Grace's Former Life

What we do know about Grace is that she was flown to Texas to be with the co-owner and on the flight there she became stressed; and on arrival at the airport in Texas everyone thought that she had died on the flight, because she was non- responsive.  Thankfully she didn't die, but she remained in a "distressed" state for the 3 1/2 years that she remained in Texas.  We don't know what was done for Grace while she was in Texas but would like to find out,  and hope to learn more about her experience there.  What we do know is how Grace was when she came to live with Heather on the July 4th weekend of 2000. 

In three weeks Grace would become 5 years old. 

At that time she weighed 11 pounds.  She was as skinny as a rake, and looked like one too.  All ribs, pin bones, and vertebrae !!  The breeder had her back for 6 weeks and she was eating well, but not putting on any weight.  It was mysterious. Grace had periodontal disease. Was a submissive pee'er.  She was totally crate bound, having to be pulled from her crate, as  she was not interested in doing anything but staying in her crate and shaking!  If you did get her out, you would swear she was having an epileptic seizure as she would go limp, stiff, and quiver and shake on the floor in front of her crate for extended periods.  Her shaking would continue but to a much lesser degree, when you held her in your arms, eventually subsiding, but immediately returning if something, anything, disturbed her or even drew her attention.  Her eyes were wide open, but she wasn't seeing our world, she was somewhere else.  A fearful place. 

For the first few weeks Grace was constantly held in some one's arms, or on their lap, or in the bed, or held on your chest.  She was never away from a human.  The books recommend holding a dog for 20 minutes a day.  For the first two weeks Grace was held for hours, perhaps 4 or 5 hours per day, not including time spent in bed at night with Heather.  This is not an exaggeration!   Most of the time she was held she shook, with intermittent stoppages, but not many. 

Grace would not eat unless she did it in her crate, and in a room that had no one in it except for her.  She wouldn't touch anything unless she had total privacy.  Grace wasn't interested in treats either, and nothing could lure her out of her crate.  Until Grace was restricted in her access to her crate, you had to drag her out.  We would do this gently, but  gently dragging her was required because she wasn't going to come out on her own. 

The day Heather brought Grace home, Grace bit her as she reached into her crate to get her out to feed her.  It wasn't a nip either.  It drew blood, but didn't need stitches.  In a panic late that night, Grace pee'd on Heather's bed!  This was the first of many times where the bedding had to be changed because Grace had messed on the bed.  It was so discouraging that several times tears were shed because it seemed that Grace was never going to come around! 

Grace's problems were worse than Heather could have ever imagined.  If Grace was ever housetrained, she had forgotten everything, and we had to start at the beginning.  Grace really didn't know how to work on a leash, and we had to work on that.  What was really funny ( or sad), was that Grace didn't have a clue about how to go up and down stairs, and had to teach herself how to do that right away, as Heather's house was two stories and her bedroom was upstairs. 

What gave Heather encouragement to carry on was that every day there were a few moments that made it all worthwhile.  It was always something little, but Grace was trying, and even baby steps count. 

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