In defence of Lena Dunham: because not every animal rescue works out.

This is my dog Bella.

I am her favourite person (my family will dispute this but ignore them) and I think it's because I saw her first and she imprinted on me like a duckling. As I walked over to her cage to meet her that first day, she pushed herself up hard against the wire to get close to me, so I could pat as much of her as possible.

Take me home, she said with her eyes. Love me.

Her name didn't used to be Bella, not when I met her 18 months ago. It was Ruckus and that should have been a clue. A red flag. An omen. "The man who brought her in said he found her on the street and he nicknamed her Ruckus," said Clare from Sydney Dogs and Cats Home when I arrived to meet Ruckus after Clare emailed me a photo of her looking small and scared and adorable. Ruckus? Ha. Oh how Clare and I laughed at the idea that this beautiful, timid little creature with soulful eyes and a scruffy face could cause any kind of Ruckus.

It was love at first sight. We called her Bella because she was so beautiful. To us. There is chemistry when it comes to adopting animals and I've felt it before.

We adopted our first dog, Harry from Sydney Dogs & Cats home 12 years ago and as he's grown older and our kids have become more independent, we decided we were ready to give another dog a forever home. We had a few false starts, dogs we saw on the website and enquired about. Dogs who had been happily reclaimed by their owners after arriving at the shelter or who had already been adopted before we could meet them or who weren't suitable for us. Some were too big, too boisterous, couldn't be homed with another dog, needed masses of exercise or couldn't be around kids.

You've heard it before but it's true: buying or adopting a pet should never be a spontaneous or impulsive decision. Puppies are a huge amount of work. And rescue dogs can have issues. All animals require time and patience and commitment.

Usually, I have no time for most of the fights that break out around Lena Dunham.  So often, she is a magnet for the projected grievances of others and while, like most humans, she makes mistakes, the enormity of outrage and controversy she generates is usually out of all proportion to anything she's said or done.

But this time I want to go there.

In today's news we've learned that she was recently forced to find a new home for her beloved rescue dog Lamby who she adopted from the BARC animal shelter in Brooklyn four years ago. Back in March, she posted the following:

For some unknown, unhelpful reason, a shelter worker has this week come out to dispute her version of events and insist that Lamby showed no signs of abuse or aggression during the four weeks it was in the shelter (four years ago) and evidenced the fact that the dog was loving towards Lena and her mother as 'proof' that the dog was fine and had no behavioural problems.

Dunham has been forced to respond and she's done so angrily and I don't blame her:

I feel deeply for Lena because there were times after adopting Bella/Ruckus when we too considered that perhaps we weren't the best family for our new dog and that perhaps we'd made a mistake in adopting her. Like Lamby, Bella had some trust and fear issues with men. Also people wearing hats or sunglasses which made summer particularly challenging. Fortunately, we were able to push through. My eldest son, on his gap year, was able to dedicate a lot of extra time to train Bella. We persevered. We made allowances and adapted to aspects of her behaviour which remained unpredictable. We modified our expectations of what we could and couldn't do with Bella in tow. And I don't say that to suggest Lena didn't. Clearly, she tried for four years to make Lamby feel comfortable and secure and re-homing him was, as she says, a last resort after "four years of challenging behaviour and aggression that could not be treated with training or medication or consistent loving dog ownership" as she put it.

Because to believe otherwise is to believe this about her: Lena Dunham adopted a dog who she clearly loved and adored for four years and then one day she just said "I don't want him anymore" and gave him away. Because she couldn't be bothered taking care of him.

What bollocks is that. Four years is a long, long time. I can only imagine the issues she and her partner, Jack, experienced. Distressed dogs can bite. Unhappy dogs are destructive. Abused dogs can be unpredictably aggressive. And that's not a positive living situation for anyone, dog or human.

Stefania Kubowicz from the RSPCA (I adopted a dog from the RSPCA when I was 19, named her Tiffy and loved her until she died in my arms 14 years later) had this to say on how symptoms of abuse can manifest in animals:

So if you are thinking of becoming a pet owner, please consider adoption. There are loads of animal shelters with beautiful dogs and cats (and rabbits and birds and even goats) waiting desperately, patiently, hopefully for a forever home. Please don't be discouraged by anything you've read here. Bella is the third dog I have adopted and the other two have been utterly easy and issue-free. Shelters have strict protocols about assessing behaviour and steering you away from animals that aren't suited to you. Their goal is to get every match right. As a proud owner of two delightful, happy, loving rescue dogs who enhance my family's lives every day I have to say that there is a deep connection and gratitude that rescue dogs have to their saviours. I cannot recommend it highly enough.