When did you adopt your pet from AARF?: September 25, 2021
Pet’s AARF Name: Everest
Pet’s New Name (if you changed it): Norris
How is your adopted pet doing? My husband and I fell in love with Norris when we attended the Dogaplouza at Cane Creek Park this past September. His happy smiling face, big golden eyes, and sweet temperament won us over completely. A wonderful friendship with his AARF foster parents were a wonderful bonus too! He was treated so terribly by whoever had him before. It is thanks to his foster parents that he was brought back from complete starvation.
When Norris first came home with us, he was terrified of vehicles, he loved belly rubs but really didn’t like to be cuddled, and he really did not know how to play. We would give him a toy to try to play with him, and he would just cower. After having him for about a month we decided to send him to the In-Board Training Program at Thunderhawk Canine training Academy to work on his confidence, skills, and abilities. Christie and her team at Thunderhawk helped build Norris’s confidence tremendously and helped him overcome some fears he had. He still doesn’t care for car rides, but now we can go “bye-bye” without total meltdowns and has learned that new things are not to be completely avoided.
Norris’s personality has changed dramatically since we adopted him. He is such a playful and cuddly guy. His favorite thing to do is put his big 45-pound self on top of and in between my husband and I as we watch tv and demand snuggles and pets. He loves fetch, crinkly toys, treats, sniffing out moles, 8am and 11pm zoomies, playmates at the dog park, and his obsessive parents. He greets us with full affection whenever we are out of eyesight for more than 5 minutes. He has become such a wonderful part of our family. Norris’s story is the old saying come to life, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” He is ours now and he is unbelievably treasured.