Pepper, Day 1 to Day 118

Journal

Day 1. The shelter said she'd been returned twice. She hasn't come out from under my kitchen table in nine hours.

Day 4. She ate while I was still in the room. I didn't breathe.

Day 9. She picked a spot by the hallway heater. One ear up, one ear down. Always.

Day 17. First time in the backyard without freezing. Tail went from tucked to... almost a wag.

Day 31. Halloween. Every doorbell sent her back under the table. It felt like we lost a whole month.

Day 46. First snow of the year. She did a zoomie. An actual zoomie. I screamed so loud the neighbor waved.

Day 63. A family applied to adopt her today. I sat in the car outside work for twenty minutes. Then I called the rescue back.

Day 118. She has never met me at the door. Not once. Tonight she was waiting.

The space under the kitchen table is just a space under a kitchen table now. Merry first Christmas, Pep.