Tammy

My First Dog!

Tammy was my first dog.

I didn't plan on having any dogs, I was always a cat person who was enjoying the neighbours dogs, but my destiny was forever changed when one of my neighbours knocked on my door and asked me to foster their elderly mother-in-laws dog as she had to go into care and wasn't able to take her.

As she held her in her arms, the eyes of this little helpless Daschund who didn't know what was going on, touched my soul as only animals can, and I couldn't help but want to help.

But the timing wasn't quite right as I had just returned from travelling and it was the first or second night back and I couldn't think straight, so I told her to come back tomorrow and give me her word that she wouldn't take her to the local animal rescue shelter, which she agreed.

I had invited my friends Stephan and Margaret over for dinner and I asked them what I should do and told them I needed a sign!

Tammy's Fate Was Sealed

Stephan loved Daschunds and he said I should take her, whilst Margaret went to the bathroom and came back with what seemed to be a very sure sign as she returned with glee clutching the iron door stop which was nothing other than a Daschund!!!

And so Tammy's fate was sealed and when my neighbour came back the next day, I agreed to foster her.

She came to me with an old burgundy pillow, the only piece of her old life that she had left and she began her new life with me.

She was very forlorn sitting on the couch or on her pillow and we invited her into our lives as much as we could, making sure that she knew that she was safe and loved and cared for.

When we went to bed, we closed the door and felt pangs of guilt having left her all by herself on the couch, so Christian brought her into the bedroom, tucking her up in our bed, which she must have enjoyed as she stayed there the whole night.

Unforeseen Problems

Things were fine for the first few days whilst Tammy settled in, but shortly after, the problems started, as Tammy was extremely jealous of my Soul dog Tricksy who used to come and visit every day and who basically lived with us.

We had wanted Tricksy to live with us since we met as she moved in with us from the first day we looked after her when her family went away for the weekend, but it was a difficult situation to navigate as she belonged to a family who had children.

I had made a key mistake of not taking her because of the children, and had settled for long visits with Tricksy coming and going in between our two houses whenever she wanted to, as we lived on the same street and Tricksy was free to come and go.

Tammy, as part of establishing her territory, viciously attacked Tricksy, a small Maltese poodle at every opportunity, and being inexperienced with dogs, we weren't able to handle it and didn't know what to do.

Unfortunately, this resulted in not being able to have Tricksy in the house anymore and I had no other option than to spend time with her outside for stolen moments.

Bonding Challenges

This created deep challenges for Tammy and I and heavily impacted the bonding process.

The price of not being able to spend quality time with Tricksy was too high a price and I felt aggrieved with Tammy for causing this rift.

At that point, I should have put Tricksy first and made a plan for Tammy as Tricksy was my Soul dog and she was my priority and best friend, and pushing her out was not the right thing.

The cost of inexperience can be very high and resulted in me losing Tricksy altogether, but that's another story.

Time slipped by and Tammy became part of our family, and was unexpectedly joined by Chico and Marley in quick succession, on the same day in fact, due to my seeing their Facebook posts and feeling it on my heart to rescue them too, and before we knew it, we had 3 children and were a family of 5, shifting us from no responsibility to a lot of responsibility without us even realising.

A Family of 5!

The challenges continued, only now they were transferred to Marley, with Marley cowering under the bed to get away from her and us just not knowing what to do.

Eventually, Marley stood up to Tammy and being bigger than her and stronger, in time, she learned to tolerate her.

The next challenge was next door's rabbits...

The family who lived next door to us decided to get rabbits and  and built them a hutch which directly butted up against our side of the fence where Tammy could see them.

Being a Daschund, a natural hunter of note, the smell and sight of easy prey was too much for Tammy and she spent hours at the fence desperately trying to get to them.

Rabbits For Dinner

Unable to deter her, who went out at every opportunity with the intention of getting a snack, we discussed the issue with the neighbours and came to the agreement that they must put some kind of shade cloth up so Tammy couldn't see them.

But this wasn't enough as she could still smell them and hear them and her obsession continued unabated.

There's a reason why you aren't supposed to build all the way up to someone's boundary, and disturbance is likely one of the reasons.

We discussed them moving the hutch to another location and at the very least, to ensuring it was completely secure, but they didn't want to move it and they didn't secure it.

Tammy, looking for an opportunity, took the first one that was presented when their kids left our gate open after a visit, with Tammy running out and straight in to the rabbit hutch, and by the sound of the kids screams, I knew exactly what had happened, that we had tried our best to warn them about - she didn't eat them, but from what I could gather, one of them had a heart attack and died.

The Chickens Forced Us Out

Next challenge were the chickens, which presented the exact same problem.

By this time, we decided to move as it was just too stressful and I wanted to remove the problem in entirety.

So, our family of 5 moved round the corner, which meant further separation for Tricksy and I, and our other dog friend Nutty, a consequence I didn't consider as I fell into the trap of the better house syndrome and convinced myself that I would visit her regularly.

But of course, life got busy, I pushed my visits and our walks to tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow, and tomorrow never came.

We ended up moving a second time as one of our dogs Chico was very difficult and we were struggling to walk him without incident, so moving to the mountain where we could be undisturbed felt like the best next step, and this severed my contact with Tricksy even further.

Tammy The Queen

Tammy, being smallest of the pack, alongside Marley a Staffordshire mix and Chico a German Shepherd cross, was the Queen and she stamped her authority from the very beginning.

Despite the fact that it took a while to bond with her, I persevered and she found her place in my heart.

You have to respect a dog like Tammy for her toughness and she earned her place as Queen.

In the mountain, we took them for long walks in valleys that had possibly not ever been touched by human feet, and she loved it.

We took them to the mountain pools and Tammy loved to run up and down the side trying to catch the dragonflies, even though she didn't succeed, thankfully.

Tammy The Tank

One day we decided to take an impromptu hike and ended up getting completely lost, having to bush whack down a steep mountain.

As is always the case, the hardest experiences are always the best and this was most definitely a hike to remember, to unchartered territory with the most pristine mountain streams we had ever seen.

The hike ended up taking many hours, with Tammy hurting her paw and Christian having to part carry her, and her having to part walk, and like a trooper, Tammy showed us just how strong she was.

Tammy was undeterred and tanked through all the way to the end, even with a sore paw, and from that day forward, she became Tammy the Tank.

No matter what Tammy has had to endure, including part of her scalp being ripped off in a dog fight, or having surgery with gas and air as we didn't want to risk her life with an anaesthetic, she is tough to the max and absolutely deserving of the utmost respect.

Tammy's Blankets

More than anything, Tammy loves blankets and duvets, anything she can hide under and snuggle in. 

She loves to be warm and toasty and sleeping next to her warm body is a joy.

There have been so many times when we haven't been able to find Tammy because of her hiding places, and you have to be careful you don't sit on her!

The biggest challenge currently is her black basket which you have to look very closely to see if she's there!!!

She was 9 when we got her, and she's 15 at the time of writing, so she's an old girl now, but she's still as tough as ever and is still the queen, even though we have an even larger pack now!

Special Treatment

Tammy is now at the stage where she gets special food because she had to have a lot of her teeth removed because they were rotten and we feed her with brown rice or pap, veg and chicken, meat or fish and she loves her meals.

We also give her Mobiflex which is a brilliant natural supplement for joints and contains glucosamine, chondroitin and green shell mussel extract to enhance her mobility.

This supplement is magic and takes effect almost immediately, enabling her to move around quickly with ease, it's amazing and the difference when she's on it and not is profound.

She needs a lot of help now, getting on and off couches and beds, we built a ramp and steps at once stage but she doesn't always use them as she's going blind now and needs extra care.

Tammy is an awesome dog, she has her quirks like we all do, but we work around them and we do our best, because that's what love is, Tammy is a legend!