Annie Moves In

Annie is such a gentle soul. She wants so badly for you to love her but is scared and scarred. One of the things I know about myself is I've always had a soft spot for the wounded. It's applies to both animals and people. Yep, I learned the hard way to not let this shade whom I date!

Annie loves to be rubbed, she will crawl up on the couch or the bed and lay with her head in your lap. She is so soft and her ears are like velvet. We start to have "self esteem" sessions. Annie will sit and stare into my eyes and I'll touch her all over her face and ears telling her what a good girl she is. I try very hard not to raise my voice around her but have to finally get stern about chasing the cats. Annie cringes but seems to get over it.

I find quickly Annie loves shoes, especially my flip flops. I quickly lose 4 different sandals. Of course none of these shoes are from the same pair! I blame Annie for the first shoe but after that I'll take the blame. It's my fault for not remembering to shut my bedroom door. Thank goodness she doesn't seem to have a taste for expensive shoes!

As the days go by Annie becomes more confident in our home. She has quickly learned how to sit for a dog cookie. I don't know whether I've been very lucky or whether the other dogs are doing the teaching, but I've still had no accidents in the house.

At this point I have 4 dogs in the house. Walking them all at the same time is an adventure! One Sunday morning I'm out with all four dogs and the leash comes unclipped from Annie's collar. The other 3 dogs immediately go wild and start pulling in 45 different directions. Annie gets scared and runs off behind a house. I start to chase her but it becomes obvious that holding onto 3 crazy dogs and trying to make them all go in the same direction to find Annie is not going to work. The dogs pull me down over a sidewalk. I sit, look at my bruised, bleeding knee and come to the realization that I'm not going to be able to catch her. It's bad enough to lose one of my own dogs...but it feels so much worse to lose a foster. As I sit there bleeding and frustrated Annie quietly walks up behind me and sticks her nose in my ear. Thank you Annie!