Every dog and cat at RAWL has their own story and some of those stories are far more painful to consider than others.

Sparrow’s story is incredibly painful.

Sparrow was found tied to a pole in the middle of Sevilla. From what we understand, he spent the first year of his life tormented by those who found some sort of sick joy in animal cruelty. From physical abuse to extreme deprivation, Sparrow experienced the full gamut of mistreatment and by the time he arrived at RAWL, he carried a history of trauma no creature should ever have to shoulder.

Sparrow’s past means he has great difficulty accepting strangers; this extreme caution was a matter of life or death for him when he was living on the street so it’s entirely expected but it’s made finding him a forever home one of the greatest challenges RAWL has ever undertaken.

With people he knows and trusts, Sparrow is an incredible dog: smart, eager to please, playful and fun-loving. He adores fetch, going on walks, and causing a healthy amount of good-natured mischief.

With people he does not know and trust, he is withdrawn. On edge. Hyper-alert and obviously stressed.

To help ease that disconnect, we here at RAWL have hired a trainer to work with Sparrow three days a week. We’ve seen a great deal of progress and we’re hoping for that progress to continue. But progress has a price and RAWL is an entirely donation-based organization. We receive no funding from any institution and we are completely responsible for every aspect of running our shelter so we’ve decided to start this GoFundMe to hopefully provide a source of income for Sparrow’s continued training. Every cent raised will go DIRECTLY to Sparrow’s training expenses.

We understand Sparrow will never be the kind of dog who sees everyone in the world as a friend but we hope with time, he’ll be open enough to accepting new people in controlled situations and eventually he’ll find that one special person who has the necessary experience with reactive dogs and is willing to put in the work Sparrow requires so that he can have the wonderful life he deserves.

Rota Animal Welfare League (RAWL) is a non-profit animal care facility connecting dogs and cats with loving, caring, forever families on NAVSTA Rota military base sustained entirely by community donations and volunteers.