Even after a full year of having Greta, it’s still all the little things about her that amaze me and make me smile on a daily basis. I mentioned that she has her quirks, but they’re not all related to her previous traumas.

She definitely loves to watch Mister eat and even though I’m undoubtedly her favorite human, if he and I are eating at the same time she will sit by him until she’s satisfied that there’s not a morsel left that she might be able to capture. And she’s already proven that she’ll do anything for a chance to eat human food.

Last week, after I’d been asleep for about an hour, I heard Greta jump off the bed so I woke up. At first I tried to get her to jump back in bed, but she wasn’t having it. She just kept staring at the door. I figured she’d want to go potty so I opened the bedroom door. Instead of running downstairs, Greta rushed into the office – the next room over – to find Mister eating an ice cream novelty. Apparently she heard him unwrapping it and decided that she had to get herself some human food. I just said, “Give me a freaking break” and went back to bed, but Mister told me that she started at him while he ate his snack, went outside, then came back upstairs and jumped back into bed with me. All I know is that she was curled up in bed next to me when my alarm went off way too early.

I also love how Greta greets me when I come home from work, Saturday shopping, or taking the trash out. Have you ever seen those videos showing soldiers coming home after many months and their dogs going absolutely berserk with excitement? That’s Greta every single time I come home. She starts barking as soon as she hears the garage door open, and I walk into the house to see her wiggling her butt in the air. As I walk further into the house, she starts running in circles – around me, around the coffee table, up the stairs and down again, etc. as we make our way to the back door. When we got Greta, she’d get excitement incontinence so taking her outside upon arriving home became a ritual.

After letting Greta get her greet on, we go back inside. I walk through the human-sized opening, while Greta rockets through the doggie door and up the stairs. Then she sits at the top of the stairs waiting for me to come up. Sometimes I don’t go upstairs right away, and if she hears me sit on the sofa she’ll come running back down the stairs to tackle me where I sit. If I do go upstairs, I see her on the top step, wiggling her butt in the air, jumping in circles. She’s silly like that.

Sometimes I find dog hairs on my shirt when I’m at work. This always makes me smile because I got doggie hugs before I left.

When I get out Greta’s harness, it’s a signal to her that we’re going out. She doesn’t care if it’s a walk in the park or a visit to the vet, she’s excited because it means that when I leave the house, she gets to come with me. Sometimes it’s nearly impossible to put the harness on because she’s pawing at it with frantic excitement.

I used positive reinforcement when trying to housebreak Greta, so even though we have the doggie door and I don’t have to accompany her on her bathroom breaks, she still comes running to me when she comes in the house, looking for praise.

I love that Greta is always happy to see me. It’s pretty much impossible to be sad or upset when I’ve got that cute doggie butt wagging in the air. It was Mister’s idea to get a dog, and I’m sure glad we did. There’s nothing like a pup who loves you.

One year ago today, Mister and I adopted Greta. We don’t know when her actual birthday is, so we’ll celebrate it today. October 15, 2010 was the first day of her brand new life, after all.

It’s been amazing watching Greta come out of her shell and become the dog she is today. I remember going to the shelter with eyes on another little guy, but he was too rambunctious for me. Then I suggested this shy little girl – named Lizzie at the shelter – and she seemed to get comfortable in my arms really fast. She seemed to know that I was a person that would love and protect her instead of yelling at her and hitting her. The shelter told us she was a puppy mill rescue who was adopted out and returned 9 months later for “not bonding” and “barking too much”. In the few minutes that I had her in my arms, she seemed to bond with me just fine. And we found out she doesn’t bark very often at all – mostly when I come home, before I actually enter the house, and when Mister has food – but she doesn’t bark all day and night, which is nice.

We took her home, had some trying moments with housetraining, dry eye, seizures, mind tricks, and more. But it’s all been worth it, every single bit. Greta makes me smile every day because she does silly doggy things, and she goes absolutely crazy when I come home from work, running around in circles until I take her outside so she can properly greet me. She’s a lovey dog, but still skittish because of her past.

Of course I don’t know exactly what Greta’s been through and only have what I’ve been told to go by. It’s apparent that she had been abused. I remember one day, not long after we go her, I was out in the backyard with her and went to scratch an itch on the back of my calf. You know how sometimes you’ll do that by using your foot? Well, Greta saw my foot move up off the ground and jumped back quite a bit. I had to forget my own discomfort and crouch down so she’d come to me and learn that I wasn’t going to hurt her. So somewhere along the way she learned that human foot off the ground = ouchie for Greta. Also, she is very sensitive to people’s moods. When Mister is playing his game and gets agitated, Greta leaves the room. She can’t handle anything that might resemble anger, probably because she thinks that angry human = ouchie for Greta.

In my travels on the internet this past week, I came across a blog post about Petland USA selling puppy mill dogs. That post led me to this one about the Blog the Change movement to publicize the deplorable conditions at puppy mills and urging pet stores like Petland USA to stop selling these poor animals. Right away I knew that the best way to honor Greta’s birthday would be to blog about it myself. Puppy mills raise dogs for profit, not companionship, and the conditions are often deplorable. Dogs are forced to breed and when they’re no longer useful, they are killed. They don’t receive adequate veterinary care and live in crowded cages. Please follow the links in this paragraph and do your part to stop supporting puppy mills.

Like I said, Greta was originally rescued from a puppy mill. We don’t know her exact age. The shelter told us 3 years old, but the vet thought she was at least 4 or 5 when I first brought her in last year. It’s obvious she’s had a few litters, because her nipples are permanently enlarged and she has a saggy belly, which to me show that she’s had multiple litters with little chance for exercise, and our vet concurs with this opinion. She’s also afraid of pretty much everything, and while she doesn’t freak out quite as much as she used to when she’s afraid, she’ll never grow out of her fear. I read an article on this study that delves into the psychological issues that puppy mill dogs can have, even long after their rescue.

Today, Greta is a happy, mostly well adjusted dog. She still has her moments, and probably will for the rest of her life, but I think she quite enjoys the life she has now. I’m sure that if she spoke human, Greta would want me to tell you all to boycott puppy mills and the organizations that keep them in business, and to support animal rescue organizations instead.

Please join this blog hop by putting a post on your blog about the puppy mill issue and telling Petland USA to stop selling puppies and kittens.