When rescuers first touched Simba after his capture, it might have been the first positive human contact he ever experienced. His body language said everything. It seemed tense, trembling, and unsure. He wanted love, but didn’t know how to receive it.
He had lived in isolation, hairless like a coyote, scared of kindness. But food was the key.
“Pretty good flavor, huh?” his rescuer chuckled.
And just like that, Simba said: Where there’s food… I’ll go.
Within weeks, the coyote slowly started shedding his past. A bit more fur, a little more fluff, but nothing close to the picture of health. His body was still catching up, just like his heart.
The trauma ran so deep, not even comfort could reach it.
Life in the kennels wasn’t helping anymore. He had stopped growing, stopped trusting, and stopped trying.
That’s when his foster stepped in with a quiet promise:
“Let’s try something different. Just you and me!”
Inside a real home, Simba was a fish out of water. Even the couch was too foreign, he refused to lift a single paw off the ground.
But then came the awkward hugs. One paw. Then two.
And one day, he leapt straight into a lap.
That was a breakthrough, his first time ever fully on the couch. Simba was beginning to believe that love was safe.
Every day was about healing. Car rides, sniffs, and couch cuddles. Slowly, Simba was learning the world isn’t always cruel.
“Can you squat down?” his foster asked the friend. “He’s not going to bite you.”
And Simba sniffed with no fear, no flinch, but just curiosity.
He still wraps himself around his foster when nervous. He still needs time. But now, he wants to try. Puppuccinos help too, they’re his reward for brave days
In a home filled with big, rough-and-tumble dogs, Simba needed something quieter.
He deserves stability, predictability, and a life where he is the center of the universe.
Because behind that misunderstood exterior is the softest, goofiest, most loyal lion-hearted boy.
Simba is still learning how to trust, but he’s already changing lives.
And soon he’ll change someone else’s too forever.
