12 Days of Happy Tails: Meet Rita!
As the year winds down, we're taking a look back at all of the lives that we’ve saved thanks to your support. It’s another year of 12 Days of Happy Tails — stories that touched the hearts of our staff and volunteers. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we’ve loved all of these special pups.
Today’s Happy Tail is little miss Rita! From the minute she came to Muddy Paws, Rita was extremely shy and seemed shut down. We thought she might thrive outside the city where the pressure to take walks on crowded and scary streets would be removed, so she was placed with a foster who had a yard and plenty of folks in the home to keep her company. Despite her fosters’ best efforts (she had a few while we tried to determine what could help Rita be her true happy self) she never seemed to fully break free of her shell. After months of trying everything to help Rita, the Muddy Paws staff anticipated that she would thrive if she had a pup friend to show her how to 'dog' - and we were right!
Rita’s perfect family was a bit of a unicorn - someone who lived in a quiet neighborhood (Rita was scared to go on walks), had the patience to help a very shy dog learn to love again, was not gone for long hours during the day (Rita was not a fan of being left alone), and had a confident but not overbearing pup to be Rita’s companion and mentor. After almost 5 months...we found Deborah.
Deborah saw Rita’s photo and was taken aback by how similar she looked to her dog Tito. They were basically twins looks-wise but she quickly realized that personality-wise they couldn’t have been more different (at first). We arranged a meet-and-greet at Rita’s foster home so it was a low-pressure environment where Rita felt most comfortable. Deborah and her husband agreed that they would meet Rita first, before bringing Tito in, but even with treats Rita didn’t want to come over to them. It was only when Tito came to the yard that Rita’s ears perked up for the first time, and her tail started wagging!
After just a few minutes, Rita went over to Tito and the change in her demeanor was so clear. Her ears were up, she was curious and let everyone pet and touch her. She even did a few play bows and allowed herself to be picked up and hugged. Needless to say, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
Deborah says that when Rita first came to her, Rita was terrified of everything except Tito, who she loved immediately. Rita would not go out in the backyard, and instead, stayed pressed against the door--she was afraid of everything!
Deborah acknowledges that Rita has blossomed into an “amazingly outgoing girl.” She loves to play with squeaky balls, and Rita and Tito compete to catch them! Tito usually catches them but Rita takes them from him and runs around the yard squeaking the ball as she goes. Like many other pups we know, chasing squirrels is another favorite pastime of Rita’s!
When asked about how Rita is acclimating to her new forever home, Deborah says that Rita is very affectionate and that she believes that Rita is “becoming the queen of the castle.” Deborah says she feels so lucky to have found Rita and thanks Muddy Paws for recognizing the potential of this amazing little dog.
