MEET TESSA 17 June 1993 - 23 August 2002
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Five weeks old, too young to leave mom, but she was from an ordinary house, they were selling the entire litter to a breeder that night. We couldn't let that happen Husband chose her, don't know how. Apparently she chose him! |
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We asked to see mom, what we saw was a vicious dog, she had been mistreated and was trying to protect her children. They say look to the parents to see how the pup will grow up, it did worry us but we need not have worried. Tessa grew to have the best temperament ever! |
| We took her home, she wouldn't eat anything, she got gastric enteritis. We thought we were going to lose her. Too young for antibiotics said the vet, nursing and lactol through a syringe was all that kept her going. She missed mom and the litter. |
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It was the longest few days ever. Then she started drinking the lactol herself, then rusks, then puppy food. Then she started to put on weight. Brilliant we had got her back. Then she started to grow fast! |
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| I work in a school, we had planned to have the pup in the six weeks holiday after we had taken a weeks holiday at a friends caravan in Wales, but now we had Tessa, would they still let us have the caravan? Course they did they were doggie people too! Packed the car with doggie toys too. As we were about to leave, disaster, Tessa fell off the bed, landed awkwardly, yelped holding up her front leg. Took her to the vets, she was lots better, vet said she just shocked herself, keep an eye on her. She was fine. Long drive to Wales, Tessa on my lap, she was crying, wriggling and trying to climb through to the back of the car, she got loose climbed over the packing in the back to here "toilet box", (we were training her to go on newspaper in a box lid) she got there did a wee and then came back to my lap! Six weeks old in a car for ages and still knew where to go for the loo. How clever was she! |
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Introducing Roxy, 6 week old white German Shepherd. As we both worked we thought they would keep each other company during the day. They got on like a house on fire. (see Roxy's story) |
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Six weeks over, we had to go back to work. My boss at the time allowed me to take them to work, they were behind closed doors, it was great. Never had so many people coming to my office. They were only there to say hello to the puppies! They loved it. |
| They were getting to big by end of October, so I arranged for doggie sitters, my mom and dad. Hubby dropped them off early morning, I picked them up early evening. Then we lost my Dad, he was in hospital for over a week, pups went to work with Daddy. |
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He would take them out every hour, the car suffered. They chewed the seat belts, the gear stick, hand brake, they also opened the glove box, shredded the A to Z and our cheque books. Then after a week they went back to Nannies. She loved having them. |
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Jabs all received time to start dog training. We found Bloxwich Dog Training Club, run by Barry Walters. GREAT! It wasn't a case of training Tessa but training Hubby to train Tessa. She loved it, liked all the attention and the other doggies. She learned fast, heel, stays, recall. |
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She passed beginners in August 1994. We brought a touring caravan, to take the dogs on holidays with us. We went to Scotland where she and Roxy were joined in Summer 1994 by Corrie. (See Corrie's Story) |
Tessa was a wonderful dog to have as part of the family, she was confident and friendly all the time, including when Bobby joined our troop. (see Bobbys story) At dog training we went to Intermediate classes, here they had to do a retrieve exercise. Tessa couldn't see the point, Daddy threw the article then told her to fetch it, "sorry Dad you threw it, you fetch it!" said the look on her face as she refused to collect the item. It took a while and a lot of patience, but she got there. She passed Intermediate in August 1995. It was only a pet handlers class but they demanded the best from the dogs and now Tessa was through to the Advanced class. This was too much for Hubby, the only man in a class full of women, so I took over training Tessa.
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| We continued with holidays in Scotland, the dogs loved the beach, Tessa would explore up the banking, play in the sea. One day we were there when a man and two Jack Russell Terriers turned up. Tessa was in the bushes, the terriers followed her. |
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We heard a scuffle, Tessa came out the bushes, nothing wrong, the terriers were fine too, lot of noise for nothing we thought. Took Tessa back to the caravan and gave her a rub. She winced when we touched her side. She had a 2 inch hole in her side. |
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That hole couldn't be stitched the vet told us, it had to heal by itself. We had to keep it covered to stop her licking it, hence the T-shirt, it took about 2 months for it to close up fully. She loved her t-shirt, what a poser. She loved sun bathing on the lounger in Scotland too. |
I like ice cream too! |
Dog training was going well, she passed Advanced for the first time in November 1997, they had to do heel work, slow pace, normal and fast pace, with two positions on the move, sit and down, retrieve with an article the judge supplied, scent test, and a send away. |
| Not only did she pass but she came first! Tessa enjoyed dog training and picked things up quite quick. She was even an expert retriever, things like childrens toy spades, beer mats, hose pipe, nothing was too difficult. She passed advanced again in 1998. At this point the four became five when we welcomed Merlin. (see Merlins story) |
November 1997 The Winner |
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| Tessa always liked sleeping in the awning at the caravan, especially after a long walk, it was cool and plenty of room to stretch out. No one to disturb her. |
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In 1998 when we lost Roxy I went out a brought another White German Shepherd, in no way could she replace my Unique Pearl, but I wanted a White German Shepherd. (see Crystal's story) |
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The following few years in Tessa's life were fairly uneventfull, antlers at Christmas. jumabones wrapped in christmas paper. Dog training continued till 2000, when unfortunately I was taken ill and had to stop taking them for a while. |
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Life at home continued as normal except that Mommy was at home with them for almost eight months, they loved it, when I was well enough I would play with them, or take them for a walk. Tessa kept me company, as did the others. |
| Then in late 2001 we noticed that Tessa was finding it more difficult to get up after a walk. Vet said it was a touch of arthritis and old age, gave us some anti-imflammatory. But it was not getting any better, in fact it was getting worse. Took her back to the vets. |
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He did some tests on her , curling her back paw underneath itself, she made no attempt to rectify the paw. He diagnosed Chronic Degenerative Radiculomyelopathy (CDRM). The nerves in her feet were dying, it was a progressive disease. She slowly got worse as the nerves died off further towards the spine. We took her to a hydrotherapy pool for dogs, she went swimming, she loved swimming in the sea or river, but not in water thats as hot as a bath. One of us went in with her to try and calm her, she was 9 years old, it was very tiring. |
| Eventually she was finding it very difficult to "drag" her back legs around. We couldn't watch it any longer, we discussed getting her a "trolley" that dogs with her condition can use, but we knew she was not the kind of dog to take to that. So the day came when we decided enough was enough, when we saw her fall over again. We took her to the vet. Lifted her into the car, she couldn't jump herself. At the vets on the car park, she jumped out and walked in as if there was nothing wrong. We talked about taking her home, but the vet said it was adrenalin, probably when we got her home she would revert to not being able to use her back end. So the decision was made. We got her ashes back in a beautiful wooden box, I had a brass plaque made for her box. TESSA, 17 June 1993 - 23 August 2002, she joined Roxy on the sideboard, the "Twins" together again forever. |
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