Rosie's rescue tail

This is the rescue tail of my Rosie, a 3 year old chihuahua that we adopted on July 22, 2007. Not much is known of Rosie's history, except that she was found in Dayton, Ohio and held by the dog warden. No one claimed her, and she was scheduled to be euthanized just hours before Lil Paws Rescue saved her and brought her to a foster home, my next door neighbor.


The first time I saw Rosie was just after my neighbor brought her to her house. She was also fostering other dogs, and has 3 of her own, and they were all outside playing, except for poor Rosie. She wasn't dealing with her arrival very well, and just shook and tried to hide her face while my neighbor held her and let me see her. By the next day, however, Rosie joined the other dogs at the fence when I'd walk over to talk to them. She often was the first one to come running up to see me, tail wagging like crazy and wanting me to pet her. She and I took a real liking to one another, and while I hoped she would get adopted, I also dreaded the day she would, because I was getting so attached to her. I already had Abby and the three cats , and had told my husband after rescuing the last kitten that he was the last one. I didn't have the nerve to ask him to take in yet another lost sole. But he started becoming attached to her also. His fatal mistake was kidding me about adopting Rosie, and then he said he wouldn't mind adopting her. That's all it took for me to set about getting approved for adoption. While waiting for the approval process, my neighbors moved, so I couldn't see Rosie every day and I missed her terribly. She also needed some dental work done before they could officially let me have her. Finally her adoption day arrived, and she's been my constant companion ever since. Luckily Abby has accepted her very well and doesn't object to her being near me all the time. She just jumps up on the other side of me and settles in - yes my dogs get up on the furniture, and they also sleep on our bed. I guess we don't have very good pack leader/dog boundaries in our house.

One of Rosie's knicknames is "Rosebud", or just "Bud" for short. She loves to lay out in the yard in the sun, no matter how hot it is. Long after Abby heads in to the air conditioning, Rosie's still laying out there soaking up the heat, so we keep an eye on her. The picture above was taken on one of the hottest days last summer. And as much as she loves the heat, she hates the cold. Our Northern climate is nothing like that of Mexico from which her breed originated. I may invest in some boots for her next winter, as it really seems to bother her feet. As I've written in previous posts, Rosie has had her issues, and we're working through them little by little. It's obvious to me she's been abused; at first she would cringe if I tried to touch her face. She would also duck and cower when we stooped down to pet her. She has improved quite a bit in this area. And she's getting better about being around men, but still is cautious. At Thanksgiving, after viewing all the men in my family guardedly for a while, she actually sat on the floor between my brother and nephew and begged for some turkey. I work with her every day on the food gobbling. She obviously went hungry in the past and she may never get over that. She'll still eat dog poop if given the chance, but we're working on that as well. The only accidents in the house are when the weather is really bad and she sneaks down to the basement and squats on a throw rug. My husband and I try to be as diligent as possible, but if it happens we know we weren't watching her closely enough. Luckily our basement is not carpeted, and it's a rare occurrence anyway. All in all, she has been a wonderful addition to our family, and she is worth the little extra work to rehabilitate her. I can't imagine life without her now. If it weren't for Lil Paws Rescue, this sweet little girl would no longer be alive. I read somewhere recently that for every dog or cat that is found and saved, there's another one that isn't--so sad.