Unfortunately the same could not be said for her sister Lilly who was a little Chihuahua cross. Lilly had been adopted from a charity that specialized in finding homes for dogs rescued from Romania. She was extremely shy and scared of everything to the extent that she would run and hide underneath furniture cowering with fear, shaking and whimpering if I just tried to pick her up or encourage her to eat a little food. I do not know what happens to these dogs in Romania but I have had several come to stay with me and a number of them are severely traumatized displaying the same abject symptoms of terror to the extent that they shriek and urinate with fear when approached by a human. It is really sad and one can only imagine what kind of terrible experiences they must have been through to have ended up so mentally scarred.
The good news is that they do improve with time. It does require a lot of dedication, patience and love, so any prospective adopters need to be aware of what they are taking on and be prepared to put in many hours of hard work in order to help these unfortunate animals. However, if you are able to invest your time and effort in rehabilitating these dogs the reward of finally seeing them come out of their shells and start to trust humans again is tremendous and well worth the effort put in. You will know you are on the right track when that terrified creature you took into your home blossoms into a more confident individual able to thank you with a happy waggy tail.