6 myths about shelter animals that crash on reality

Argus and Arjuna are brother and sister from the same litter. I took them from the shelter at the age of five months. I can't say that there were no difficulties with pets at all. Recently they had a conflict with other dogs, and so that this does not happen again, we now regularly consult a zoopsychologist from the shelter, and also work with a dog handler. But I am already seeing tremendous progress. They never showed aggression towards people and calmly stay with friends if I need to leave.

Dogs are very different. Arjuna is a serious dog. She usually greets everyone happily, and then crawls under the table to take a break from the people. She is also a lifeguard. If he sees that someone is floundering in the water, he will definitely swim up and, if necessary, help to get to the shore.

Argus, on the other hand, is a delicate flower with a cheerful disposition. On walks, he needs to go up to everyone who wants to stroke him, and in a cafe - lie down on the aisle so that they pay attention to him. Argus knows how to draw pictures: at first I gave him a brush and encouraged him for holding it in his teeth, and then he himself began to move it over the sheet. He especially loves blue and green shades.

They both love to bathe in the shower, skateboard, sing along when I play melodic or harmonica. And when I do yoga, they lie down and bend over, trying to repeat the asanas.

I was Heidi's guardian and initially knew that she hardly saw, besides, the dog was not very good at contact. It is especially difficult for such animals in shelters, and this is partly why I decided to take her from the shelter.

I can't say that I somehow specially prepared for Heidi's appearance at home. Despite her vision problems, she quickly began to navigate the apartment and learned to go to the toilet on the street. Over time, I managed to win her trust: the dog became affectionate, stopped being afraid of people. And my eyesight recovered a little.

Heidi is doing well now. She is an ideal dog: calm, quiet, neat and patient, she is friends with my second pet, the Yorkshire Terrier. Heidi loves to be in the car with me: we often go together on business, out of town or on a visit, recently we were at a show jumping competition. The dog is ready for any adventure, if only I was there. Usually sits in the back seat in his couch with the "director's face".

And thanks to Heidi, I found a lot of new friends and like-minded people on the Internet who are also not indifferent to animals, are engaged in zoovolunteering or have taken a friend from a shelter.

I wanted a cat for a long time, but I doubted it. And then we in the editorial office, in which I worked then, decided to make a project about homeless animals. We went to the site for catching and keeping stray animals. There I was asked to say a couple of phrases about how important it is to take them home, and to make my words sound more convincing, they gave me a black kitten. I did not choose him at all - the employee of the site simply pulled out from the group of black kittens the one that shouted the loudest.

When I took the kitten in my arms, he calmed down, and I realized that I would never part with him. It turned out that this is a four-month-old girl.

The cat was named Basya, because she really bass, and does not meow. At the first meeting, she seemed gentle and calm. But it was not so. Basia is very active. At home, she didn't need any time to adapt at all - she went into the apartment like a boss and began to study it.

The first time it was difficult: she woke up at four in the morning, constantly strove to jump on her back or poke her nose into my breakfast. I had to say goodbye to pants and sandals because she put her claws in there. Now the regime has improved - the cat wakes up with me and almost does not spoil things. But he still continues to ride around the apartment.

Although I didn't know what kind of character Basya would have, now I really like her. She steadfastly transfers from apartment to apartment, is not afraid to travel by train (I carry it in a carrier, of course), communicates with interest with guests. Sometimes I take the cat out for a walk on a leash, and she is not at all scared - on the contrary, curious. Over time, she became more affectionate, loves to sleep in my lap when I work.

At the end of 2019, Vasily appeared with us. My daughter and I came to the exhibition, where we attached animals. There we saw Vasily, who was then called Bolek, and he had a sister, Lyolya. We liked the kittens, but we were not going to take a pet, so we went further. But in the end they returned to pick them up. It turned out that Lyolya had already found the owners, and Bolek was left alone. So he stayed with us. At first, he did not come up to us at all and did not allow himself to be touched. But then he gradually adapted and now loves it when his tummy is scratched.

We decided to take Tweety in a year. We called the shelter, they sent us photos of lovely kittens. Among them was Tweety. She, unlike Vasily, adapted quickly. Vasya, of course, hissed at the kitten, but after a week they were playing and sleeping together. Vasily accepted her, began to lick her, and we no longer had any doubts that this was really our cat.

Cats are very helpful at home. They didn't even have to train, they understand everything themselves. For example, my daughter Darina is afraid to be alone at night, and Vasily comes to her every night and sleeps at her feet until morning. Another example: we don't have a bell at the front door. But Tweety hears that someone has come. If she sits on the shelf and looks at the front door, you know for sure that soon someone will knock. She also goes into the bathroom with her daughter every evening and monitors how she washes and how well she brushes her teeth. We joke that we have an inspector-receiver.

We took Marshal from the orphanage when he was a year and a half. He is a big dog: up to mid-thigh at the withers, and when he comes to the table, he can put his head on him. He is very calm, I sometimes even call him a cat. He does not gnaw furniture, does not spoil the wallpaper - he just sleeps most of the day.

Five of us live in an apartment: me, my husband, two children and Marshal. It was not difficult to prepare for his appearance. The shelter was asked to equip places for sleeping and eating: buy a bed, bowls, toys, food for the first time. There was no need to make repairs or something else fundamental.

The Marshal is a mestizo, he clearly had southern hounds in his family. There were also huskies in the family: they got a tail in a ringlet and thick fluffy hair on the neck and on the back. Such a large dog needs to move a lot, and there is nowhere much to walk in the city. In addition, after the shelter, Marshal found it difficult to adapt on the street - he was afraid of loud sounds and sudden movements.

To remove anxiety, we began to run with him. In the process, Marshal forgot that he was afraid. At first, the dog ran after the bike, on which my daughter was learning to ride, and when we were rollerblading. And now our dad goes for a run every morning in any weather with Marshal. We walk for about two hours every day. He runs about 5 km. Such activity is quite enough for him, even if you live with a dog in a small apartment.

Our husky came to the shelter from a construction site. We took her in January 2019 at the age of about seven months.

Initially, we weren't looking for anyone at all. Our apartment is small, there is little space, but we love animals. Huskies are cool. When I found out that there is a shelter that helps them, I subscribed to them on Instagram. And a few weeks later we went there. Just imagine, more than 70 dogs live in the shelter! Such handsome men, affectionate, playful. And they are not needed at all by their people.

We went to this shelter for about a year: we walked, scratched, fed, played with different dogs, helped. And they did not dare to take someone. As soon as we like someone, he finds a new home the very next day. Therefore, when they saw our girl, they just took her away and that's it.

There were no particular expectations from the dog. We knew that huskies are active guys, we were going to start running, riding a bike. This is the first time Hope went out for a winter run with such enthusiasm! And the next day, when my husband put on running shoes, she hid under the bed. This is how we learned that not all huskies are active. It still happens that while jogging, she hides under a bush and pretends that she does not see us, but we do not see her.

The adaptation was not easy. At first, being alone, Hope howled very loudly. The neighbors hated us, and we couldn't even go to the store. To solve the problem, they turned to a dog handler, with whom they studied for more than a month, twice a week. Sometimes my hands dropped. But when we went to the cinema for the first time with the whole family and all this time there was silence at home, we realized that we had won! Now we have set up an auto answer in Skype and call several times a day to check how Hope is doing.