The Min-Pin (not), aka Puppy Number Four

Our last foster (puppy number four) was a little black and brown girl from Tornado country in Oklahoma. I heard a rumor that some of the shelters were taking up to 300 dogs per day after the tornado/flood tragedies, some strays and some owner surrenders. Most times I can't justify an owner surrender, but after losing everything, sometimes people just can't keep up one more obligation, something has to give. And for that I am sorry. The only thing I could do was take in one lost pup.

She was so traumatized. Part of a litter of four, all of whom were trembling, little wrecks, she just wanted to spend the whole day in my lap. She cried if I left her alone. In fact, the first full day I had her, I had to go into the City, so I left her with Ian for the day. Apparently, she did nothing but cry and piddle (mostly on cloth or paper surfaces that were impossible to clean up,) leading Ian to refer to her as the Evil Little Rat Dog. We thought she was a miniature doberman pincer (minpin) so we called her Min-Pin, which is just more specific than Puppy. But then we found out she was a cross between a doxie and a whippet. So we just adjusted her name to Minna, in spite of my rule of not naming a foster pup.
I was so worried that she wouldn't find someone who would understand her special needs. There was a big guy at my gym who loved her, and she loved him (as much as she could.) But he works in an office that wouldn't be a good place for her, and he just couldn't figure out a good way to keep her. So in the meantime, I took her with me everywhere in a little quilted cloth bag over my shoulder...to the grocery, the liquor store, the dentist office...everywhere. And I worked at socializing her and potty training her, until at last she would accept being held and petted by strangers and even by a pack of small kids at my daughter's school playground.
She bonded hard to me, just like all of the four pups bonded to their foster moms. It turns out that one of her siblings was being kept by her foster parent, and the foster parent's sister in law wanted Minna, so they'll be able to see each other. Even better, the sister in law works at home, so Minna has a nice, quiet, permanent lap!
Although I am not really a miniature dog kind of person, I will miss little Minna because she loved me so much. I will think of her when I wake up, how she would stretch out on her belly and army crawl up the bed with her tail going back and forth slapping the comforter!