My parents went on vacation this week and they hired Mia to help with dog sitting their toy poodle, Vera, during the day while they were away. Vera was a puppy mill rescue so she is very timid, especially when she is away from my mom.

We drove to their home twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon to let Vera out to potty & attempt to take her on a walk.

She was not at all interested in walks, especially the first two days. On the third day we drove her to Rhinestrom Park to hopefully get her excited about some new sniffs. She liked the sniffs, didn’t like walking more than a foot at a time. She really enjoyed going for a car ride, though.

After our adventure, she began opening up to Mia a lot more. She eagerly went on very short walks and felt much more comfortable sniffing around. She also did not shiver with fear anymore.

By the last day Vera was very comfortable with Mia. When we walked back towards her home, she kept walking past the driveway!! Normally she immediately dashed right down it.

Mia was really excited to have a real job taking care of Vera. She took her responsibilities very seriously and made sure to write down what times she came to take care of Vera.

Each time we spent between 30 minutes to an hour trying to walk with her or sitting with her on their deck to get a little sun. By the end of the week she was jumping up the side of the deck chair into our lap to cuddle.

Seeing how happy Mia was to take on this responsibility definitely motivated me to find a local animal shelter that will allow younger children to volunteer. I really love how interested she is in following her passion for taking care of animals. With how overcrowded the shelters currently are, hopefully it won’t be too much of a problem to find one that could use her help. She would also really like to take on more paying jobs with animals too!

She was a little sad that her week as Vera’s dog sitter has come to an end, but she’s very grateful for the experience & time with her. Also, since she is my parents dog we will at least still get to see her all the time!

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov