Fourth-year professional writing major Kyle McLaughlin’s dog Scarlett is a shy yet sweet five-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier who loves her family almost as much as she loves her shoe collection.
Scarlett came into McLaughlin’s family two years ago around the Christmas season. The family found her on the side of the road in a quarry next to a power plant. In other words, not a good place for a dog in the middle of the winter season. They thought she may have been lost, so the family kept her at their home for a bit while trying to locate Scarlett’s owner. They put out several Facebook posts with her description and where they found her. Unfortunately, the family learned from a family friend that she had been dumped by her previous owner and that she had been abused in her previous home. The family decided it was for the best if they just took Scarlett in and gave her a proper loving home.
“It takes a special kind of heartlessness to abandon your dog in the cold and the dark without a second thought. But, we were a family that adopted rescues, so we set her up near a space heater and kept her safe like we would any of our old pups,” McLaughlin said.
Scarlett is safe and happy now, living it up with her comfy bed and with as many toys as she can possibly want. She has lived with McLaughlin’s other dogs in the past, but she prefers her own space.
“She’s a bit territorial with other dogs, though she tolerates our next door neighbors’. She’s protective of her new people, it looks like,” McLaughlin added.
Scarlett is very reserved, but she does love a good cuddle! She tends to be very loving with people she trusts and when she gets comfortable enough, she’ll ask you to share your food with her. With her puppy-dog eyes, it can be hard to resist! Though she loves begging for table food, her favorite treat is the Peanut Butter flavored Frosty Paws dog ice cream. Besides plates, Scarlett will also go looking in trash cans for a snack or two. McLaughlin told a story about how she gained a taste for Doritos. Scarlett decided to raid McLaughlin’s sister’s trash can for anything she left behind after leaving for college. She snuck into the messy room, dug through the trash can, found a Doritos bag and brought it to her cage for safe keeping.
“[We] didn’t notice until a week later because her room is that much of a mess, and that’s because we found the Doritos bag in the back of her cage,” McLaughlin said.
Scarlett loves to lay around in the sun and cuddle with her people or her prized shoe collection! She’ll take anything from sneakers to slippers. Thankfully for McLaughlin and his family, she doesn’t actually chew any of the shoes she collects, unlike her growing collection of ripped-up toys. She just gently picks the shoe up, carries it to her bed and cuddles next to it. She will also occasionally steal a hat or two. McLaughlin believes that shoes are her favorite toy because she never wants to destroy them.
“She tears up all her toys after a week or two, so they probably are by proxy,” McLaughlin joked.
Despite her story having a sad beginning, it seems that Scarlett has found plenty of happiness in her new home with her family. From shivering in the street, to now being spoiled rotten with shoes, toys, and doggy ice cream, it’s safe to say that her story has had quite the turn around.
