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Every Animal Deserves a Second Chance
Hansel and Gretel’s story begins on a reservation where they were born in the wild to a feral mother who was struggling to survive on her own. As puppies, they were captured and separated from each other and their mother, finding themselves confined to small, barren cages in a concrete building with no windows, no ventilation and no heat. Terrified and under-socialized, they faced an uncertain future.
Their fate took a turn in April 2023, when Dr. Shari DePauw, then working at Second Chance Humane Society in Ridgway, (now LHS shelter veterinarian) visited the reservation for a vaccine clinic. During this visit, she was asked to euthanize the three feral dogs, including Hansel and Gretel. But when Dr. DePauw saw them trembling in their cages, not aggressive but petrified, she decided they deserved another chance.
Unable to house them at Second Chance, Dr. DePauw brought the siblings to her own backyard. Dr. DePauw wrote: “We transported these dogs to my home, where they had the opportunity to see each other and the outdoors for the first time in many months. In the coming weeks, it was amazing to watch them learn to be dogs again - playing and cuddling with each other, digging in the ground, playing with toys, getting fed multiple times a day, howling at the moon, getting excited if a chipmunk ran by. I sat with them for hours every day, slowly gaining Gretel and Hansel's trust to walk up to me, take treats from my hand, and let me touch them under their chin.”
When Second Chance had room, Hansel and Gretel moved to the shelter. But with their deep fear of people, they needed specialized care to thrive. The staff at Second Chance knew they did not have the training and experience needed to handle these extremely unsocialized dogs, so they reached out to Longmont Humane Society knowing that we have an exceptional behavior team.
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