April 09 SCAA MONTHLY NEWS UPDATE

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The Story of Bitsy

Bitsy

It was a dusky June morning when my husband Harco and I picked up Bitsy from her foster family. Before arriving, we'd read through her info from SCAA's website and were prepared to meet up with a difficult little terrier with a strong, dominant character. It wasn't love at first sight. As one who had grown up with dogs, I had had a handful of experience and could tell that she was definitely neither an easy-going 'little sweetie' nor an unintelligent 'little dumbo'.

On the ride back, she crawled to me and settled herself on my lap, watching cars moving by. At home, she stayed quietly in her basket and did nothing more than eat, walk and sleep, not playing with a single toy - quite unusual for a terrier!

Things seemed to go well until one day we noticed a tear rolling down her cheek..... she looked so sad. At that moment, we realized that Bitsy was a little terrier with a human soul, what the Dutch call a 'human dog'. The more we got to know her, the more we realized how many emotions she carried with her. An elderly dog being left in an unknown land after living with her first owner for 7 years, not knowing why she was left behind. As a small dog with strong character, she must has gone through a lot, and only God knows what sort of suffering she endured over the past 2 years. Her foster homes were loving and caring, but she was still haunted by her old memories.

An incident happened later on explaining that:
One sunny summer evening, during our usual afternoon walk, an Australian family walked past us. Bitsy noticed their Australian accent and kept her ears up watching them walking all the way down to the end of the street. She just stood there quietly. She cried a little and continued walking home with me.

I really felt sorry for her, especially when I heard that she was actually rescued by SCAA and started her foster life with nothing! How could one feel being left alone in a strange environment with not even a single piece of personal belongings to continue life with? Surely it was a very traumatizing experience for her......

After a couple of months, Bitsy started to play with a woolen flower from one of my sweaters, and came to us more and more for attention. Then I realized that the main reason Bitsy didn't play with any toys was simply because she felt insecure and was unable to relax.

I was still not sure if she feels at home with us until one fine day she started barking at me, hurrying me up to bring her out for her daily walk! A bond is slowly growing between Bitsy and us. We wanted to adopt her but the first thing we need to check out is if we are able to bring her away when we move out from China. Bitsy doesn't deserve to be abandoned again in her life. Last November, after asking around and gathering all the information, we asked to adopt Bitsy officially from SCAA. In 2009 January, we applied for her dog license. The Shanghai police were very helpful during the application procedure. Two days ago, police station rang us up to inform us that the license was ready for pick up anytime!

I understand that it would not be easy to explain to Bitsy that she is our family member now and this would be her permanent home. But she will learn that slowly and we will gradually gain her full trust. Seeing her greeting us with her affectionate big eyes every morning makes my day.

As a Buddhist, I believe that every thing that happens in life for a reason. One of the main reasons for us to move to Shanghai was so that Bitsy could join us in life. So, Bitsy, welcome home!

Angeline

594 Adoptions to Date!!

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