10/30/2026
This is Rigby and Pokey. Rigby is 10, Pokey is 7. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Rigby her whole life and Pokey from the time she was handed to me straight off of a transport van from Alabama.
I have had great pleasure of getting to know them over the years.
For Pokey, it’s watching how brave she is to overcome her fear of the world, with the assistance of positive reinforcement modalities and counter conditioning techniques. She is highly intelligent, knows verbal and hand cues for her commands, can “dance” with me, alert someone if you are chocking, yes I really did train her on this, and she loves going on adventures, provided Rigby is at her side for some much needed friendship and support.
What I love about Pokey is that she HAS to greet us at the door with some sort of object in her mouth. Most of the time, it’s a toy but sometimes, it’s a sock.
Then there is Rigby- the smartest, most emotionally intelligent dog I have ever known. Though she has some neurodivergent tendencies, I love watching how she navigates and perceives her world. She is always watching us to understand what we are doing. She will comfort me if I’m crying, which is impressive because she doesn’t like to be touched most of the time.
And my favorite thing about Rigby is watching her find new love like her diehard passion of balls that she didn’t pick up on until she was 9.
Both of my dogs are at the heart of what we do here at Mutts and what we do is two parts: we help dogs that are in immediate need but we also take a more proactive approach by dedicating long hours to advocacy and working to reform a system that was not meant to offer “shelter” to dogs like Rigby and Pokey.
If you love my dogs like I do, I also need you to understand that they would likely be killed in most American shelters based on current sheltering models. Why? Not because they are “aggressive” or because they are not social. They would not thrive in a shelter environment. In fact, I know both of them would shut down, be stressed, scared, growl, howl, and maybe even bite if pushed to the ends of their threshold. Does that make them bad dogs? I don’t think so. (Continued in comments).