If the year was 1961, Aideen would have had people competing to adopt her. Then, the story of two Redbone Coonhounds, all-American dogs like quiet, spayed, one-year-old Aideen, was read by American adults and children. In “Where the Red Fern Grows”, the beloved, normally easy-going Coonhounds sacrificed their lives to save their ten-year-old owner.

No one who’d read the book would have allowed Aideen to languish in a kennel. They would have come to meet her. Once they met her, they couldn’t help but love her. The long, lanky girl approaches people with perfect manners and subdued affection.

Maybe that was Aideen’s problem. She’s a housedog through and through. Maybe Aideen’s person was hoping for a baying hunter. Instead, Aideen’s a seldom-barking, dedicated best friend.

Petite, now-spayed Areyah is even more frightened than her sister Sansa. The eight-month-old kitten is a dilute calico. Some people who’ve loved calicos, might say that’s because calicos are sensitive, intuitive and very good at reading humans. Maybe Areyah felt her humans’ irritation intensely. Maybe hearing yelling cut deeper into her heart. Maybe Areyah felt less loved.

The shelter staff, who’ve learned to know these sweet older kittens, feel that they would be wonderful indoor companions. They desperately need to feel safe. They need to believe that it’s all right to exist. They need to know that they’ve never done anything that deserves punishment.

Until someone has won the love of a once traumatized pet, she may not know how it feels to be a hero.

Gamora is a people-loving optimist. The spayed, housebroken, command-knowing girl may be the most “I-do-believe; I DO!” pups the Shelter has ever had. Gamora is pleading for her third owner. She comforted two owners through health problems, until each had to give her up.

So, Gamora understands love. Unfortunately, she shows affectionate enthusiasm in a confusing way. The pup rushes to the front of her kennel, gets on her back legs to be closer to visitors and barks. With Gamora’s naturally deep voice, people misunderstand.

When the barrier between them is gone, Gamora starts licking strangers. She also asks them to play. When they throw her toy, Gamora doesn’t fetch. She runs and cutely points to it. This girl wants and deserves to have fun.

Eleven-month-old Penny’s classic Boxer-mix coat and intelligent eyes are the color of a newly minted, uncirculated Penny. It’s a color that won’t be seen nearly as often now that the coins are going away. They weren’t valuable enough to survive. Penny, who’s spayed and has perfect manners, hopes that someone recognizes her value.

For nearly a year, a crucial period in the pup’s socialization, her family saw Penny’s value. The children probably laughed at her wrinkled face and prancing white paws. Penny must have enjoyed that laughter and everything else about them. She’s a loving girl. In addition to people, Penny made other dogs and cats her friends.

Yet sometimes being a perfect pet isn’t enough. Penny’s people moved. She watched. She wasn’t invited along.

After he was abandoned, Finn ran through the strange neighborhood, making friends. The 11-month-old pup wiggled and wagged up to the strangers. The eye-catching, mostly white, blue-eyed Labrador – Husky mix was polite, too. He didn’t chase cats who watched from their yards. Finn focused on people, the ones meant to be his best friends.

Those people fell in love with Finn. Several of them searched their minds and hearts for a way to add him permanently to their lives. But there were too many problems, problems like a house full of cats whose food stretched the budget, the need to care for family members, space limits.

They were wise enough to know that love wasn’t enough. Now this instantly loved pup needs a forever home.