Little Bit, revisited

By: 
Robert Maharry

Almost any working journalist you talk to can probably recall his or her first bylined story as a paid professional. Some got sent to a rally or interviewed a local politician. Some drove off to a county fair, a car accident or a natural disaster. I wrote about a four-pound Chihuahua that won an award at a dog show.
           
Though I failed to mention it two weeks ago, June 6 marked my four-year anniversary as a resident of Grundy County, a working adult and an employee of Mid-America Publishing. On each of my first three anniversaries, I’ve reflected on what it means in my column, but this year, I wanted to do something special. So, naturally, I reunited with Little Bit and her owner, Mary Beth Hines, to see just how much four years has changed my pint-sized canine friend.
           
As it turns out, not much. Little Bit still weighs about 4 ½ pounds (the size of a football, as I described her in the initial story), and she’s still as feisty now as she was the day that Hines and her husband Jeremy found her along the side of a highway in North Carolina.
 
Due to her owner’s work with MidwestOne Bank and the annual pancake breakfast during Black Dirt Days, Little Bit hasn’t returned to the dog show since 2013—when she won Smallest Dog and Best Costume—but like all of the greats, she isn’t ruling out a comeback.
 
“She loves people and loves attention, so I’m sure she wouldn’t mind being in the dog show again,” Hines said.
 
Read more in this week's Grundy Register, or subscribe by calling (319) 824-6958 or clicking here. 

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