A sweet high-content wolfdog named Lakomi, who was found by the Larkwood Animal Rescue Center at 8 months old wearing an undersized harness that nearly killed her, gleefully rolled over for some yummy belly rubs from her favorite human Sarah and eagerly asked for more when she felt she hadn’t had enough. According to Sarah, this incredible level of affection was achieved after months of hard work socializing the traumatized animal.
At the time of her rescue she was wearing a harness intended for an 8 week old. Her skin had grown over the harness and removing it took hours of surgery and months of medication to fight an infection that nearly took her life. When I first got to the sanctuary I was told that she was crazy and wouldn’t ever be socialized. Her enclosure has fences that are 14 feet high because she would routinely jump or climb up 12 foot fencing and hang by her jaw at the top. Since I began working on socialization with her that behavior has stopped. She took about two months of daily exposure before she would allow physical contact, but once that wall came down she quickly became playful, sweet, loving, and my personal favorite animal in our charge.
