It started innocently enough: would I foster a Chi who had been found wandering, ended up in shelter and was now in need of help? Reg, older, more sedate Chi already ensconced would need to share his home for a while. I was a bit concerned but agreed. A very small (1/3 Reg’s size) Chihuahua arrived looking terrified of everything. The three of us went for a walk and then came home. Reg was a bit surprised when this little white and black bundle followed us up the stairs and into the house. He was even more surprised when she was still there in the evening. And there she was in the morning. What was going on?
I started to call the little dog Beatrix, Bea for short. She cowered, she shivered, she would hide at the least movement or sound. The concept of play scared her so much she’d hide under the couch or below her blanket. Very gradually she started to relax and then people noticed her on the website. Possible permanent families began to call. Bea was still too nervous to raise her tail but her pretty face and small size made her desirable.
I was beginning to wonder if she’d ever feel comfortable and then one day, she showed me a careful wag of her tail. That was it. I realized that she was absolutely, firmly, entrenched in my heart (Reg is still reserving judgement). I didn’t want to let her go so that she’d have to start trusting all over again so I applied to adopt her. Luckily I made the grade and failed all in the same phone call (I was accepted and I failed fostering 101).
Bea has slowly started to emerge. Her tail is up most of the time (it’s a skinny tail with a bend in it). She’s a funny little girl who can be a bit pushy when it comes to food, loves to run (she looks like a greyhound with her long strides and her ears flattened against her head to make her more aerodynamic), follows her brother’s lead when it comes to sniffing those exceptionally good smells, loves to walk and walk and walk, enjoys a car ride, finds a snuggle pleasing, can wrestle a blanket into submission and yesterday chased a ball for the first time. She didn’t bring it back but it’s a start.
Thank you to Terry and Joy and thank you to all the CCRT executive committee for letting Reg and I grow by one more family member.
