Itsy Bitsy Blooms

Bitsy at Home

2009-06-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Bitsy Comes Home

2009-06-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

The home visit with Katrin went well. Snook and Annie were on their best behavior, no rough housing, and Alex took to Katrin right away. He fell asleep in her lap. We talked about how it would be best for Bitsy to come to our house. Katrin and Will talked and it was decided that we would drive up to Pasado's to pick her up on Saturday May 30th.

I took the girls and I went shopping for a collar, harness, and leash for Miss Bits. They wanted yellow, with bling. They couldn't find anything they liked. What we DID find was purple with butterflies. The girls loved it. They said it was good for Bitsy because we were setting her free like butterflies. Since we all need birthdays and since Bitsy is about 7 we gave her May 30th, 2002 as her birthday. That way we would always remember when she came home with us and because it was a new begining for her.

Saturday came. Libby was up at 6:30 am. For a kid that likes to sleep in, you know she was excited. Dad drove us up to Sultan where we met Will again. It is so beautiful there. Pasado's Safe Haven is a lovely facility. I would liked to have seen more, but we really wanted to get our new little girl home. We walked over to Bitsy's enclosure and she remembered us, especially Libby. Both the girl and the dog were happy.

When a tractor went by, Bitsy started spinning..........oops........we have some stress issues we didn't think about. OK.........that's workable. We got her new harness on, and Libby started walking her to the van. Bitsy was doing the little prance walk that Minpins do. Then........she heard a motor again............OK, not just tractors..........motors, could be a long drive home, that's still workable.

We waited while Will got Bitsy paper work, her vet files, her feeding instructions, a weeks worth of food to transition her. She was a bit nervous and unsure, but she was doing pretty well. We had brought along a kennel in case she was more comfortable in that. Dad had taken all but one of the back seats out, so there was lots of room for the two girls.

The ride home was amazing. Bitsy was great. The van didn't frighten her. She looked out the window. She sat in Libby's lap. Eventually, she went to sleep in the kennel. I was elated. Maybe this wasn't going to be as hard as I thought. Maybe she wasn't as bad off as I was afraid of. Maybe....................

We arrived home and introduced Miss Bits to the small dogs one at a time. Bitsy was unsure but the others were welcoming. They treated her gently, as if they knew she was fragile. When she seemed stressed, they each helped her out in there own way. Snook, stayed with her, brushing up next to her gently. Annie, our little tease, gently licked her ear. Alex, seemed to show her around and answer her questions. I might be reading human actions into our dogs, but I know that our dogs helped Bitsy adjust to her new life with us.

Bitsy Questions

2009-06-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

We had been watching Bitsy and her mom Pixel on line at Petfinder.com for a while.

Mom had lost her Minpin, Simba to old age last fall and was really grieving. She was determined that she wasn't getting another dog. Dad and I knew better. We also knew that a rescue dog with problems was not a good match for mom right off. In January, we got "Snook" for Mom. "Miller's Lovely Kaiser Jaden" to be exact. He is beautiful. He is also young. He turned one on May 8th.

I knew that Snook was lonely, so I kept looking for a friend for him. Bitsy was always there. Mom said keep an eye on her. She was so pretty. But she had issues and I wasn't sure we could handle her. We kept looking.

A number of things happened............we found Alex, another Miniature Pinscher, in May and Annie a mixed breed Minpin and (we think) Chihuahua. Alex was a bit possive and Annie wasn't totally house trained. We took care of those issues and were feeling pretty good.

Bitsy was still on Petfinder.com.

I went to Pasado's website to find more info. Just looking. Just thinking. Then I noticed that there was an adoption event just over an hour away from us.............so I thought, why not go and talk to people that know about Bitsy and find out if we can handle her.

Dad thought is was a good idea (Mike rolled his eyes but he had to go to work). We put mom, Ally, Libby and me in the van. Abby stayed home to doggie sit with the kids (little dogs) and off we went.

We made it to the adaption event and met wonderful people there with great dogs and cats. If my kids had their way, we would have taken every furry person home with us. We really don't have that much room. We met and talked to Katrin about Bitsy. She gave us Miss Bits' background and what her special needs would be. Katrin suggested that we go up to the rescue and meet Bitsy. We talked about it...........this was a huge commitment. This little girl had never lived in a home, had never interacted with kids, had never done a bunch of "normal" dog stuff. Mom decided she wanted to meet Bitsy.

We drove up to Sultan and met Will "the Dog guy". He took us to where Bitsy lived and introduced us. I think my girls were the first children that she had met. My kids are very good with animals. They know how to approach shy animals and we had talked on the way there. They did a great job.

Poor little Bitsy was so unsure of herself that she was shaking. My dad and the girls coaxed her to them and soon Bitsy was taking treats from all of us. When the other dogs came back from the event, it was time to go. BItsy jumped up on Libby's leg and followed her down the fence line to the van tring to lick her fingers. Will told us that he thought that we were the right family for Bitsy, we thought so too.

When Katrin called early in the week to set up a home visit, I'm not sure who the most excited person was. The kids or my dad.

Bitsy's Story

2009-06-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

This is Bitsy's story. It's one that I hope people read and really pay attention to. It is about a sad little dog that had never known what it was like to be loved, had never know what is was like to play, had never know what it was like to act like a dog. All she had know was having babies and seeing them taken away from her. She was a puppy mill breeder dog. After she was too used up to have enough puppies for her "owners", she was put out on the street to take care of herself. She had no skills, she had lived her entire life in a small enclosure, she didn't know what to do to survive. She was lost and confused and mostly wild. She was caught and taken to the Humane Society forTacoma and Pierce County in Washington. Someone there contacted Pasado's Safe Haven in Sultan, Washington. That's where Bitsy's life really began.

We know this much of Bitsy's story because of her physical and mental condition. We know this poor little girl had many, many litters of puppies, all you have to do is look at her to see that. We know that she has had limited socialization. Her behavior shows us that. We have her vet records from her time at the rescue. They did wonders for her. She was, at best, neglected for the first six years of her life and definitaly exploited for her use as a puppy breeder. I call this abuse. Now she is getting what she deserved all along. A family to love her.

This blog is about Bitsy's progress from dog to Miniature Pinscher. From little half wild thing that won't let anyone pick her up, to what we know she is inside, a loving, sweet, happy companion and family member.

I'll be posting so that everyone that has come to care about her can follow her amazing progress. We are so proud of so far she has come allready.

Mary -