Bitsy at Home

The last three weeks have been AMAZING!!! To see Bitsy bloom from a dog that stood in the middle of the room and shook because she had no idea what to do, to.......................today as she is playing with the other three dogs, running in and out of the back door to the yard, and jumping up on the sofa to SIT ON PEOPLE. Sometimes I think Bitsy was switched by fairies in the middle of the night.

She is a wonderful little girl and she is a huge part of our family. She acts as if she has lived with us forever. She wants to be part of everything and know what is going on. She is letting us know when people are coming to the door. She is "asking" when she doesn't know something.

Bitsy keeps on reminding us how limited her life experience is. My oldest daughter was brushing her hair, Miss Bits ran into the living room, "woofed" at me, ran back to the bathroom, ran back to me. She wanted to know what Abby was doing. Ally, my youngest, has very long strawberry blond hair. I was brushing it out, after it had been in braids, Bitsy was sitting next to us on the sofa. Miss Bits was sticking her nose in Ally's hair, flipping it in the air, and playing with it. She acts just like a puppy.

She is barking when people are coming to the door (I know most people want to discourage this behavior in dogs but to us it means that she is progressing so we are happy to see it in her) She has gone next door to "see" the big dogs. She only goes with the other little dogs and she doesn't stay, but it's a start.

She LOVES Libby. Bitsy and Libby are a great pair. It doesn't matter how stressed Bitsy is, if Libby picks her up, she totally relaxes. When they rock together, they are both relaxed. Bitsy hears the kids coming home from school and gives Libby the whole body wag when she gets in the door. Now that school is out, Libby will have more time to bond with her. I know it will be good for both girls (the child and the dog)

Bitsy has figured out that kids are pretty funny things. The kids playing in a sprinkler convinced her of it. She sat and watched them through the sliding glass door with her head cocked, like what kind of weird stuff are they doing. The kids were loud and wild and rough housing, it didn't upset her. She was really curious and interested. She didn't go out, she didn't run away, she just watched. The kids take her for walks and pet her. She doesn't really want any of them but my kids to hold her, and they respect that . Sometimes, Bitsy just watches the kids play. She sits with her head cocked to the side and her ears up at the door when they run around the back yard. She's thinking about joining them, like the other dogs do, but she still isn't too sure of it.

She is getting up on the furniture and asking to get up on the bed. She isn't shy around strangers as long as she meets them in the house. She is not running to the kennel any more when she is unsure. Instead, she is looking to one of us. Sometimes she looks for a person, sometimes she goes to another dog, but her family is her source of comfort now.

Bitsy is coming along much faster than we thought she would. We had set goals that we thought would take her at least 6 weeks to make, she has accomplished them all (except that pesky house training thing) in just a few. We thought she would always be shy, we thought she would always be skittish, so far she isn't (as long as she is approached in a way that makes her comfortable). She is friendly and outgoing, in her own space. She makes us laugh. She makes us proud. She is teaching us so much about ourselves and about dogs. We are her forever family and we are glad that we found her.