Sassy, a Papillon mix, came to Helping Hands in early April 2005 with her nine month old sister, her father and her mother who had five two-week old puppies. I first met Sassy shortly after her family was brought in, and she and her sister were terrified. I got in the kennel with them and her sister lifted her lip to tell me to stay away, but after backing up, Sassy slowly came to me and when I picked her up she just clung to me and shook. I talked to her and tried to sooth her, and several times during the day I would come back to see them and Sassy always wanted me to hold her and eventually her sister came up to me to be petted.
After that first day, every time I saw them I would have to get in with them and pick them up or they would start crying.

When Sassy’s sister got adopted, she was again terrified being by herself, so I brought her up to my office where she spent the day sitting behind me in my chair. That night we put her in a “get acquainted” room with a little dog bed and food and water. The next morning when I went back to take her out for her morning walk, several staff members were looking in the “get acquainted” room laughing because instead of sleeping in the dog bed, she had jumped up into the kitty condo in the room and all you could see was her little face and butterfly ears peering out of the opening. She adopted me and decided that I should be “her person,” so I had no choice but to officially adopt her and take her home.

At just over seven and one-half pounds, Sassy is by far the smallest dog in our family, but from the first day at home, she has never been intimidated by the bigger dogs. At first she didn’t know how to play with toys or the other dogs, but after a couple of weeks of observing the other dogs, she tentatively started to play with them and the toys. Now she quite often initiates play with them and carries her favorite little kong all over the house. I have heard that Papillons are very cat-like, and Sassy proves that because as well as liking to sleep in a kitty condo, she is very agile and in many ways acts like a cat, so we have nicknamed her “Sassycat”.

Sassy has brought us a lot of love and enjoyment wrapped in a small package.

Carol Stubbs

Back | Return to Index | Next