There are few things in life that feel worse than being unwanted or abandoned. To know that your best wasn’t good enough and that no matter how hard you tried, you simply weren’t loved is more than most living beings can take.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a human being or an animal, the heartbreak is real and it’s no less devastating for animals than it is for people.
If you have any doubts about that, think about the story of Shiro, a dog who is blind and deaf and has experienced more abandonment in his life than most individuals could ever even fathom.
Shiro felt so broken and defeated after all the rejection he has faced, and it all took a massive toll on him. Sheryl’s family did not hesitate to adopt Shiro themselves because they wanted the dog to experience having a real family and a loving home.
Over the years, Shiro has been adopted and returned no less than four separate times. He’s also found himself at two different shelters and a shocking 12 different foster homes.
Naturally, he can sometimes be somewhat difficult to handle, not because he’s mean or aggressive, but because he can’t see or hear. Imagine what it would be like to be both deaf and blind, to be unable to process the world around you.
It would be a frightening prospect, so it’s understandable that an animal who can neither see nor hear would become panicked from time to time. Even the calmest of human beings would likely do the exact same thing, so why would anyone expect something different from a dog?
Nevertheless, it seemed that people just kept adopting Shiro and then deciding they didn’t want him. Even the foster homes that normally deal with special needs dogs failed him. It’s an absolutely heartbreaking situation.
As you can probably imagine, Shiro felt abandoned. He may not be able to see or hear but he can definitely feel and he knew that he wasn’t wanted by any of these people. He became so accustomed to being left behind but even after his special person Sheryl Smith found him, he would cry incessantly every time they got in a car together.
You see, he was thoroughly convinced that she was either taking him to a different foster home, another shelter, or even preparing to abandon him on the streets. He had been through it dozens of times, quite literally. As a result, he had come to hate car rides because they never ended well for him.
Eventually, he became a little more comfortable with the idea of getting into a car, but Sheryl admits that he still cries out every time. Perhaps that should serve as a testament of his love for her, as he vocally expresses his desire to stay by her side.
Despite the fact that this dog has been unwanted by virtually every person that he has ever come into contact with, save for one, he is able to show a remarkable amount of love to other creatures. Sheryl has a number of foster pets and at one point, she was in the process of nursing a cat named Tolley back to health.
The cat was truly ill and one night, she had the poor feline in her lap trying to comfort it when Shiro walked up and started licking its head gently. She remembers that it’s one of the first times she ever saw true joy radiating from Shiro.
He was helping another unwanted animal and he knew it. He was showing them the affection that he had longed for throughout so much of his life, the same type of affection that he was finally being shown himself, thanks to Sheryl.
There’s a definite lesson to be learned here. No one should ever feel unwanted. There is a place for every living being on Earth and no individual has the right to decide that a particular soul, whether human or animal, doesn’t have that right. Everyone has something to bring to the table, if only given a chance.
Source: Mr. Biscuit’s Dog House via Facebook
