Lola’s best chance is a quiet home with one or two patient adults who are willing to let their world become very small with her for a while.
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No expectation that she immediately loves you.
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No parade of visitors coming over to meet the new dog.
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No pressure to take her everywhere.
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No expectation that she instantly becomes the dog she used to be.
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Just safety.
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Routine.
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Predictability.
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Patience.
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And time.
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Time to feel comfortable meeting you.
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Time to bond.
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Time to remember that car rides can lead somewhere fun.
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Time to discover that sleeping beside someone can feel safe again.
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Time to learn that unfamiliar people don’t always need to be kept away.
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Time to breathe without constantly being on guard.
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Time to sleep.
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Time to heal.
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Time to just be a dog again.
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And we will help.
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If you are the person willing to give Lola that chance, we will help guide you through those first meetings and the transition that follows.
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We aren’t looking for somebody who sees this post, feels sorry for her and takes her home tomorrow.
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We are looking for somebody who understands her.
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Someone willing to come meet her.
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Then come back.
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And maybe come back again.
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Someone who doesn’t take it personally when Lola says she isn’t ready.
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Someone who understands that trust built slowly can still become something incredibly strong.
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Someone who can look past the exhausted, stressed shelter dog standing in front of them and believe us when we say:
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There is an incredible dog underneath all of this.
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We cannot keep pretending shelter life isn’t taking something from her.
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We see it.
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Every day.
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And the people who love her here are running out of ways to make it better.
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Lola needs what we cannot give her.
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A quiet home.
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A safe place.
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A person of her own.
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And enough time to realize that this time, nobody is sending her somewhere else.
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Please, if you have followed Lola’s story, if you have thought about her, or if you are someone with a quiet home and the patience to build a relationship rather than expecting one immediately, come meet her.
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Don’t come expecting Lola to prove herself to you in fifteen minutes.
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Come prepared to prove to her that you’re worth trusting.
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Then come back and do it again.
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Because we truly believe that eventually, Lola will understand.
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She’ll realize she’s safe.
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She’ll sleep without listening for what happens next.
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She’ll ride in the car without wondering where she’s being taken this time.
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She’ll curl up beside her person and know she gets to wake up in the same home tomorrow.
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And one day, that person is going to look at the dog sleeping peacefully beside them and have a hard time believing she was ever the frightened, exhausted girl described in this post.
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We believe that dog is still in there.
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We know she can love.
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We know she can bond.
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We know she can be somebody’s best friend again.
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Lola hasn’t forgotten how to love. She’s just forgotten what it feels like to believe that love is permanent.
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Somebody has to show her.
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And when she finally believes you?
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We have a feeling you’re going to have one fiercely devoted, deeply loving, ride-or-die best friend for the rest of her life. ❤️
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Please stop in during our business hours to talk with us about Lola. We’ll be honest about where she is emotionally, what she needs and how we can help you begin building that relationship.
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She has spent long enough learning how to survive without a home.
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It’s time for Lola to remember how to live in one. ❤️🐾
