Tessa - Part 4

At first the potential adoptor was very interested in Tessa. She was actually supposed to come and meet her the first weekend, but when she heard how Tessa had run away from me at the shelter, she decided to go look at another dog that she was interested in. They adopted that dog. From there it looked unlikely that she would adopt Tessa. Also, she had cats, and apparently Tessa is not a dog who could be placed with cats.

When it was clear that she would be here for a while, Lillie asked me to take her to the vet to get her tested for heartworm and lyme and have her checked out in general. I made an appointment, but I was not looking forward to this. I hadn't had her in the car since I had first brought her home and I wasn't sure how she was going to handle the vets office.

It turned out that the car was almost the hardest part. I put her in the dog yard as I got the car ready and when she saw me opening doors and stuff, she ran back to the deck and stood by the front door. I went up there and put Dean's old Easy Walk harness on her and once I had the leash clipped on, she walked with me to the gate. Once through, she ran right back into the dog yard. I got her to come out and started to close the gate and she slipped in again. The third time I got the gate closed. She stuck close to me until I had her at the car door. She was not getting in. Any time I stepped toward her, she tried to back away. I didn't want to freak her out completely, so I finally opened the passenger side door and got in the front passenger side. With a little coaxing, she followed me in. I reached over her to close the door and she was OK with that. Then I slid over into the driver's side and we were off.

She rode very well in the car. I had a mat in between the two seats, and she parked herself there, mostly in the back, but her nose up front near my arm. When we got into town, she sat up and looked around. I could see she was actually enjoying the ride.

Sharing this ride together was making me feel bonded to her again.

Surprisingly, she followed me right into the vets office with no problem and she handled the waiting room well. There was nobody else there. She stood in front of me and rested her chin on my knees. I petted her and she was more or less content.

The biggest challenge of this venture was the scale. It was the one place that I could not have her follow me to get to. I got her very close to it and she lay down on the floor. The vet tech slid her over onto the scale and she was OK with it. She stayed frozen, but did not try to get away.

Once in the room for the exam, she again stood with her chin on my knees. When the vet examined her, he had to pull her out from under the table, but she remained frozen and handled the exam just fine.

It was a good report over all, but she did test positive for Lyme. She is being treated for that now.

After it was over, I got in the passenger side of the car again. This time she was more willing to follow me in. We rode home and I gave her some outdoor time with the dogs.

The funniest thing happened, though. For the rest of the day, she followed me around closely and, for the first time, she really started moving into me to be petted. And the next morning I woke up to her snuggled up to my leg and when she realized I was awake, she wiggled up to me and flipped over to have her belly rubbed.

That was pretty much the end of it for me. I knew at that point that I needed to ask Ben if we could keep her.

It is not uncommon, after a trial or competition, for the dog that I have competed with to stick close with me for a couple of days afterward. Somehow that experience creates a post-competition bond that is a fun wave to ride for a couple of days. If Tessa was bonding with me through a visit to the vet, the sky is the limit with all of the things we can do together throughout her lifetime.

I always said I would never have two girls in the house at one time. I know that five is too many. Tessa may never be able to handle the sports environment. I always said I would never adopt a dog who was a stray of unknown origin.

And none of that mattered in the least. I knew there was no way I could turn her over to someone else for transport to Glen Highland Farm. I knew I wouldn't even be able to take her up myself and leave her there. For better or for worse, this dog was mine.

I talked to Ben the next time he was home. At first he said we should think about it for a while and I reluctantly agreed. I asked if he minded if I at least let Lillie know that we were interested, and make sure the adoption would be approved, since I was concerned that once her picture hit the website, there would be people interested in her. He agreed and I sent an email. After I sent it, he said we could adopt her. So, when we heard back, that was that. She was ours.

We had discussed names when we talked about possibly keeping her. Sadie is a good name, but we wanted to give her a name ourselves. Aside from making minor tweaks, we had not named a single one of our other dogs. We decided to name her after Speedy's mother, whose name was Tess. We considered Tessa and Tessie and decided on Tessa.

So, Tessa became part of our group. Our second girl and our fourth adoptee. I can't even express how much I love this girl. There is just something about her. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we have her whole life to do it.

Her ultimate favorite place in the whole house, and her safe spot . . .



This girl LOVES to run!



Her first "official" photo as our dog.