Cricket came to us already named. She was on “death row” in a shelter down in South Carolina somewhere, and was brought up to Vermont to a shelter where we adopted her.
It was abundantly clear right away that she had been horribly abused. It became clear that she was abused by an adult male. It took probably 6 weeks before Cricket would even look at me. She would interact with my wife and children, but would tuck tail and hide behind the couch when I came in the room.
I didn’t force her to accept me. Every day, two or three times a day, I would literally crawl a few feet into the room she was in and let her see me leave a treat for her on the floor. I progressively made it closer and closer without her fleeing. Eventually she would let me pet her a little bit and now we’re pals.
She still follows my wife around the house all the time, but I’ll take it. She’s a sweet old girl. Just turned 14 years old in March.