[Ashley V]

Smokey was born in a puppy mill in Southern VA and sold to a couple of middle aged siblings who bought him for their mother as a gift. The mother had MS and after a couple months of having him, realized she couldn't handle having a young puppy and gave him up to her groomer, who sometimes will take in dogs in need. The groomer was trying to rehabilitate him because he was very anxious and was impossible to potty train. She had him for two months and gave him to a lady and told her over and over again that he was NOT potty trained and needed a VERY patient, loving home. The lady kept him for four days and brought him back... because HE WASN'T POTTY TRAINED. Well, one of my best friend's mom's is friends with this groomer and also is involved in small dog rescue so that same day, she calls me up and tells me that there is a "slightly bigger, non potty trained, anxious, but loving, happy, smart, wonderful, yorkie that needs a good home". I thought this was a great opportunity and sounded like a challenge, so I called the groomer the next day and the day after that I went with hubby and Chip to meet Smokey. He was 6 months old and severly underweight. He was 7.6 lbs and I know that it is still over standard, but Smokey is HUGE compared to most yorkies. He is very tall and very long. I could tell by looking at him that he needed to at least double his weight. He was so sweet and very happy but definitely needed discipline and training. The groomer gave him to us and also told us that she will groom him for free and board him for free and will groom Chip for a discounted price and will board Chip for only $7 a night! What a bonus! So anyways, we brought Smokey home, and boy what a challenge he was (and still is lol). We tried putting him in a crate and all he would do was whine, pace, then have a massive explosion of diaherria, then stomp in it. So then we were like, okay, he doesn't like crates, let's try baby gating him in the bathroom... same thing... right in front of the door, he would pace, whine, explosive diaherria, then stomp all in it. We were giving this dog 5-6 baths a day and taking him out about every hour. When he was with us, his poops were normal and he was perfectly fine, so after about 2 weeks of dealing with that, I figured out that he had anxiety and that was his problem. I finally let both of them out of the crate at night and when we were gone and Smokey's bowel problems were gone. He finally started gaining weight and as I predicted, doubled his weight. He still needs training and we are STILL working on potty training, but he is SUCH a blessing. About a month ago, he was sleeping beside me and it was just me and him. I curled up closer to him and whispered that I would NEVER leave him and I would NEVER give up on him. He lifted his head up just a little bit and gave me a little "I'm really tired, but I'm gonna give you a kiss in hopes you'll leave me a lone" kiss.

Anyways, the first picture is of him the day we brought him home. If you look close, you can see how sunken in his little tummy was and how sad and confused he looked. Then the next picture is more recent... and he's SMILING!