I'm spending the weekend with my sister. She has a dog named Noel who is a true enigma. My sister and her boyfriend adopted Noel about 7 months ago and she has been a handful. She's skiddish, runs off, doesn't respond to her name, and is just generally strange. We're convinced that before she was in the animal shelter, Noel had an abusive owner who was probably a black man judging by how skiddish she is around my sister's boyfriend and my dad. My sister says Noel acts more like a lazy cat than a dog most of the time but when I see Noel at my grandparents' house or my parents house she's completely different. She runs, and jumps, and plays. My sister maintains a superhuman schedule between working full time, being a full time nursing student, and going to clinicals but I think Noel really just needs more patience and attention. My mom has talked about whether Jessica should take Noel back to the animal shelter just because they aren't a good match for each other. As I'm writing this, I can see a difference in Noel's behavior. She is laying on my lap, even licking my hand which are things that Jessica rarely reports. Noel needs more attention and patience and I'm afraid that if she goes back to the animal shelter she may not be adopted again.