Iris arrived at Philly Bully Team foster-based rescue, as the owner surrendered her from a backyard breeder in Brooklyn.
This special girl was so shut down and scared that even the simple task of opening a bag of treats would make her duck and cower.
Iris’s past remained a mystery, but her behavior hinted at either severe physical abuse or a complete absence of human interaction, leaving her devoid of love and affection.
But, in her rescuer’s embrace, she found safety. Making gradual progress each day, although challenging, she embarked on a journey toward healing.
The Scared Pit Bull Girl
When Iris first arrived at her foster home, she was still very shut down, and each day presented as a challenge.
“You could tell that she did not understand why we were near her, why we were around her, and she would flinch, and she just looked so sad,” Lauryn, Iris’s foster mom, told The Dodo.
Iris refused to go inside the house, and she would just stay at this one spot in their back yard. No matter how much they would call and beg her to come inside, she would just sit in the back corner behind a planter.
“Sometimes her head would pop up, and it looked like she was like growing out of the planter,” Lauryn joked a little.
Iris’s foster family was very patient. They knew that with enough time to adjust and process everything, she would eventually open up and blossom.
They left the door to their back yard open for her for the whole first month. “She would like, come in, and she’d poke her head in, and then she’d leave, and she’d do that 15 times,” Lauryn said.
Getting her inside the house was definitely a long and slow process, but eventually, she did it.
Iris had to discover that it’s perfectly fine to be around people, to accept pets and love, and to find comfort laying down in her new safe house.
She was just so traumatized that everything was a learning curve with her.
“I don’t think she really understood human engagement. I would like, you know, hug her, and pet her more often. She would look at me like, ‘I don’t know what you’re doing, but I like it’,” Lauryn commented.
Playing For The First Time
About a month into her stay at the foster home, Iris’s caregivers decided to gradually introduce her to their dog, Max.
For the first couple of weeks of introducing them, Max would just kind of join Iris, sitting behind a tree in their back yard. They would just sit together with a distance between them and do absolutely nothing.
Eventually, they started to engage more. As they began to interact more, Iris’s progress accelerated, marking a beautiful breakthrough in her journey.
Seeing her play for the first time in her life was such a happy moment for everyone.
“She was frolicking around our yard, pouncing around like this baby elephant. And I was just sitting there like ‘Oh my God, what, who is this dog?’,” Lauryn said.
Around the same time, one of Lauryn’s close friends reached out, expressing interest in learning more about Iris.
Iris At Her Forever Home
Jacki and Matt, friends of Lauryn, from Philadelphia, officially adopted Iris. They were the perfect match for this little girl because they already had a wonderful dog named Clio that would help Iris pull out of her shell.
“The first night, she jumped in the bed right away. She never even thought about it,” Matt told The Dodo.
Her new sister, Clio, was definitely teaching Iris how to be a dog. Anywhere Clio was, Iris wanted to be. They became inseparable.
And, Iris – she played even more every single day.
“She’s an absolute sweetheart, she doesn’t have a vicious bone in her body. She loves Clio. We are super lucky to have her. We love her,” Iris’s parents said.