The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Something happened today that made me realize that it's been a while since we've seen Da Pup.

The Princess.

Miss Fluffy Butt.

So I grabbed my camera and tried for a photo shoot.

Oh dear.

She is a lot of things. She is beautiful, and sweet, and loving. She is funny, and brave, and fearless. 

The things she is NOT, is cooperative, and maybe photogenic.

She's a black dog! It's very hard to get a good picture of her!

And it doesn't help that she has to investigate anything I might have in my hands.

 That's why most of the pictures I have of her are when she's sleeping.

Or at the vet.

 Look at that smile! 

She's a happy girl.

 We got her when she was 9 months old. She was hyperactive and had some serious issues. She was a biter! If you got anywhere near her food, she'd bite you. 

If you made a move that could be interpreted as going for her food, she'd bite you.

If you gave her a sideways glance while in the same room as her food, oh yes, she'd bite you. 

We had some significant injuries in our early years. People told us she would never change, and that we should get rid of her. 

Perhaps permanently. And they would give us a "look".

But I was in love.

This was my first dog! I had signed on for the long haul.

We worked with her every day. I researched everything I could find about rehabilitating dogs with food issues. I would sit on the kitchen floor with her bowl in my lap and hand feed her pieces of food. We started making her sit and wait before we'd put her bowl down. Once she started letting us near her, I would add pieces of chicken or beef into her bowl, to let her see that it wasn't always a bad thing to have people near her bowl. Then we graduated to picking up her bowl, and adding yummy things. 

Today, nine years later, I scooped up her food and took it to her bowl. She spun around in excitement, (a self taught trick that I encourage: "SPIN!") and then sat down patiently as I poured the (vegetarian) food 

into her bowl. We made eye contact.

She waited. 

And waited.

I went back and put the scoop back in the bag. Poured myself a beverage. 

Came back, to find her still sitting, patiently waiting.

"GO AHEAD!"

And she tucked in.

I scratched her back, petted her head. 

She didn't even twitch.

Good dog.