About Rowan

Rowan had been a "custodial" dog at my shelter in Illinois, which means that due to his owners arrest, he was brought in by Animal Control and housed by the shelter for up to 6 weeks to give the owner time to make arrangements to reclaim him. Once that time was up and his owner had not made arrangements to get him back, he became the "property" of the shelter and became available for fostering or adoption. After about a month in foster with no adopters, my husband finally got the opportunity to meet him and we agreed that we were going to take him home. 

The animal shelter had a wonderful support system for the city residents and their pets. A "custodial" dog could be housed by the animal shelter for many reasons, from someone having an accident or illness that hospitalizes them, to someone losing their housing through fire or eviction, to those caught in domestic violence situations. The goal of the shelter was to keep the pets with their people whenever possible, and many dogs (and a few cats) went through this program while I volunteered there.

 

We adopted him at 2-1/2 years old - he's 8 now!

He's a good boy!

A HUGE critter chaser...

And after a couple of incidents where loose dogs attacked Rowan, he is now my Reactive boy...

Rowan sitting on the couch and looking out the window, showing his shaved and sutured patches after he was attacked by an off-leash dog.

 This is what a loose Akita did to my 80 lb boy!