Entrant's First Name
Sally

Your Pet's Rescue Story
Rocket was surrendered to PAGO at 7 weeks old in August of 2017. Rocket is an American Staffordshire Terrier who was named for his countless amounts of daily zoomies. He was under developed for his age and breed, had separation anxiety, barrier anxiety and walked on his knuckles also called knuckling he was permanently deaf and has the best ears!! I am part of the fostering program with PAGO and Rocket became part of our foster family. It took about 3 months with Rocket, he put some weight on, and with some exercise, running and playing helped him build strong leg and back muscles to overcome walking problems and we began to teach Rocket modified AMerican Sign Language (ASL) and he started learning basic obedience commands. He attended puppy socializing classes and this is when we discovered his love and playfulness for people and other dogs. Because of his deafness, Rocket would need a home that he could continue learning how to communicate using hand signals, a fenced yard or secured play area for the daily zoomies, no breed restrictions and lots of patience. So the search was on, Rocket spent time with alot of potential adopters and loved all the attention he was given. Rocket found a wonderful family in November of 2017 and was adopted, unfortunately after a week, it just wasn’t going to work and Rocket was returned to PAGO. Our family was on vacation and I received word he was being returned and without hesitation, Rocket was going to be a part of our family. Rocket knows over 20 obedience commands with hand signals, will recognize and respond to our facial expressions and he is a huge success in an intense 6 month Dog Therapy training program. Rocket will be part of a special therapy team visiting local schools when topics of bullying and disabilities are being taught. He will also visit Children’s homes, hospitals and other venues where he will provide comfort, friendship and lots of kisses to all. Since the day we met Rocket he has always had a special place in our hearts, giving us daily companionship, snuggle time, slobbery kisses and unconditional trust and loyalty. I only hope that throughout his life I can give him back half of what he has given our family.