Author: Mia Wood

More About Me: The one major thing to learn about me is my shyness. My history taught me to be cautious. Not only am I learning to be a dog, but I’m also learning basic life. I am afraid. And I will occasionally growl softly under my breath until I learn to trust you, which may take a very long time. Let’s be clear. I’ve not tried to hurt anyone. I’m just afraid. I will put my nose up to you and give kisses sometimes. I’m scared, but I’m learning. Boy, do the people caring for me wish I could tell them what happened to me in my previous life. I seem to do better with another dog from the same seizure. So if you’ve adopted a dog from the Lancaster Co, SC seizure, maybe I’m the right next dog for you! I am more than willing to learn without another dog from the seizure. It just may take a long time for me to trust you. If your life began as mine did, you’d be the same way. We all lived through our hard beginning, which is an amazing feat in and of itself. We’re learning and growing, and for some of us, it will take a while. Because of what I had to live through, trusting people is new to me. I am sweet. It’s not that I don’t want love. It’s that I don’t know what love is. I’m learning! I do give kisses. In my time at the shelter, I got my first lessons in learning how to be loved. I am learning a lot and continue to progress. The more distance I put between the situation from which I came and me, the more things improve for me but very, very slowly. I didn’t understand how to be normal, how to do most things that come naturally to the majority of dogs.

Some examples of how my prior life taught me to be: I believe you are supposed to live in a crate. So while my foster family leaves my crate door open, I choose to stay there. After several months there, I will put my front paws outside the crate, but I can’t bring myself to put all four paws out. When you take me outside to the bathroom, I am afraid and just want to go back inside because that’s all I knew my whole life – living in a box. I have been truly wonderful with all pets in my foster home – cats, dogs, even rabbits. The children have crawled into my crate, and I’m fine with that. I do love certain foods. I will take cheese from my foster mom’s hand, but she has to come close because I will only put my front paws outside the crate to get the cheese. Because in my prior life I knew nothing & had nothing, I’ve learned to steal toys while all the humans are in bed. I hoard them. I do squeak them some, but mostly I just take them. I take things besides toys, too, and just add them to my pile.

My home needs to be with people with patience, gentleness, understanding, and full of lots of love to give me. Progress is progress, but it takes baby steps to get there. The rewards to humans are immense when a shy dog trusts. The journey to that point is taken by people who are kind, patient, knowledgeable, and understanding. Is that you?