How Titan stole my soul
by Ellie Gomez

In the summer of 2003, I was "bitten by the bug" - I had gotten it in my head that our family needed another little fuzzball to complete the picture and I was on a mission.
You see, at that point in time our household consisted of my husband and me, and our two wonderful, “hairy children", Shadow and Kodi.

Shadow	Kodi

Shadow, my fierce little lady, was the fearless alpha, and Kodi, the happy-go-lucky fellow was her only charge. The two huskies were both about four years old at the time, both adopted from shelters (Shadow from Charlottesville, VA and Kodi from a foster home in Virginia beach) and very much the loves of my life. So what do you do when you love something so much? Why, you try to get more of it of course! All love aside though, I'm quite the realist and checked the logistics before getting too carried away: I looked at our finances and assured myself we would be able to care for one more large canine on the money front (vet bills are NOT cheap), our large fenced in yard was certainly big enough (it only takes about an hour to poop scoop it thoroughly), and I had the time to devote to loving and caring for one additional dependant (you can only brush so many sets of teeth every night and "de-shed" so many furry husky coats every couple of days, you know, before you start going a little coocoo).

Logistics checked, I was set.

Now, being a self-confessed treehugger and animal rights proponent, my heart bleeds the most for the unluckiest of unfortunates of the unwanted fuzzballs. And having had four years of experience caring for dogs as demanding as huskies often are (not to mention working through Shadow's emotional scars resulting from abuse in her first "home"), I decided to try to tackle an adult dog with special needs. So I started surfing Petfinder.org every waking moment looking for a good candidate to fit in our pack. My eye soon fell on Snoki (short for "Snow King"). He was an adult white husky male with only one eye and located at a Delaware shelter. One-eyed or not, he was absolutely beautiful and I fell in love. I submitted my application, received the approval, and after a few preparations at home for the new arrival, I was headed to Delaware.

Snoki was even more gorgeous in person. He was a bit aloof at first as is frequent with huskies in shelters, but he was well behaved on a leash and and friendly enough. I filled out the paperwork and took him home, excited as ever.

Once home, I took all three of the doggies out on a walk to the woods so they could get acquainted on neutral ground. Things seemed to go well, with one exception - Snoki seemed to be completely uninterested in Kodi. He didn't even bother to sniff him or acknowledge him in any manner. Knowing dogs a bit, I found this somewhat strange. No matter, so far so good. Shadow and Snoki were doing well, they were playing together a little and getting to know each other. We went home and I started to settle him in.
The next day the trouble began. I noticed immediately that the two males were not getting along. Kodi, being the senior resident and accustomed to being second in the pack hierarchy, was being pushed around by Snoki - and I mean PUSHED. Thankfully, Kodi was a goodnatured fellow, easy going and didn't seem to be too put out, so I hoped they would settle it one way or another as dogs mostly do.
Not quite. Trouble was, Snoki didn't seem to want to settle into any order with Kodi. He seemed to want to push him out of the household! And goodnatured or not, even good old Kodi wasn't going to go along with that. Over the next two days, the two dogs escalated into a serious fight. I broke it up immediately and separated them for the moment to decide how best to proceed. After doing some research, talking to my vet and attempting to re-introduce them to each other calmly and on neutral ground over the next few days, it wasn't looking good. I called the Delaware shelter as my last resort for advice. It was then that I learned that Snoki had done this once already when he went into a foster home. He had fought without let with the other resident male dog (regardless of the efforts of the seasoned foster caregiver). The resident dog also happened to have a friendly and unassuming disposition around dogs other than Snoki. They hadn't mentioned the fostering problem, because they had assumed (and reasonably so) that it was just a specific dog with whom Snoki couldn't get along, and never got to test it further since my application had come in by then. After comparing our stories with the shelter staffer, we agreed that it seemed Snoki had a problem with other male dogs and would need to go to a home with only female (or no) dogs.
I was heartbroken but realistic. As I returned Snoki to the Delaware shelter, I couldn't help but cry. I insisted they keep me informed about him since he had already become part of my family, if only briefly.

So I came home with a heavy heart and slightly discouraged in my plan of adding a third member to our pack. But only temporarily. The zeal to save another homeless pup and add him to my heart and home soon won out again, especially when I learned a few weeks later that Snoki had been adopted as the only dog by a volunteer at the Delaware shelter and was very happy in his forever home. The good news gave me the courage to hit Petfinder again, but this time, after much reflection, I decided to look for a puppy to minimize the risk of another fight since I was bringing in a “third wheel”.

There were husky pups and husky mixes aplenty, but three in particular caught my eye. They were three littermates whose mom was a small black and white husky and the dad was a question mark. All three pups and mom, Sassy, resided at the Humane Society of Morgan County and were ready for adoption. I submitted my application and was promptly approved by next morning when HSMC called me. The wonderful lady I spoke with, Ellen, told me one pup, Dancer, had already been adopted and gone home, and another pup, Flash, had been “reserved” while the application process was happening. Which left one little guy for me – his name was Titan, and he had been my husband’s favorite of the bunch when we were looking at them online. When I went to pick him up at the shelter and saw him for the first time, I understood fully why. He was absolutely the most gorgeous fluff ball that I had ever seen.

Sassy	Dancer
Flash	Titan

His ears hadn’t fully straightened yet and he had just had a bath before I came, so he was a bit wet, but as soon as I picked him up, I couldn’t put him down. When Ellen asked me whether I wanted him, I cried “Of course!!! He’s mine! You can’t have him back. And if they don’t adopt his brother, please call me, I’ll take him too!” She laughed and we went to sign the paperwork in the office.

Titan's 1st day at home	Titan at 3 and half months

And so Titan came home. Being the friendliest little guy, he soon had my two older dogs acting like they were 13 weeks old as well. They’d be laying on the their backs in the yard while Titan would take flying leaps onto their bellies, bouncing off merrily. Mind you, he got his own – he was definitely at the bottom of the pack hierarchy and they would chase him around and let him know quite frequently. Shadow continued to be the alpha of the pack, of course. But Titan loved the attention and took it all in stride, learning his doggie etiquette nicely.

Titan tackling Kodi		The boys just hanging out

Before he was 7months old, I kept him indoors during the time I was gone at work to make sure he wouldn’t get into trouble outside or with the two older dogs without me around. I built him a 16 square foot enclosure in the foyer where he slept and played during the day when we were at work. I hired a petsitter to come let him out midday so he could play with the other two and relieve his bowels. Once he was 7 months though, he had the run of the house and yard with the other two and he was, of course, loving it. At night he slept under our bed until he became too big to fit underneath – I don’t know why he loved it under there so much, but he refused to budge until morning. When he was too big to fit, he slept next to my side of the bed where he still sleeps today.

Titan today

He’s just as gorgeous as a full-grown dog as he was the fluffiest puppy – and from his look it’s apparent that daddy was some sort of collie. But it’s what’s on the inside that gets me the most. He owns my soul. And he knows it. I love all my dogs and just how much became apparent recently when Kodi died unexpectedly from an aggressive nasal tumor – I was a basket case for a while. But there is no denying that somehow, Titan is special. He’s nudged in just a little closer than the other two. He stays by me as if we’re attached at the hip. He has that way of backing up to you when you're sitting down so he can park his bootie right in your lap. He is a bit of a scaredycat and needs a little extra love when there's some noise outside. He has that knowing look when we “communicate” together. Those eyes are the deepest wells of understanding. They’re my secret to staying sane and that fluffy neck of his my favorite pillow. He tolerates my two-year old daughter much more than he should and loves her because she’s mine. Titan is my soulmate.

One of the things I’m most proud of in my life is becoming a vegetarian (now vegan) years ago. One of the things I’m most thankful for is adopting my “furry children”. With each piece of your soul they own, you own another piece of happiness. There’s no better deal.

BONUS: If you look really carefully, you can spot Titan and his brother Flash (as they looked when they were puppies) in the HSMC website banner at the top of the page - Titan sits above the word "Society" and Flash sits on his right. Just one of the perks of becoming the HSMC website designer....