Phoebe Rescue Dog

Question
Hello, thank you for taking the time to possibly help out with my new found friend.  She wandered to my house on Jan 14th, and was obviously a wild dog that had no owner, she also happens to be in heat, and could possibly be pregnant.  If she is carrying puppies she is very early on (vet confirms this as well).  She is a very shy, submissive type of dog, and german shep/possibly border collie mix.  She is very sweet tempered and quiet.  I am concerned because she doesn't make a peep and she is very lethargic and almost sedentary.  She is approximately 8 months to about 14 months, or so we guess.  When I try to take her to play she has no response to toys, running, playing, or anything really.   She just sits down, looks at me with a sad look, ducks her head a bit and then lays down....anywhere, even in dirty muddy pools.  She does take good care of herself though and she has a healthy appetite/thirst.  However, I am concerned she could be ill, although the vet says she is fine.  Or possibly living out in the cold with no food etc has been exhausting so now she is resting(she has been sleeping and like this for at least 4 days now)...or possibly if she is pregnant she is feeling tired...I don't know if dogs have this symptom or not....She is really sweet but she seems sad and depressed.  Do you think maybe she was with a pack of wild dogs and now she misses them?  I know this is alot of information but I wan to help her to become a well adjusted happy dog.  She is not excited about going outside, I have to push her out of the door.   She is deathly afraid of my cat, to the point she falls over herself trying to run backwards away from the cat.  How can I hlp her to adjust?  Do her symptoms sound like any classic behavioral issues with dogs?  How can I get her to connect with toys or playtime?
Thank you very much,
Shelby, South Carolina

Answer
It sounds like she has probably been isolated from people her whole life and never socialized,or possibly abused,and sometimes unless you know for sure one can be confused with the other

It is important not to 'flood' the dog by trying too many new things at once on her,it is good that she is eating and drinking as sometimes a very stressed dog won't so it's safe to safe she probably isn't stressed but it may take a while for her to adjust

The best thing to do right now is to let her adjust on her on,as you don't want to stress her at this point,esp if she is going to have a litter-sometimes what will happen if they are pregnant is they will save there energy to when the pups are born,and it also normal for nursing moms to lose weight so you will want to give her something high in proteins

She also probably isn't used to being in a house,and may have never seen people,unless perhaps she was abused and that made her nervous of everything

Some dogs never play with toys,as it might not be in there personality even well brought up dogs are sometimes like that,but what you can do is to really rub your hands over a toy and sometimes having a lot of your scent on it will help

As for health problems other then being pregnant,I think if the vet said she is fine-she probably is,but I don't enough about the medical aspects of dogs to say anymore on that