Many wanted to adopt this abused Tennessee pup. This Bluffton couple flew to her rescue

When Sophia, a 5-month-old boxer puppy, first arrived in the custody of East Tennessee Boxer Rescue in early December, she was in no condition to be adopted.

“I would try to reach out and touch her and she would pee,” said Amanda Asbury, founder and director of ETNBR. “She had crate anxiety, to the point where she would scream and mess on herself in the crate. It was really sad.”

When word got our about Sophia’s arrival at ETNBR, Asbury was met with a flood of emails, calls and messages from people wanting to adopt the purebred pup. Frustrated that people kept hounding her to adopt an animal in no condition to be adopted out, she took to Facebook to address the seemingly endless stream of requests.

“I kind of chewed out the public for going crazy over this dog and told them all that she needed help,” said Asbury.

That is when she and Sophia came to the attention of Jackie Evans of Bluffton, and her husband Scott.

“I came across this post that I thought was really interesting, because Amanda had just gotten Sophia and been inundated with calls and emails and Facebook messages because it is rare for a purebred puppy to be in rescue,” said Evans.

Moved by what she had seen on Facebook, Evans reached out to ETNBR, offering to do something that sounded too good to be true. She and her husband, who is a pilot for Gulfstream, would fly out to Knoxville in their private plane, pick up Sophia, fly her back to Bluffton, and take her to their dog behaviorist. Not only that, they would pay for the whole thing.

Getting to know each other

“I was really skeptical at first because never in the three and a half year history that we’ve done this has anyone ever called me up and said ‘hey, Merry Christmas, we want to fly her to a behaviorist and we want to pay for everything,’ said Asbury. “I was like, ‘what? I’m going to have to check you out.’”

After researching the Evans’ and their behaviorist, Asbury gave the plan the green light.

For her part, Evans became a foster through ETNBR so that Sophia would still technically be in their custody, even while hundreds of miles away.

On Saturday, Dec. 16, Evans and her husband went to pick up Sophia and bring her to Bluffton.

What’s wrong with Sophia?

“We’ve had hundreds of dogs come through our program and we have never had this young of a dog have these kind of issues,” said Asbury.

Sophia would recoil if you tried to touch her, or pee. If you put her in a crate she would have what Evans described as a “full on panic attack.”

She would often soil herself in her crate, and was not housebroken, though Evans points out that one has nothing to do with the other.

“Most dogs don’t go to the bathroom in the crate, whether or not they’re housebroken,” said Evans. “Dogs want to be clean, and they’ll hold it as long as they can, so Sophia’s issue was that she was so terrified that she went in the crate.”

What kind of experiences could have made Sophia so fearful, though?

“Any time you reach out to a dog to pet it and it pees or hunkers, it has been abused,” said Asbury.

The road to recovery

When Sophia was first turned in to ETNBR she stayed with Asbury. After making a few messes around the house the first night it became clear that she was going to need to spend the night in a crate. Once inside, she did not stop crying for several hours, Asbury said.

“I hate saying she was in there that long, but I wanted to see how long it would be before she tried to self soothe, and I needed to see just how bad her anxiety was,” said Asbury.

Fortunately, Sophia began improving under the care of Asbury almost immediately, though Asbury gives most of the credit to other members of her household.

“She improved first by being around other dogs that trusted humans,” Asbury said. “She was brought into a pack. I have a pack at my house, two boxers and a bulldog, and they’re very well adjusted and well trained. They actually probably do more fostering because they can speak a language with her that I can’t.”

Sophia’s behavior continued to improve when she was trasnferred to the care of the Evans’.

After initially freaking out when put in a crate, she slowly started to calm down, and by the time she was transfered to the care of the Evans’ behaviorist nearly a week after arriving in Bluffton, she was much better.

“I got her to a point where she slept a whole night in the crate without making a sound,” said Evans. “She went right to sleep, no protesting. She’s able to be in the crate for a couple hours at a time without me in the room. She is ok being in the crate overnight if it is in our bedroom. Her main issue now is being in the crate and alone.”

Now that Sophia is in the care of the Evans’ behaviorist, they believe she should be ready to go home in about three weeks.

“I think we’ll probably bring her back to Knoxville in mid-January and that she’ll be to the point where she is ready to be adopted,” said Evans.

A burgeoning friendship

Now that Asbury has found Evans and seen the good work that she and her husband do, she hopes that the successful rehabilitation of Sophia will be the beginning of something and not the end.

“I’m excited that she contacted us, and I’m really hoping that not only will our relationship grow and we can become friends, but our rescue can grow, too,” said Asbury. “I’m so happy that I met her, and that there is a couple out there that does this.”

For her part, Evans is glad that she and her husband can do what they do, that they have what she describes as a unique resource that allows them to help rescues all over. She stands in awe of the work of people like Asbury, though.

“It is really nice for my husband and I to be recognized, but compared to what some people do, we do nothing. There are people that have fostered 50 or 100 or more dogs. Some foster three or four at a time,” said Evans. “They bring them into their home and, even if they don’t have a lot of money, they just give everything to these dogs. They end up having their house destroyed and spending all their money just to save as many lives as possible.”

This story was originally published December 25, 2017 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Many wanted to adopt this abused Tennessee pup. This Bluffton couple flew to her rescue."