Rambo arrived at the shelter on September 1st, 2016. His is a long and, for us, very emotional story, but with one of the happiest endings any of us has ever experienced.

   The very first day of September, we got a call requesting us to transfer a group of dogs from a reservation. Dogs on this reservation are almost completely wild. They run free, find scraps of any food they can eat, and most are completely ignored by their owners, who might just sometimes be gracious enough to give them a small sheltered area to live, but those are the lucky ones. Many of these dogs are abused. Beaten, starved, and treated like garbage (with some occasionally literally being thrown IN the garbage!) Out of this group of dogs that came to our shelter, was a large mixed mastiff named Rambo.

   When Rambo came to the shelter, he was a bit over a year old. Despite coming from an awful situation, he was one of the nicest, smartest, and most loving dogs you could ever possibly meet. He was an instant hit with everyone! Anyone who came to the shelter, whether they were a fan of big dogs or not, loved Rambo. He always gave off happy and positive vibes, and was happy to see all kinds of people. Rambo was adopted about 6 weeks later in October. A happy ending!......Or maybe not. Rambo came back 2 days later, the adopter wasn't able to handle a high-energy, 90 lb. dog. It ended up for the best, as we later found out that person was a neglectful owner. But that didn't matter, because a couple weeks later he was adopted again! This time it was a family with 2 teenage sons, able to run with him and handle all of his energy. Looks like it all worked out!.......Until tomorrow at least. He was brought back the next day, and this was when we discovered the problem that would keep him at the shelter for almost a year. His family left him at home for less than 20 minutes while they ran to town, and when they returned they found their entire couch torn the shreds, the shades on the windows in pieces, and the carpet completely destroyed. Rambo had severe separation anxiety.

   Separation anxiety is defined as a disorder in which an individual experiences severe stress and anxiety when they are separated from home or an attachment figure. In dogs, this causes them to lash out, they will destroy anything and everything their strength will allow trying to calm themselves. They do this because gnawing and chewing helps relieve stress, and usually the hardest thing they can find is a table or the arm of a couch. This is easily resolved in smaller dogs, as they're easier to bring with when you leave somewhere, and they're not big enough to destroy much. For Rambo this was a problem, as a 90 lb. mastiff is neither weak, nor easy to transport.

   Rambo stayed at the shelter through the entire winter, which in Minnesota means 2 months of temperatures down to 50 below zero (Fahrenheit), and about 5 months of snow, up to nearly 3 feet at some points. Rambo, however, was more accustomed to this climate than most of the dogs. Since he was born in roughly early July of 2015, his growing puppy years were spent out in the wild in the cold and snow, and he loved it! Rambo would always want to be outside, no matter how cold it was. His paws weren't bothered by walking on ice, he loved to roll in snow piles, and he loved to eat ice chunks! Whenever he was outside, you would almost certainly see him crunching on a big block of ice. No matter how much negativity seemed to be following this dog, whether it be being adopted and brought back, or being stuck in a kennel all day for months on end, he always found a way to stay positive!

   Every day people would look at Rambo, and every day they would look the other way because of his separation anxiety, not to mention that he had been there long enough to learn how to open kennel doors by himself if they weren't properly clipped, and he could even jump 7 foot fences straight off the ground! We even had a volunteer that would come and play with Rambo at least once a week every week, if not more. He would have loved to take Rambo, and it would have been a great home for him, but he was going to college at the time, and didn't want to get a dog just to not have enough time for it. Still, Rambo kept his spirits high!

   We had a dog trainer come to visit us and teach us improved methods on how to run the dogs in the shelter. Rambo was who we used to learn, and this is how we learned how incredibly smart he was! He very quickly got used to and learned the commands he was taught, and did so much more quickly than any other dog in the shelter by far. This training was used on every dog, and helped us get our dogs adopted much faster. We hoped this would also ring true for Rambo.

   In March, we received another group of dogs from the same reservation as Rambo, and in this group was a large shepherd mix about Rambo's size named Henry. The two of them played together every day, from day one they were like brothers! And in less than 2 weeks, both Henry and Rambo went home to the same family! We thought this was finally the end. Rambo went home with his closest friend, and found the right home!......But of course it couldn't be that easy. The problem this time is that Rambo went to a home in town. He and Henry would run out of the yard and into the road! His adopters brought them both back 2 days later, they realized they weren't ready to handle 2 dogs of that size. This time we wanted to make sure Rambo left for good, and required him to leave to a home in the country. Absolutely nobody living in town was allowed to adopt him, and we had to deny a few applications for him due to this. We couldn't make him have to suffer through leaving and coming back a 4th time. And this time around, Rambo's positive energy was finally wearing out, and the depression was setting in.

   For the next 2 months, Rambo just had enough. He would run and play outside, and still made new friends in dogs that came through, but most of the day he just had no energy. Until that point he would eat 5-6 cups of food a day, and multiple treats, (doing the math, since he originally arrived at the shelter he had eaten nearly $150 worth of food!) now he would barely eat 2 cups a day. He would usually just lay on his bed for the majority of the day and would always want to cuddle and get attention whenever someone came by just to try and receive any kind of happiness. It wasn't looking good for Rambo, we weren't sure if there was anyone who had both the time and patience to handle this dog.

   Rambo's miracle came along in June of 2017. One day a family came in looking for a dog because they were planning on moving to a new area and wanted a dog to take with them to their new home. They immediately fell in love with Rambo, even after hearing about all of his past troubles, they didn't care. During the process of moving over about 3 weeks, they came to visit and play with him multiple times each week. They had 2 young sons about 10 years old, just the right age to grow up with Rambo and always have someone to play with, and a daughter a couple years younger, who Rambo was an absolute gentle giant with. He allowed her to hug him around his neck & hang off of him, and he knew to be completely careful with her, but then turned around and knew he could be as wild as he wanted with the boys! The separation anxiety also wasn't a problem, as the father worked a good enough job to support the family, and the mother would stay home all day to take care of the kids, so he would never be alone and feel the need to destroy anything! They also planned to eventually start a small farm at their new home, and anyone who really knew Rambo knew he was the exact definition of a farm dog! They even plan on getting another dog eventually for him to have a brother/sister to play with!

   Rambo went home on June 26th, 2017. Just days short of being there for 10 months! After spending half of his life at the shelter, now being 2 years old, watching him grow from a big and misbehaved puppy, to a handsome and mature young adult, and raising him to become the amazing dog he is today, we were in tears the day he left! Both a bit of happy and sad tears at the same time. Taking care of Rambo wasn't a one person job, we all grew with him and formed our own personal relationships with him. We all love him more than words can describe, and he has left an impact on our lives for the better. Everything from the laughs from his goofy personality, the love we felt when he would cuddle us, the tears we cried watching him leave and come back time and time again, him not knowing that his life shouldn't be this way, and even the frustration we felt when he would drive us crazy! We're all incredibly proud of who Rambo has become, and I personally have never felt happier about being able to say these words for any animal that has come through our doors...

Rambo has found his forever home!