A new home for a friendly pooch living at the Dunedin SPCA for months on end has fallen through — again.
One-year-old Fudge, a mixed-breed dog, has been at the centre since April. Another potential forever home for her fell through yesterday.
The application for her adoption was in when the prospective family had second thoughts and withdrew.
As part of a campaign to get long-stay animals into homes, the SPCA is ditching its adoption fee and instead asking for a donation from September 6 to 21.
Dunedin SPCA community support officer Eric Odell said Fudge was a fun dog, but was very high energy, which tended to put off potential owners.
“Being in the centre here, it’s obviously not ideal for a dog that’s constantly bouncing off the walls … Fudge is the kind of dog that needs a bit more space to run.”
Fudge came to the SPCA after she was found underweight and tied up in someone’s backyard.
“Despite that, she’s always been super-duper sweet, which is how she got the name Fudge.”
Fudge was great on a lead when out on a walk, very social, and full of energy, which was why the SPCA was recommending she be in a one-pet family, Mr Odell said.
It had also not tested how she was around children.
“She’s a real big lover — once she gets her wiggles out, she just snuggles in,” Mr Odell said.
Once dogs became long-stay residents at the centre, they were among the hardest animals to get into new homes, he said.
Another hard animal to adopt out was roosters — and Dunedin had two very handsome rulers of the roost searching for new flocks.
One of the roosters, Porthos, came to the SPCA in November last year as part of a trio dubbed “the three musketeers”.
However, his partners in crime had since flown the nest.
A second rooster named Tony came to the centre in February.
“In both cases, someone had them or a neighbour saw them and they weren’t getting taken care of properly — so they got brought in,” Mr Odell said.
Both Tony and Porthos were experienced with taking care of hens.
“If there’s any threats, any dogs or anything come by, they’ll try to get all of the girls to safety and then get real mean with whatever is threatening.”
Roosters were hard to find homes for as people were not allowed to have them within city limits.
“Both Porthos and Tony would do better if they could get with another flock of chickens — and Fudge would just do so well in a home,” he said.