"Pet me Mom!"

This is really big everyone... If you remember at the very beginning, Duncan did not seem to like being touched or petted at all. It was one of the things that was hardest on me emotionally during our first weeks together. When I would pet him, he would turn away from me. He seemed to completely dislike being touched and found no enjoyment in it at all. But over the last few months, Duncan has come to actually enjoy being touched He may not be comfortable with being touched all over his body yet, but at one point recently I noticed all of a sudden that he seemed to actually enjoy being petted. He would relax and let me stroke his tiny little sheltie head. (I love the shape of a Sheltie’s head. The lovely structure of the skull, combined with the soft fur and expressive eyes is just elegantly beautiful to me.) He seemed to prefer that I stick mostly to his head at that point, and I complied. But soon I found that he enjoyed other things like being rubbed and scratched gently on his little “cheeks,” which for a Sheltie is almost beneath his ears. One day Duncan actually “asked” me to pet him When he has to go out to potty, he paces between me and the back door stopping to gaze at me intently, “telling” me he has to go out. But this time he was not pacing. He simply walked up to me while I was watching TV one evening and gave me that intent gaze. He stayed there for a moment or two, just looking at me expectantly-requestingly. I knew he didn’t want to go outside, so I reached out my hand to him. To my joy, instead of jumping away or ducking in panic, he simply dipped his head slightly and stood there for a few moments while I petted him. When I stopped he went over and laid down by the sofa. This happened more and more often. Sometimes when I would stop (after he had relaxed completely into my caresses) is little head would raise and follow my hand as if to say, “Hey, don’t stop Please?” I tried other things as well and he seemed to love them all: just scratching the top of his little head, or brushing my entire hand forwards on his head and face, more like rubbing it instead of just petting it. It’s been almost a year and a half since I adopted Duncan, and I’d come to accept that he mostly likely would never truly enjoy being touched. And now he is initiating and requesting that physical contact nearly every single day He has grown so much