Meet Nala! She’s had quite a bumpy journey the first two years of her life, and she’s hoping to find her perfect forever home now. Nala came to us with her mom and two siblings as an 8-week old puppy in 2021 from Clovis, NM.

Nala was adopted shortly after joining us and remained with that family for 1.5+yrs. She grew up with other dogs and kids, but somehow still was not socialized well and became extremely fearful when she left the house. She still has quite a bit of lingering anxiety even now. Her family continued to add small pets and Nala, being the largest dog and not well-adjusted, suffered. We had tried to work with them multiple times over the 1.5yrs when we abruptly received a message one night that they would  put Nala down if we did not take her back immediately, giving us less than 24hrs to do so.

One of our longtime fosters stepped up and took her back in right away, though she proved to be more of a challenge than we anticipated. This foster family made it work for a while with their other dogs in the home, but ultimately after a lot of time and effort we have determined that Nala truly does need to be the only pet in the home.

The biggest behavioral issue that Nala has likely stems from her very understandable fear of abandonment. She honestly just loves her human too much – and when she falls for someone, she falls hard. She doesn’t share attention with other dogs well, and she struggles to trust new people.

She doesn’t have any major behavioral issues in the home though – she kennels well if you want to kennel her, but she doesn’t really need it. She won’t destroy your stuff. She really just wants to please! She’s a wonderful human companion for the right person – she’s looking for someone who doesn’t have people over a ton. She’s ok with someone who works, but she’d really prefer if the hours aren’t too terribly long. She is the most devoted dog you will find who just loves to hike and play fetch with tennis balls. Be ready to share your pillow! She is definitely a cuddle bug.

Nala was adopted again very briefly and lived in a home with no other dogs, but with cats – she did ok for the most part, but the adopter did feel wary about her behavior around the cats several times and said she thinks it’s best if she is a completely only pet at this point. She was returned due to life changes, moving out of state to reconcile a marriage, on the adopter’s part and not due to any failure of Nala in the home – her adopter loved her very much and struggled with this decision but knew she would not integrate well with other dogs in a new state.

Nala is unfortunately back in boarding now and she would really even just love a foster home in the meantime while she waits for her forever home. She needs a unicorn home, so obviously this makes her a difficult sell! Please apply if you think you may be the right fit for this sweet girl – we know her human is out there.