Layla, Fort Meade, MD

Hello! My name is Layla. I wasn’t always Layla. I also wasn’t always this lucky. Here’s my story.

I landed in a shelter called Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS). There were so many us here. They said my name was Juicy and nobody really knew how I ended up there. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do there but there were humans who worked there and some time there were humans who took a walk back in our area to look at us but not many stopped to say hi to me.

One day, this human couple walked back and forth looking at us. Then the humans decided to take me for a walk! I was really excited but I didn’t keep my hopes up. As it turned out, this human couple had waited for almost an hour before they could even look at us because the shelter was severely short-staffed on volunteers that day. As soon as they were able to get to our area to look at all of us, they narrowed down their selection to me and two other dogs. I really hoped they like me. I stayed really nice and calm when they first walked up to my kennel. When the lady human game me a treat, I sat and gently took it. No snapping, no lunging forward. Of course I also gave them lots of gentle doggy kisses. I just wanted to be close to a human. And guess what? They decided that I was the dog for them.

In a short time I was theirs and they gave me my new name, Layla. My dad said she named me after the Derek and the Dominoes song (whatever that means :-)).

My dad had wanted a dog every since he left home for the Air Force, but with being single and moving around a lot it just wasn’t an option. Even after getting married, it wouldn’t have been fair to the dog with both my parents working. To add to everything else, they didn’t want to run the risk of renting a place that wouldn’t allow a dog. They had resigned to the fact that we had to wait until they purchased their own home within the next couple of years. On a whim though, my dad had decided to e-mail his landlord the week earlier and see what he might say about adding the dog. My dad offered to pay an extra pet deposit if he said yes. Not only did the landlord say yes to them having a dog in the house, but he stated that he was not going to charge my parents an extra pet deposit. I guess it was meant to be!

My dad had always loved all types of dogs. Growing up, he mainly had mutts his family adopted from shelters or the occasional stray who just showed up. This past year though, he fell in love with Pit Bulls and Pit Bull mixes after his mother (she’s now my grandmother!) adopted one from a rescue, Shiloh. That’s why he went to the shelter specifically looking for a Pit mix. I should thank Shiloh for opening the door for me.

My parents think I’m a sweetheart. I still have a little puppy left in me (the cats are having a hard time adjusting because of that), but when I’m not active, I’m the biggest snuggler in the world. I love to lay on the couch or in bed with my parents and I’m generally shadowing my mom or my dad.

All I can say is that I am so grateful my parents found me. I now have a family!

Parents: Tom & Kristen