MUM HOLLY IS GROOMED

17 DECEMBER 2010

Shannon writes:

Holly is free now with all her babies gone. She does still occasionally look for them, but seems just fine without them. She was a very good mom to all of them, too! I decided that even though she is fearful of anything & everything, it was time for her to get her groomed. Poor little thing never had a bath in her life and let me tell you, she surely needed one! My groomer has experience with mill dogs, so Holly was in good hands.

When we picked her up, Jen said Holly went into "statue mode" out of fear and so she was pretty easy to groom. Half-way through, she did relax and was accepting to her touch. The end result is she is absolutely even more adorable than before being groomed. I could tell she felt better being clean; having three-four years of filth and hair removed was a great thing! Our next big adventure was getting spayed on 15 December so there would be no more babies for her (even though her babies are so darn cute)! Everything went well and she is doing fine . . . .

Holly is a work in progress . . . very timid, pretty shy, skittish, fearful, you know - your typical mill dog. She does come out of her kennel on occasion in search of a few ear scratches and to be petted. Even then, she goes low to the ground and will on occasion begin to submissive urinate. She WANTS so much to be normal and is trying very hard, but it is going to take a lot of patience, love, and baby steps to accomplish this.

One night, Joe & I thought we heard her come into our bedroom and sure enough, she had. She slept half in and half out the doorway! The next night we brought her pillow into our bedroom; once we were in bed and quiet, she snuck in and spent the night with us on her pillow. She continues to come into our room each night to sleep and allows us to walk over her and around her, and even pet her without fleeing . . . baby steps!

Such a sweet little girl she is . . . I can't wait for the day when I can pick her up and snuggle with her and she'll believe that everything is going to be all right!