February's Wiley Adoption
We were so excited to kick off February 2022 with the adoption of Johnson, now known as Wiley (as in Wiley e. Coyote). Johnson came to us from Philadelphia ACCT all the way back in August 2021. Like many dogs that we have rescued from Philadelphia Shelter, Wiley had a number of medical issues, and as it turns out, some challenging behavioral ‘quirks. He was underweight, had sores on his elbows and paws, plus very bad skin and ear infections. As with most ear infections in dogs, it took us many months and different medication treatments before we were able to fully clear his ears out of all the infections and gunk. It was at that point we determined that Johnson is about 95% deaf.
Johnson has an inquisitive and mischievous personality always looking for ways to find food or escape rooms and kennels. He has a funny gait when walking, reminiscent of the old cartoon Marmaduke. Johnson loves his ears to be scratched and is very intelligent, picking up new commands. His negative behavioral issues were related to his voracious appetite and habit of stealing high value items. Johnson was not a fan of giving such items back. He needed a patient family, willing to minimize his opportunity to get into trouble.
Eventually Johnson found such a family. There were a few difficult moments along the way. And some funny ones. He lives in a nice apartment setting, and one day, his owners were out and got an alert that a dog was roaming the hallways. Apparently, Johnson, was able to unlock and open the door and was just checking out the complex. Since then, everyone agreed his new name should be Wiley. Given he was deaf, Wiley didn’t object to the name change. Wiley is somewhere between 8 and 10 years old. His exact age is unknown, as he was found as a stray. Wiley’s story is not uncommon in rescue, an older dog left abandoned and ending up in a city shelter with few options. We are especially thankful for adopters like those who opened up their home to Wiley.
