It was a bit of an adjustment when we first adopted Yuja. She is very shy and needed her own space to get accustomed to her new surroundings. Some of the early struggles included her unwillingness to eat her food, reluctance to go on walks, and hesitancy when coming into close proximity to people, especially men. This gave us the impression that she was extremely nervous and generally seemed depressed.

We can see a general progression of her opening up to us. She used to avoid close contact, but now no longer seems bothered, so long as you approach her with care. She used to be deathly afraid of our cat, but now they play together and seem to be best buddies. She still gets scared easily, but it seems that she has progressed past the "depressed" phase and is now genuinely happy to be around us and other people.

Yuja loves looking for rabbits. We live in an area where there are lots of rabbits, so it's always amusing watching Yuja go into "hunter" mode at night trying to sniff them out. She's not the biggest fan of walking around town, but loves going on nature hikes, and we have even taken her camping a few times. We are also lucky to have a dog park in our apartment complex, so Yuja has made a few friends. It's great to see her running around chasing the other dogs.

Being a Shiba, she has all the traits that you would expect from them. This means she will only do something when she wants to, or if you have a tasty treat to offer her. She is also very quiet and not the type to snuggle with you. However, she is always down for some scratching and belly rubs.

You must have patience and realize that it will take time for them to gain your trust — it took more than a month for Yuja to warm up to us. It's also important to realize that they might come with emotional baggage, or traits that might not seem ideal. However, changes do happen and it's important to continue your support.

The most rewarding thing for us was when we started to see what brings Yuja the most joy, and the way she acts when she is happy. While she initially avoided us, she now does the "bow" and gets the zoomies whenever we get home.