Our goofball Ralphie was a fearful little guy and a bit aggressive when he first came to POA East Hampton Shelter.  He had already spent 3 months at a local Animal Control Facility decompressing with the wonderful Animal Control Officers. He was learning how to be a dog after being kept in a tiny cat carrier and living with physical abuse for most of his first year of life.  

But our guy totally left that behind him, and he blossomed into a new dog!  Ralphie learned quickly that POA volunteers are cool, fun and best of all trustworthy.  It was amazing how quickly this little guy decompressed further and transformed into a silly, bouncy pup who just loves to do hyper-speed zoomies in the play yard and go for long walks.  He's super smart, and in addition to SIT and a few other tricks that he already knew when he arrived at POA, Ralphie quickly learned that taking treats gently was a much faster and easier way to get them.  

Ralphie's new family has 3 young-adult "boys", the oldest of whom is special needs, mostly non-verbal.  The family had a dog in the past, and the oldest son and the dog got along very well.  We weren't exactly sure what to expect from his first meeting with Ralphie, but Ralphie just rolled with it.  When his new "big brother" was a bit loud and moving around, Ralphie immediately went into a play bow and wagged his tail, and everything was fine.  Ralphie found a toy and decided that he was here to entertain, so he ran, and played and tossed the toy around.  Out in the fenced yard, he did his super fast zoomies and sniffed and explored.  Then back in the house, more zoomies, up on the couch, across the floor and back again. (Dogs on furniture is 100% allowed at his new home).

Although Ralphie can go from 0 to 60 in nothing flat, later on he also goes from 60 to 0 pretty quickly and apparently knows what bedtime means.  It sounds like he's doing just fine with his new family (where he will never, ever be crated again).

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Check out our current adoptable dogs here: Dogs for Adoption - Dog Adoption Connecticut | Protectors of Animals
Check out our current adoptable cats here: Cats for Adoption - Cat Adoption Connecticut | Protectors of Animals