Today is Spotty’s second anniversary of becoming a MacGregor. When we met him, it was only days after we had put sweet Edward, the canine love of my life, to sleep at age 18.5. I was not at all ready for another dog, but we’ve always had at least two dogs and we wanted a buddy for Charlie before I went back to work in the fall. 

We had been warned that Spot was extremely shy and was going to take a lot of work if we adopted him. He was totally disinterested in us when we met him. He did not want to look at us, he did not want to stand by us, he definitely did not want us to try to touch him. He very gently took the bag of treats we had and carried it off, I guess figuring he’d work on them on his own, because he also did not really want us handing him a treat. He was very shy. I was very sad.

Matthew and Callum were on board with him right away, and I was too, in the sense that there is no “just looking” at dogs for us. Show us your most pathetic hard luck case and we’ll take him, even if he seems to actively hate us (hi, Oscar!). But I was so, so, SO sad about Edward. After 14 years of seizures and strokes, I couldn’t believe my sturdy old man was finally gone. But Spot seemed in terrible shape, which made him perfect for us. So we decided to go for it, understanding we had to complete a series of “shy dog” classes with him after we got him home.

Look, we can handle difficult dogs. We turned Oscar from almost completely feral to a big (toothless) love. But Spot was different. We knew very little about him, but we did know some very sad things: he had obviously been kept in a wire cage quite a bit as his teeth were worn down to almost nubs or were cracked/missing. He was severely malnourished. And his former people not only abandoned their home, but abandoned their pets in their home. Spot was there for at least a month on his own with the other animals and no people. Given how he behaves now, I have to assume he was the caretaker and the pack leader.

He was NOT easy when we got him. I cried almost every day because he would not stop barking, would not stop marking everything, would not stop frantically pacing and scratching at things. It was very hard. Thankfully, I married The Most Patient Human on Earth (useful, as my impatience is probably my very worst quality) and he worked hard with Spot to get him trained and make him feel safe. And once that clicked, he started to settle in. He rocked shy dog class, eventually becoming the only dog there who could actually approach people. He bonded with Charlie. He started to like me (that took a looong time) and became maybe the most Mommy Dog of all the Mommy Dogs.

In fact, his disinterest in us looped all the way around to an undying devotion to specifically me, causing him to make some extreme choices, like once jumping straight through the deck screen door to come find me outside. His anxiety is still there. He’s terrified to be left alone. And who can blame him? One time people who were supposed to love him left and literally never, ever came back. He takes anxiety meds daily and has to take tranquilizers for drop-off appointments at the vet.

He is the sweetest boy who still isn’t sure if he wants a kiss on the head or to be held, but will tolerate it and only lean away a little bit. He didn’t know how to go down stairs when he got here and had no idea what toys were for. Now he tears around the house and has many favorite toys. He chases himself so hard and fast that he gets rug burns on his little elbows from taking corners too sharp.

We have no idea how old he really is or how long we will have with him, but this little chiweenie has brought so much joy to our lives. Happy two years to Spot!