Transcript: Sweetie

Sheltered
Episode “Sweetie”

Sweetie: Ideally I would like to live somewhere where it’s not so hot, because it is really hot here. My name is Sweetie, well that is the name they gave me; I don’t know really what my name is. When people talk about shelters and you know other dogs, they are like oh yeah the shelter. And I always imagine it’s this like cold place that is all cement. You know concrete everywhere. This place is very natural. There is lots of grass and trees and I can look out over a field. I think probably dogs that are in the city don’t have that.
So I feel like I am lucky. If this is the place I have to stay while I am waiting to be adopted then I feel like that’s ok. It is a little scary sometimes because the other dogs are really loud. I am not a real barker; it’s not in my nature.
Yeah we have our cages that we stay in and there ok. I mean it kind of smells, but everything smells when you are a dog. My preference as far as cages, and I think I speak for lots of the dogs here is to be able to go outside most of the time, because inside not too much changes. When your inside you have the same things you are looking at all the time and the same dogs are barking.
When you go outside there's always something different. There is always something different to smell, there is always the dogs that are in the other cages that are outside are doing different things. And that is interesting. It’s something different. When you’re in a place like this anything different is good.
When someone comes to visit, it is really stressful. And it is stressful for many reasons, and one of them is because this is a stranger. So as a dog your first instinct is not to love everybody you come in contact with. Your first instinct is to really be sort of weary of them until you can kind of sniff them out and figure out if their good people. But on the other hand you want to get adopted and you only have a 2 second window as they are passing your cage to make a good impression and it stresses me out because I don’t know in those 2 seconds if it is the right thing to do.
You don’t know you don’t know what kind of dog they are looking for. I mean you can’t change their mind either, if their going there for a poodle, they are going to get a poodle. They are not going to change their mind and pick me. But I am new here so what do I know. I don’t know sometimes I feel like I am an ambassador for other dogs, especially formerly homeless dogs, who may not have a good reputation.
My favorite thing about the shelter, is the people that work there. Because no matter who comes to see you, you know like visitors and kids and people who may or may not adopt you the people that work there are always happy to see you. It’s always nice to see somebody coming to your cage that knows your story that knows who you are, and treats you well.
I think the ideal person for me is someone who likes to run around, somebody who is active but isn’t like obsessed with it. But I think mostly I just want somebody that will think of me as you know, as their friend or sister. I think that’s something I miss. I don’t know, I just want somebody to be my friend.