TIMBER’S JOURNEY

BY HANNAH MCGOFF

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The story of Timber is one of wandering, hope, and eventually a happy ending. Timber was found roaming the hot, dry streets of Austin, Texas when he was a few years old, presumed to have been abandoned. An incredible passerby brought him to the Austin Animal Center where he was greeted by many amazing people and formed a close bond with a volunteer. Many dogs struggle to adapt to shelter life and Timber was no exception. The volunteer he bonded with cared extra for him, and would bring him home some nights just to escape the stress of the shelter. Unfortunately, due to her living arrangements, adopting Timber was just not going to be a possibility so they settled for walks and lots of play dates.

Texas shelters are extremely overpopulated and unfortunately, highly adoptable dogs end up being euthanized. Many southern shelters reach out to shelters up north to help by taking in some of their animals. Animal Care Sanctuary is lucky to have such a great relationship with Austin Animal Center and eventually, Timber was selected as one of the many dogs to be transported to us to find a potential adopter! The ACS team loved him and immediately got to work on helping Timber become the best dog he could be.

Being a dog that doesn’t do well in a shelter, it can be hard to show potential adopters what a great fit you could be to their home! Eventually, an adopter came along and was so not going to be happy in this new environment. excited to bring Timber home and give him the best life possible. As he tried to adjust to his new life, he became easily overwhelmed by other dogs that would visit his new family and began picking up bad habits. His new family worked with trainers day and night to try to help him adapt, but eventually realized that he was

When Timber came back to ACS, his behavior let us know that he was stressed, confused, and overwhelmed. He was jumping, barking, and not being friendly to potential adopters as he didn’t know how to express his feelings. We were worried about Timber and continued to try to make his life as best as we could while living in the shelter, but knew he needed a caring loving home to thrive in.

One day, ACS received a call from a couple in California looking for more information on Timber. They were the parents of the volunteer that bonded so well with Timber back at the Austin Animal Center in Texas! Timber’s new family met him four hours away from ACS in New Jersey, and boarded the plane back to California, where he will spend the rest of his life in his forever home! He is finally where he belongs, with a family who has nothing but great things to say about him.