A guide · German Shepherds of Australia, Volume One
Gotcha day: five ways to mark the day your rescue dog came home
Ask anyone who has adopted a rescue dog and most can tell you the date they brought the dog home, even if they have to think about the dog's actual birthday. That date has a name now: gotcha day.
A gotcha day is the anniversary of the day a rescue dog came home for good. Some families make a fuss of it. Some just notice it quietly over breakfast. Either way, it tends to mean more than the birthday, because it is the day the family chose the dog, and the dog, in its own way, chose them back.
Here are five ways to mark it, none of which need a party hat.
1. Go back to where it started
The rescue, the foster carer's street, the park where you took the first nervous walk. Go back once a year. A dog that came home anxious often walks the same ground a year later as if they own it, and seeing that is the point.
2. Take the same photograph every year
Same spot, same angle, same time of day. A phone is fine. After a few years you have a row of pictures that tells the story better than any caption: the coat filling out, the ears settling, the eyes losing that watchful look.
3. Write a few lines in the dog's voice
This is what the families in our books did. Each dog has a portrait and a few lines from the people who know them best, and some families wrote them as the dog. Jesse's page in German Shepherds of Australia, Volume One, begins with the rescue:
My first year wasn't the best, but German Shepherd Rescue Victoria came to my aid and helped me find my forever family.
and ends a long way from there:
I have transformed from a shy and uncertain pup into a confident and beloved companion.
You do not need a book to do it. A few lines in a card, kept in a drawer, read again next year.
4. Give something back to the rescue
A rescue group made the day possible. A donation on the anniversary, even a small one, or a bag of food dropped at the shelter, is a good way to say thank you, and it helps the next dog waiting.
5. Let the dog choose the day
The beach, the bush, the hockey club. Joey, a Kelpie cross Border Collie in Shoot the Dog, Volume Two, was surrendered young to Homeless Hounds, and her family's description of her is the best gotcha day plan we know:
She doesn't care what she's doing as long as she is with someone.
Do whatever your dog likes best, and do it together.
Pages that start with a rescue
Read more of Jesse's story, and Joey's. For more rescue dogs in their families' own words, see German Shepherd rescue: what happens after the adoption.
German Shepherds of Australia, Volume One holds more than 200 German Shepherds, each with their family's story, and has raised over $22,000 for German Shepherd Rescue Victoria.