{"id":48788,"date":"2026-04-10T01:41:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=48788"},"modified":"2026-04-09T10:28:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:28:56","slug":"rescue-dog-brings-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/rescue-dog-brings-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescue dog brings joy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"photo<\/a>
Bo begs for more cabbage. A rescue dog, he is slowly learning to trust humans. (photo by Susan Kars)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My friend Susan Kars recently got a male rescue dog from Chile so, of course, I volunteered to come over and speak to him in Spanish. As my husband and I walked into her apartment, we were greeted by a small, black 2-year-old dog with a big growl. And then, all of a sudden, he fell asleep.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0 <\/span>have always been a proponent of animal rescue,\u201d my friend told the Jewish Independent<\/i>. \u201cI don\u2019t feel that people should buy dogs when there are so many rescues out there \u2026 and rescue dogs show a different level of gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susan began walking dogs in 2008 for friends and recently felt that it was time for her to get her own. She believes that healing is part of Judaism. She is a member of Or Shalom, a Jewish Renewal synagogue. She started going there when Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan was the congregation\u2019s spiritual leader.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRabbi Laura was amazing. She was really connected to a lot in the universe,\u201d said Susan, who attended the celebration earlier this year of Duhan-Kaplan\u2019s appointment as dean of the ALEPH Ordination Program, the Jewish Renewal seminary.<\/p>\n

Susan decided that her new dog\u2019s Spanish name, Bom Bom, wouldn\u2019t work, that calling \u201cBom Bom\u201d out in a park would sound too much like \u201cBomb! Bomb!\u201d So, she named him Bo.<\/p>\n

My friend volunteers at a supermarket for financially challenged folks and walks with Bo and one other dog once a day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She tried the Spanish doggie commands I gave her with Bo and had some success. She was and is very determined to heal this dog.<\/p>\n

When we met Bo, the poor thing had just spent 30 hours on an airplane and this was his second night in his new home. Susan got him from an organization called Homeless Pets Canada. Unmentionable things had been done to him by humans and he was very suspicious of us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I asked Susan what kind of dog he was and she exclaimed, laughing: \u201cHe\u2019s a mutt!\u201d And that\u2019s what he looked like until she gave him a haircut and a very long bath. Now, I\u2019d say he looks like a very long terrier of some sort, but no one really knows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Susan has found that training a rescue dog is the most time-consuming thing she\u2019s ever done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI left him twice in one day and came home to a full roll of toilet paper shredded all around the apartment. But you can\u2019t get angry at them because they don\u2019t do it to hurt you.\u201d<\/p>\n

That same day, Bo \u201ctook out a piece of the wall\u201d by pulling at the leash that was hanging on the hook.<\/p>\n

Susan put this down to separation anxiety and fear of being in a new place but, weeks later, she also acknowledged that Bo is mischievous. For example, a few weeks after our initial encounter, I was sitting in Susan\u2019s kitchen while she was loading the dishwasher. When she opened a cabinet near the floor, Bo didn\u2019t miss a beat. He grabbed a small plastic funnel in his mouth and marched out into the hallway.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a sly dog,\u201d Susan said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bo also acted up later in the evening. At first, everything was fine. He let me pet him for a long time, licked my hands and even sat down when I said \u201csientate<\/i>,\u201d which means \u201csit down\u201d in Spanish. Then, I threw one of his toys for him to retrieve and all hell broke loose. He started barking and growling and trying to nip me.<\/p>\n

Clearly this dog has post-traumatic stress disorder, I thought. And Susan agrees. But she is not allowing this to defeat her. She says it takes three days for a rescue animal to \u201cdecompress\u201d and start to realize that they might be OK. It takes another three weeks for their personality to emerge and three months more for them to realize that they are safe and at home with a new life.<\/p>\n

Bo already has started to give back. Recently, he comforted one of Susan\u2019s friends whose dog was run over by a car and didn\u2019t survive. Bo sat with the friend on the couch for a very long time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Susan\u2019s advice to others who adopt a rescue animal is that they should know \u201cthis is a major life decision.\u201d She is spending about $500 a month on a long list of items, including vet fees, insurance, food, toys, bowls, mats, a blanket, puppy pee pads, poop bags, leashes, grooming, treats for training and a camera to see what he\u2019s doing when she\u2019s away. Bo has a bad knee, so Susan has had to buy him joint supplements and a set of dog staircases.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only costly, but time-consuming to care for Bo. But, it\u2019s also so rewarding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI smile every day,\u201d she said. \u201cI have something to smile about. When he\u2019s in his round bed and he gives this big release of breath at the end of the day, it\u2019s so satisfying to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, my husband and I have something to be happy about, too, since we\u2019ve officially been made Bo\u2019s adopted aunt and uncle.<\/p>\n

Since Bo can be a fierce little dog, Susan said she will be training him as a K9 for Israeli intelligence \u2013 just kidding! He\u2019s most definitely a Jewish dog though, said Susan, because he goes \u201cberserk\u201d over challah buns. They are definitely his most favourite treat. She left one on a plate for her neighbour and Bo snuck behind her and scarfed it down in seconds.<\/p>\n

If you want to adopt a rescue dog, \u201cjust know that the hard work is worth it,\u201d said Susan. \u201cYou are saving a life and, by taking a dog into your home, there is room for another dog in the rescue centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she was volunteering for Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association (VOKRA) about 15 years ago, Susan made T-shirts that said, \u201cOpen your heart and empty a cage.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what she\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t adopt a rescue, Susan suggests donating to Homeless Pets Canada, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, VOKRA or other such organizations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cassandra Freeman<\/b> is a freelance journalist and improv comedy performer living in Vancouver.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend Susan Kars recently got a male rescue dog from Chile so, of course, I volunteered to come over and speak to him in Spanish. As my husband and I walked into her apartment, we were greeted by a small, black 2-year-old dog with a big growl. And then, all of a sudden, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2723,24801,24798,24803,24802,24799,24804,24800],"class_list":["post-48788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-animals","tag-homeless-pets-canada","tag-pet-adoption","tag-rescue-dogs","tag-society-for-the-prevention-of-cruelty-to-animals","tag-spca","tag-vancouver-orphan-kitten-rescue-association","tag-vokra"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}