I started cruising all the dog rescue sites and found it pretty exhausting trying to decide where to adopt, what to adopt, how to adopt and so forth. A short time before this we had been visiting a shop in Red Wing where the proprietor had her dog with her in the store and this is the first time we saw a Papillion. My wife immediately fell for the breed. I started looking for Papillion's to adopt. The first search I did brought me to Aegina and SDR.
She looked so cute and her markings were so beautiful. We emailed SDR and got set up for a home visit right away. By coincidence, Aegina's foster mom worked with my wife so Aegina was already in our city. When she arrived, her foster mom told us about Aegina being a rescue from 8 years in a puppy mill and she was starting to house train and re-socialize her. I'm not sure we fully understood what we were getting into. We liked her looks, she got along with Molly and we just figured she would come around and become a family member (a pet). Besides, we knew how to house train a dog…………..
She came to her forever home! It hasn't been the same in our house since…..LOL
Anyone who has taken in a mill survivor will know exactly what we were facing. I'm almost positive it should be a firm rule that there already be a resident dog when getting a mill dog. I won't bore you with all the details of house training, but our resident dog was instrumental in helping. I'll just say it took a while and a lot of hit and miss trials but she is fully house trained now and allowed the run of the house 24 hrs a day.
One and a half years later, she still isn't the pet we thought we would have, but she is our little girl and we couldn't think of being without her. She isn't a lap dog or doesn't seek a lot of attention. Although sometimes she feels the need for petting (for a minute) and wants to be on your lap when its storming but for the most part, just being by you in the same room is enough for her. That's OK though with us. We know she's now in a safe place, a loving place and she will be as happy as she can be for the rest of her days. She has developed a personality and we get a kick out of her.
She loves walks and is great on a leash. She roams all over the yard now after accepting that stepping in grass is not all that bad. Her favorite time of the day is bedtime. She gets up on the bed, makes a nest in her own blanket and settles in for the night. In fact, I think she tolerates us more than we her. We not only adopted her, she adopted us.
I'm not sure we would have adopted Aegina if someone had told us she wouldn't be the PET we were looking for, but I do know we would do it again. The satisfaction we get from seeing her get as far as she has and the feeling we get, knowing we have given her a good safe home is more than we ever expected.
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We adopted a Pappy that had been abused. She did not present on the main floor for 3 months. It was heartwrenching, but she did come around and her personality has grown and grown. Just when you think she is as funny and cuddly as could be, she surprises us again. For a little dog, this breed is full of personality. Oh, and smart, smart, smart. She will bark as if there is someone at the door so the other dogs will run and she can have our lap or whatever else she needed to get her sisters away from. Have fun!
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