MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- "Ricky" is a funny, smart, loyal and loving two-and-a-half-year-old terrier mix. He's a very special dog looking for a loving "furever" home.
Milwaukee Pets Alive, a local 501(c)3 non-profit rescue organization is looking for a special home for this special dog.
At first glance, you’d never know Ricky has been through so much in his young life.
Ricky
Ricky was attacked by dogs when he was still a developing puppy -- causing him extreme anxiety around other canines. While society is learning about post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in humans as soldiers come back from battle and from civilians who experience tragic events, few people know that animals can experience PTSD, too.
Ricky
“Ricky has PTSD from the traumatic attack he experienced as a puppy. Just as with humans that experience PTSD, a dog or other animal that experiences PTSD may react to a trigger in such a way that, to your average person, seems disproportionate to the circumstance, but for that individual, the situation and the anxiety is very real and very painful,” says Milwaukee Pets Alive’s Executive Director, Lisa Grabowski.
Ricky has worked extensively with professional dog trainers, a behaviorist and his veterinarian to give him tools to cope with his anxiety. As a result, when Ricky is not around other dogs, he is a happy-go-lucky dog with a puppy-like spring in his step. But still, when Ricky sees other dogs, the stress is just too much. That is how the team of people that work with Ricky came to the conclusion that a home environment where he is the only pet, in a country, rural, or suburban area where houses (and therefore, other dogs) are fewer and farther between, and where Ricky can avoid other dogs for the most part is in Ricky’s best interest, and where he will be most happy.
And happiness is what Milwaukee Pets Alive wants for all the pets it rescues.
Ricky is currently being fostered in a suburb just outside of Milwaukee, and with a little planning to take Ricky out for walks in the neighborhood when other dogs aren’t as likely to be out and about -- like over the lunch hour, later at night, etc. -- that type of environment works just fine for Ricky.
Ricky
“We also take Ricky out for long walks in a nearby office park which works well because we never see other dogs there and Ricky is free to relax and just be the dog he was always meant to be,” says Grabowski.
Despite more than 400 flyers posted in more rural areas of southeastern Wisconsin, daily social media posts, and other online marketing tools, in the more than a year-and-a-half that Ricky has been in his current foster home, Ricky hasn’t had one inquiry to adopt him that fits the home environment he needs as the only pet in a rural or suburban area.
“We know Ricky’s forever family is out there. This is Wisconsin. There are more rural areas than not. And there are many people that only want one pet. We are just having trouble connecting to his forever family in those areas and that has no other pets at home. But we also know that Wisconsin is full of animal-loving people, and if everyone that sees this talks to their friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors about Ricky, he will find the forever home he so deserves. He is such an amazing dog – he will have you laughing every day, and will love you forever. There is no more devoted dog than Ricky. Ricky really needs the help of his community to find him the loves of his life. He’s counting on everyone to help him,” said Grabowski.
Ricky’s foster family is expecting their first baby, so Milwaukee Pets Alive is hoping to connect Ricky with his forever family by the end of the month.
If you or someone you know would like to adopt Ricky, please email adopt@milwaukeepetsalive.org or visit www.milwaukeepetsalive.org for more information.
Ricky
Milwaukee Pets Alive is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the killing of Milwaukee’s homeless pets through comprehensive programs and resources benefiting and serving the people and companion animals of Milwaukee first. Our top priority is that all healthy, treatable, and rehabilitatable animals at Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission (MADACC) achieve live outcomes.