Bad dog goes good, lands perfect home

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Photo by Rachael Van Horn

July 11, 2008

While many who end up in prison get out with more problems than they had, Prison is where Dream went to leave her problems behind.

Dream is a two-year-old Labrador/Golden Retriever cross that just a few weeks ago, had a bad attitude and little or no prospects of ever finding a happy home.

Now the silky-haired chocolate colored mix breed can be seen trotting to the mail box leading her new owner Sammy Wilkinson safely back and forth with his mail. Wilkinson is blind.

“She is literally a dream come true,” Wilkinson said.

Indeed, Dream’s transformation is remarkable and she is lucky to even be alive, said WOOF Vice President, Toni Bowser.

Rescued more than a year ago by WOOF Pet Rescue from a home near Woodward found to be overrun with more than 50 dogs, Dream was one of the few that were able to be saved, Bowser said.

But with her many socialization issues, including a habit of running into a corner instead of wanting to be petted, she became difficult to place, going through four other homes and being brought back. “She was just afraid to be touched by anyone unless she had really learned to know you,” Bowser said.

Through a cooperative agreement with Diamond Correctional Facility of Watonga, Dream was sent with five other dogs to an inmate program whereby inmates live with and teach the animals to be more social and train them to perform basic commands.

But unlike the others that went with Dream, at the end of the program she was not adopted through the cooperative program at the prison. After her training, she was returned to her foster home, living with WOOF Founder and President Debbie Kinney.

But one afternoon, while Kinney talked on a local radio show of each of the animals she had available for adoption, the program caught Wilkinson’s ear.

“I had been wanting a seeing eye dog,” he said. “But I know that it will take some time before I can do that. So I thought I would just get a companion dog.”

Wilkinson said he worked with WOOF and they sent a dog they thought would work for him. “That dog was just too hard for me to handle..” he said. So he tried again, committed to the idea of adopting a dog instead of buying a purebred.

And like the chemistry that is rumored to happen with a life-long love, the meeting between Dream and Wilkinson was love at first sight, Bowser said.

“She ran right over to him and started nudging his hand and that was just not Dream,” Bowser said.

“She came and laid down right at my feet and since I have had her, she is never without me.”