A seven-year-old pit bull named Culkin understood what it meant to be depressed, so he ran over and licked his foster mother’s tears away when she was attending a fictitious funeral.
We have seen animals in our line of work go through horrifying things, and Culkin’s tale is no different. Culkin was abandoned and discovered there with wounds indicating blunt force trauma. Culkin continued to be charming and loving despite his maltreatment. Culkin was bleeding from his wounds in a terrible and nauseating video that the NYPD has found, yet he still waits outside the front door for permission to enter.
Fortunately, the NYPD took Culkin out of the house and transported him to one of our partner shelters where he received immediate medical care. On his right front paw, they patched up “curved laceration-type lesions.”
Soon after, Culkin was sent to the ASPCA Animal Recovery Center (ARC), where we continued to care for his wounds and discovered he had several chronic diseases that, regrettably, his previous owner had neglected to manage.
“He had a significant ear infection in his right ear that had led him to develop an aural hematoma—a condition where blood pools between the two layers of cartilage in an animal with a chronic ear infection as a result of head shaking,” explains Dr. Aubrey Crowley, Medical Supervisor at ARC. “He also had some diffused mild skin disease, moderate dental disease, and a small mass on his hind right leg.”
It was evident that Culkin had endured abuse in the past, so our qualified team set out to provide him with the attention, love, and support he had never had but always required.
Culkin was neutered, had an ear infection addressed, and had dental surgery done to address his dental problems by Dr. Crowley and her team. His mass was examined as well, and it was discovered to be a benign growth that goes away on its own.
“Culkin was nervous during treatment, but tolerated everything,” explains Dr. Crowley. “Also,” she adds, “We named him Culkin because it was December and I had just watched Home Alone!”
The personnel at ARC continued to look after Culkin while he was healing physically by keeping him rested, giving him painkillers, and giving him antibiotics. While limiting his exercise until he was well, they also took him on leisurely leash walks.
Even though his medical needs were being met, Culkin still had some problems to resolve.
“Culkin was extremely stressed in the shelter and was walked solely by the Behavior team for a time due to extreme reluctance to return to his kennel,” explains Brittani Hrehorovich, Behavior Specialist at ARC and the Canine Annex for Recovery and Enrichment (CARE). “He was friendly with people and dogs but growled from inside his kennel at someone on at least one occasion, likely due to kennel stress.”
The Behavior team worked on creating positive associations with Culkin’s kennel by lowering thresholds and providing additional in-kennel enrichment to alleviate his kennel stress. To put it another way, the staff demonstrated to Culkin that staying in the kennel may result in positive things like toys and snacks.
The Behavior team also gave Culkin additional time out of the kennel by bringing him to their offices so he could unwind while they completed administrative tasks. He was also taken to playgroups, so he could spend more time outside of his kennel, but he mostly just got along with the other dogs and did not play with them.
After working with the Behavior team for several weeks, Culkin was ready to enter a foster family where he could enjoy the benefits of being in a loving environment to better prepare for his adopted home. We conducted a final behavior summary before he left our care, and his results indicated as much.
“Culkin is a chill dog. He is affectionate with people he knows and warms up quickly to new people. He likes to lay on his bed and chew on rawhide and enjoys being petted. He is walked outside by all staff without any issue.”
By the time Culkin met Chynna L., his new foster caregiver, the Behavior and medical teams had worked tirelessly to transform him into a brand-new dog.
Chynna spent a few years residing in Dublin, Ireland.
She discovered there about animal fostering.
“I’ve always loved animals and wanted one but never had the time or money to feel like I could have a pet and give them the happiest life possible, so I was excited when I learned about fostering animals and fostered a cat through the DSPCA,” explains Chynna. “When I moved back from Dublin, I knew I wanted to continue fostering, so I looked into various shelters around here and came upon the ASPCA, which I was drawn to immediately. Culkin was actually my first foster dog as an ASPCA foster!”
Culkin rapidly adapted when Chynna brought him to her house, which she shares with her roommate.
At first, he spent the night dozing off on the floor by Chynna’s bed.
“Culkin loves everyone in this household so much that for the first several days, he struggled to figure out where the best spot for him to sit was so that he could be with both of us and would constantly run between our rooms,” remembers Chynna.
He quickly decided he was finished cleaning the floor and climbed up to the bed, but he did not leave the foot of the bed. Soon enough, Culkin was lying next to Chynna in a human-like position with his head on the pillow.
Chynna was merely seeking a dog that would blend in well with her family; she had no intention of fostering a large, older dog.
“That being said,” says Chynna, “part of the reason why I chose to foster Culkin was because he was larger and a senior dog. I thought that those two things would dissuade me from wanting to adopt him. Clearly, I was wrong.”
It took Chynna a little less than a month to decide to adopt Culkin.
“The decision to adopt Culkin was one of the toughest decisions of my life,” explains Chynna. “For weeks, I went back and forth, changing my mind every hour and annoying every single person in my life with questions. I knew I wanted to adopt him and was ready for a huge lifestyle change but was unsure whether I could give him the best life possible. I just wanted him to be as happy as possible, whether that was with me or not.”
“My indecisiveness about adopting him was never about who he was, but about my personal situation,” she continues. “By the time the ASPCA needed a final answer before he was available to the public for adoption, I was still unsure but knew I could physically do it, so I took a huge leap and said yes. Though it was a last-minute decision, I feel like I—and everyone else in my life—knew deep down from the first day he came home that I would end up adopting him. It’s hard to give specific characteristics about him that made me know he was the one for me, there’s just something in his eyes that gets me every time.”
Chynna became Culkin’s true heroine by fostering and adopting him, and by doing so, improved his entire world. However, Chynna will tell you that she is the lucky one.
“Culkin is the best thing to ever happen to me,” she says. “He’s my first dog and so this is all incredibly new to me and very much a learning process. My entire life has changed. I have depression and anxiety and having him in my life has helped me so much in that regard—I just feel physically happier and calmer when he’s around. I’ve also gotten into a routine now in accordance with his walking and eating schedule and he has turned me into a morning person—albeit begrudgingly.”
“I will say it all hasn’t been easy, but it has been worth it tenfold,” she continues. “Luckily, I work from home most of the time and so he and I get to spend largely all day together, with him sitting next to my desk sleeping while I work. He also largely refuses to leave my side, even sitting outside my bathroom waiting for me to get out of the shower.”
We are requesting that our supporters offer their homes to temporarily foster a pet this year in honor of National Animal Foster Appreciation Week to be the heroes in other animals’ tales like Chynna.
“If you’re on the fence about adopting a dog, fostering is a great way to have a trial run while also helping,” explains Chynna. “I can’t speak on Culkin’s behalf but based on how much we spoil him with treats and love, I would hope he’s happy here and hope he knows how much he has positively impacted my life—not to mention that of my friends and family—in the few months he has been here.”
Chynna gave Culkin a new name, Mac, to symbolize leaving his old life behind and starting a new, happier, healthier journey.
“Knowing that I was able to give Mac a much better life than the one he had before me is one of the most satisfying and proudest feelings I have ever felt and seeing his wounds, physical and emotional, heal after coming into my care is, selfishly, my greatest achievement in life.”
The influence of Mac and Chynna’s new life together goes beyond just them; it serves as a reminder to our staff of why they do what they do daily.
“Foster fails are the best,” says Brittani. “It’s kind enough to open your home to an animal in need but knowing that Culkin and his foster bonded so deeply that she couldn’t part with him, and decided to adopt him, is the best possible outcome. It’s always our goal to place our animals in loving homes and hearing such a wonderful success story really helps push us forward in our work. We are so happy for him and his adopter! Happy life, Culkin, you deserve this!”