We have a little black and white female named Simone that came from a puppy mill along with another Sheltie, named Ritzy.  Both are very shy but Simone has some very funny little habits that only seem to get funnier as she opens up to life here.  Ritzy in the meantime has found a forever home with a wonderful Dad.  She doesn’t like the dominant dogs in the house although she’s happy to play a bit with a dog that’s not too intimidating.  Other than that and knowing our routines really well, Simone spends an awful lot of time curled up in a corner hoping nobody will notice her.  But the exceptions to this are growing…  At meal times if I’m slow to get the dogs into their dining room (which used to be a human dining room) she will look for an opening between the dogs that are trying to bug me into feeding them and creep over to me and quietly put her forepaws on my knees and she looks up at me — into my eyes.  Simone coming over to ‘talk’ to me is huge, Simone putting her paws on me to communicate something to me is incredible, Simone looking at me or anyone rarely occurs, but eye to eye contact with me (or anyone) almost means there’s a blue moon!  But this is not yet the most amazing behavior that Simone is beginning to incorporate into her repertoire of new behaviors here.  When I go to bed and all the dogs come into the bedroom with me — all 11 or 12 or 15 or however many we have here (REALLY!) Simone will sneak off into her little sleeping corner that I inadvertently created.  When she’s in her corner you can’t even tell that she’s in the room unless you get down on your knees and contort yourself preferably with a flashlight to help you see this mostly black-furred girl in the dark of her corner.  So then I get into bed and turn off the light.  No sooner have I shut the light out than I can feel the patter of steps across the blankets headed towards me.  I know it’s Simone and can tell it’s her by the special texture of her coat when I pet her and play with her ears to reinforce the nighttime rendezvous.  When I stop petting her she usually gets off the bed and goes back to her dark corner.  But lately she’s not doing that.  Lately she starts rolling around on her side rubbing up against me.  But last night…last night I couldn’t believe it…after she did her rolling around and rubbing her body against my side and rubbing her muzzle against my arm she got up and moved up on the bed onto a pillow next to my head.  She settled herself down into a comfortable position and laid her muzzle against my cheek.  I didn’t move.  I couldn’t move.  I was in such disbelief and so thrilled. I wondered what she’d do next.  Would she stay there?  Then I felt this little soft tongue kiss me once, twice, and then a third time.  Jim will never believe this happened when he reads this blog entry!  Then Simone got up and re-positioned herself.  When she was done and settled down again her head was pressed down on my shoulder.  This was magic.  I don’t know what made last night the night for Simone to really try to connect with me like this and I don’t know what will happen in bed tonight after the lights go out.  But I’ll let you know!  And…I’m working on trying to get some decent photos of Simone to share with you all.  Oh what a night…!