Thursday December 2002 – 9am

My name Cathe Ross and I am the fortunate human with whom Precious has consented to live.

My first Am Staff mix, Buddy, died a few days before Christmas in 2001. He died happy and in my arms but I was so lonely without him. I knew I had to get a dog soon. There was no question in my mind that I was going to get another pit bull because of my excellent experience with Buddy. My thoughts turned to a dog named Precious whose rescue story I had read about on the PBRC web site. I had always thought she and Buddy would make a good pair but had hesitated because I was renting. Now, it was too late for him to meet her but I still could.

I emailed Precious’ rescuer, Megan, to start the dialogue. Fortunately, she remembered me from some email we had exchanged concerning Precious. Through email, I cried on her shoulder a bit, and then posed the big question about whether Precious was ready emotionally to be adopted. She said that if the right person came along, she be fine. I told her I was interested. Megan immediately called me and invited me, a total stranger, to stay at her house to see if I would like Precious. Little did I know that Megan’s generous offer to stay at her house was highly indicative of Megan’s generosity that she extends to everyone. I already knew I liked Precious and told her that. But, she insisted that I not make up my mind so quickly but to visit and then make a decision. Between you and me, I knew  I would be adopting Precious.

February 1^st, 2002, I drove from Salt Lake City, Utah to Sacramento (10 hours) to visit my new dog. The first days were spent with her barking at me out of fear. I just wanted to hug her and make the fear go away. Instead, Megan gave me the job of feeding all of her dogs so Precious, the food hog, would get positive feelings towards me. By the end of every day, Precious would no longer bark at me. Then at night, she would "reset", and in the morning, she would be back to barking at me again like she had never met me. The third or forth night, Megan put Precious in my room to try to get her used to me. It worked. But, the biggest turning point came when I let Precious eat off of my plate of nachos while I was still eating. Normally, this would not be a good thing for a dog to do, but in the case of Precious, most of those rules do not apply. I could not rebuff her being in contact with me or her trust of me would have taken a step backwards. After that, she would sit on the same couch as me, let me pet her in the car, and most exciting of all, she would let me look at her!

After about a week of getting acquainted, it was time for us to go home. I was worried about taking her away from her family of dogs and Megan. How would she feel? Megan once again reassured me. I was not really convinced because she was such a momma’s girl.

At the same time as my visit, Megan was helping out another Sacramento rescuer by taking care of some of her dogs. One of those dogs was a corgi-mix called Tiggie (or Tiger).

Like the cartoon figure with the similar name, he bounced up and down as if he had springs in his legs. Precious went out of her way to make friends. Both Precious and I were attached to him. I knew that if I took Precious home alone, things would be pretty rough on her. So, I contacted Tiggie’s rescuer and adopted him also. I always joke and tell people that Precious has her own dog but in reality, he is both of ours and completes our little family.

So, the three of us left town. Since my car was a stick shift and so much louder than Megan’s luxurious Suburban, Precious spent the whole trip hiding on the floor of the car underneath my coats. Tiggie happily road in a dog carrier. I was excited to start a life with these two marvelous dogs.

I still had one more week of time off of work to get everyone settled in. I purposely took off time during the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics because of the large influx of people attending sport events. The first day home, Precious spent her time in the carrier next to my bed. One of my cats (I have 2) kept an eye on her from atop the bed. I kept checking on her to take outside but she would run back into in the carrier. She pottied right there on the bedroom floor. I started getting worried at my inability to make her comfortable with new her surroundings. That evening, Megan called to see how we were doing and I cried. She told me to put on her leash, pull her out of the carrier into the yard, and introduce her to the backyard so she could potty. Then, she instructed me to pull Precious up on the sofa, pet her and talk to her. I did both things and that broke the whole situation wide open. Soon she was running around in the backyard with her new brother – in the Utah snow. Although Precious was from Chicago, she did not remember snow was cold and she jumped up in shock at first contact.

After a three-month period of re-learning her potty training, Precious has flourished. We cuddle when she first gets up in the morning. She then spends the day sleeping while I am at work. At night we either go for a walk, take a ride or both. She has learned to trust my family. She is on petting terms with my niece. She likes my sister because my sister has a similar voice (as mine). She seems to like quiet people like my Dad right away. She loves my mom’s beagle and a friend’s Doberman. But, Precious has not been able to convince her corgi brother that cuddling while sleeping is a good thing. Not every day is peaches and cream for Precious. Some days she is jumpy and will not allow me to touch her. She goes into some kind of survival mode. I have developed ways to break through to her to let her know all is well.

I will remind her of a bone that she loves to chew or I will giggle for longer than any sane person would until she kind of breaks out of herself and looks at me.Just yesterday, Precious would not lie on a new doggie bed I had bought until I took the tag off. The tag scared her too much. I don’t mind doing those little things for her. I want her to get pleasure out of life. If it means I have to ease her into a life full of new things more slowly than most dogs, I’ll do it. It really is worth it. She gives so much back

I would like to take the time to express to all of Precious’ rescuers a heart felt THANK YOU! All your work has not gone to nothing. She was (is) worth the effort. Thank you for going with your gut and giving this sweet little pittie a chance!! My life would be really sad and boring without her.

Megan, you rock!! I am your biggest fan!

Cathe Ross, Salt Lake City, UT