Mindy is a Havanese that was rescued from a puppy mill, she was never touched by human hands the first six months of her life. When she was rescued they had to leave a leash on her to catch her. She was scared of every one and every thing, the foster parents we got her from said she had eaten the drywall, three feet high, out of the room where they were keeping her. When we first got her she stood looking at us from between our pit bulls front legs. She got along great with our other dogs. We would have to get her in a corner to catch her for the first six months. She liked going into her crate which was a blessing, I would take her out of her crate after work and hold her and stroke her body while talking softly to her. I am a diabetic and learned patience from my Mother who had to deal with the rollercoaster life of a diabetic teenager. I always look forward to coming home after work to be with Mindy. It took a (lot) of patience to work through her fears and problems. But time and special care have developed the wonderful sweet little girl we now have. After much work she would let us pick her up, but she always turns around so that her back is facing you, she still does that to this day. For a couple of years she would not let us pick her up when we were in the back yard, we can now pick her up in the yard. She has allergies and has to get a shot every two weeks and take pills every night. At first I would have to put the pills in her mouth and work to get her to swallow them. After several years her brother started taking pills too, and she learned from him how to come up get a treat then take and swallow a pill. We knew she was smart but for her to watch Ricky and come up on her own and wait for her pill is amazing. We call her our autistic child because she has to have everything in the right place at the right time or it upsets her very much. Now she will come up and ask to be scratched or held which she avoided for so long. It has been so rewarding to watch her grow into the sweet baby girl she is now. Every time we talk to her former foster parents and tell them of some new thing she is doing it just blows their mind. They say they never could have imagined that she would turn out this close to normal from where she started. I think my Mother would have said the same thing about me.

Sally Blevins
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK