From “Nothing” to “Life.”

Today, a tiny, dirty and sick little rottie girl showed up in my driveway via transport, covered in poop and probably wondering what she was in for next.  Immediately, I could see the green snot running down her nose and the patches of missing fur from an infestation of fleas.  This poor little girl was broken.  And what was worse?  Someone at the shelter slapped a big ole “Question” rating on her behavior eval, all because she didn’t want some weird plastic hand that smelled of death and fear placed inside her food dish.  Other than that, she was rated all 1′s.  I don’t judge a book by its cover.
 

And to add insult to injury, they named her “Nada.”  Nothing.  When we made the pull the other day, we at least had them add an “i” to her records that it would say “Nadia.”  But she’s so not a Nadia.
 

So… meet Eve aka Evie.
 

This was about 2 minutes after coming into the house… she was a tired girl.

 

When taking suggestions for a new name, a friend of mine said “Vida” meaning life.  While she didn’t LOOK like a Vida (and if I’m being totally honest, it made me think of Velveeta cheese), I loved the meaning.  Because we had given her just that.  Life.  So I did a little searching and found that Eve had the same meaning.  Perfect.
 

Considering I had no idea how this dog might react to my cleaning her up, the task of trying to get poop off of her side, back legs and paws was a daunting feat.  However, I grabbed some wet paper towels and made a go of it, and she stood there like a lady and let me do what needed to be done.  After checking out the house for a few minutes, she had a little bite to eat (right from my hand – didn’t they say she was food aggressive?) and then I realized that she still stunk of poop.  I was going to have to do something a little more drastic but of course, I never want to overwhelm a dog in the 1st hour that they’re at my house.    She wasn’t too keen on the idea of actually getting into the tub and I wasn’t too keen on pushing my luck.  So a sponge bath it was.  She was so good the whole time while I was scrubbing at her with a wet rag with a little shampoo on it, wiping her down with another and then toweling her off.  And it was then that I got my first kiss.  I think she was saying “thank you.”  It wasn’t until the very end when I think I squeezed in between her toe a little too hard and she yelped and told me she was patient for long enough and that she was done now.  No problem Evie… you’re a good girl.
 

Right now, Evie is ~10 pounds underweight, covered in scaly skin, suffering from some serious hair loss and is blowing snot all over my house.  And I couldn’t be happier.  Because Evie, you went from being “nothing” and receiving “nothing” from someone to taking in everything I have to give right now.
 

And I can not wait to see you shine.
 

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.  ~Roger Caras