It doesn’t bother me that Bow Tie o’ the Day and Skitter and I are all blurred up in this photo. I like looking at it. Skitter is always learning to love and be loved, but it’s not an easy thing for her. Giving me a huge kiss like this is just another big progression in Skitter’s life as a dog. When we rescued her, she was almost a year old, but she hadn’t yet learned how to be a dog. She had been so abused by her previous “people”– if you can call them that– that all she knew how to do was shake, shiver, and crouch in fear. She was a long-legged, curled up, cowering ball. She wouldn’t make eye contact with us. She tried to be invisible, afraid someone would notice her and cause her pain.
The late, great Roxy– fattest mini dachshund ever– was still with us when we got Skitter, and Roxy taught her how to be a real dog. Skitter didn’t make a sound for the first six months she lived with us, but Roxy taught her to bark. Skitter didn’t know how to eat if anyone could possibly see her, but Roxy taught her to take the food out of her dish and drop it right in the middle of the living room floor, to eat for all to see. And Roxy taught Skitter to beg for people food. You know– dog stuff like that.
And then Roxy left us last December, so now it’s all up to me to teach Skitter the dog life. And the bow tie life. She’s getting better at both, a little bit at a time.