This Adorable Dog Needs Your Help

After being surrendered to a high intake animal shelter, this lovely dog was photographed with his beloved teddy bear. He is a 1-year-old dog, named Needy. Fortunately, Needy was rescued from the animal shelter by a foster group. It may just have saved his life, as the shelter is near capacity.

The foster group that saved Needy is Diamonds in the Ruff. The founder of the group, Erika Brown, recently discussed Needy and their decision to take him in. She said, “He’s been there the longest and the whole teddy bear thing just killed us!”

After rescuing this adorable dog, the foster group posted pictures of him on Facebook as he got to know his new handlers. They also talked about changing his name to Fozzie Bear. They changed his name in memory of a dog named Kermit, since Fozzie Bear and Kermit the frog were best friends.

“He was a little bit scared in the beginning but he started opening up,” Brown said. “He sat and gave me both paws. I think he’s really going to open up and be really sweet.”

After posting information about the rescue, Brown said that they have already received some inquiries and information in regards to adopting Fozzie Bear. Before he is adopted, however, they are going to have him neutered and see how he gets along with other dogs.

“It could be a week or two, or a month. You never know,” she said of the adoption process. “Whoever has the best home, for his needs and for theirs, will go to them.”

The rescue group was founded in March, 2014. All in all, they’ve saved over 289 dogs to date and currently, are caring for 15 dogs. They typically keep between 15 and 25 dogs at any given time.

“There are some dogs we’ve had for years and some we’ve had for a day or two,”

The assistant director of operations at Animal Care and Control Dean of Philadelphia, Jennifer Berwick, said that the action taken by this rescue group was a “step in the right direction.” She also hopes to see other cats and dogs being rescued in a similar way, as ACCT Philly is quite crowded.

ACCT Philly has been in operation since 2012 and since that time, 28,000 animals have been taken in. Approximately eight out of 10 of those animals find a new home, which gives the shelter the highest success rate in Pennsylvania.

Some of the animals, such as Fozzie Bear, may be at the shelter for 3 months while others may get adopted after only an hour! There are a number of determining factors as to whether the animal will see life outside of the shelter, including “behavior, health and space.”

Health problems are an issue for some animals, and their health may decline as soon as they enter the shelter.

Ehrlich says that it has to do with the stress of the environment. She says “It’s a foreign environment. It’s such a shock to their system.”

Fozzie Bear arrived at the shelter in November with his teddy bear and a note from his former owner. They blamed leaving him at the shelter on his “bite history.”

The note talked about an argument or fight that was taking place within the house and the pooch bit someone. Although it wasn’t serious, it was enough for them to leave the dog at the shelter. According to the note from the former owner, he’s a good dog as long as there is no arguing or roughhousing.

Fozzie Bear is described as being sweet natured and is a favorite of many of the volunteers. He already knows many of the basic commands, including sit, down and even high-five! Fozzie also gets along well with other dogs.

Although the photograph of Fozzie Bear with his dog is the one that got him attention in the first place, the bear was taken away from him shortly after he arrived at the shelter. That is due to the fact that it wasn’t one of the “approved toys” allowed by the shelter.

They said that they didn’t allow toys like that in the shelter because they cannot monitor the dogs as closely as they can be monitored at home. It might be possible for them to choke on buttons or other parts of the stuffed animal.

Please pass this information on to others