TYLER

In September of 1992 was working at the local animal shelter when a Chow mix was brought in with two four to five week old puppies. The mother was in such bad shape that she was euthanised and one of the puppies did not make it through the day. The other puppy was feed some formula and was put in a plastic box and placed in a pen. Before I continue I want you to know that this story does get better and that this shelter was built in the early 60’s and was torn down to make way for a multi-million dollar shelter which is still being added on to today. In the morning when the cleaning person hosed out the runs they did not notice that this little white fur ball had some how gotten out of his box and had now been washed into the gutter. By some miracle one of the workers heard him crying and rescued him. He was given a bath and was placed in the office with a heat lamp and some soft towels and was bottle fed of and on through out the day. I had been looking for a dog and that evening one of the office staff asked if I had found one yet. I told her I was still looking for that special one. She handed me this LITTLE ball of white fur and said here ya go. I took him home and for the next 2 months everything went fine. Then the day before Thanksgiving he stated to get ill. I took him my Veterinarian had he was dehydrated I spent Thanksgiving Day and night give him IV fluids. He survived and was running around playing by the following Monday. Christmas came around and he was interested in the tree and presents but never touched any. My parents got him a little stuffed animal the tag on the package read “ To: Our Granddog Love Grandma & Grandpa”. Our next Veterinarian experience came when “Tyler” started losing hair under his front legs and between his toes. Demadeptic mange. (never did learn how to spell it) So then came weeks of dips. I would dip him, place a beach towel on my chest lay him on top of me and take a nap for three to four hours until hem felt like getting up and moving around. We battled it for the next 12 years. As Tyler got older of course he grew from a puppy that would barely hang over your had to a little over knee high and 100 pounds. We went on vacations together, moved from house to house and every Saturday morning after our normal stuff was done Tyler would go sit by the front door and wait for this weekend trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Tyler was always afraid of plastic bags and thunderstorms. One New Years Day I had let him out in our fenced yard and went back inside for coffee when I heard him barking aggressively I went outside to find him barking at a plastic bag. Thank God he was afraid of them because when I picked it up it had hamburger and shards of glass in it. The Police said someone was probably trying to get rid of him so they could break in. When ever he would hear thunder he would run to the bath tub and jump in. One Saturday it had been storming quite badly and Tyler had been in his bath tub for at least two hours when he came out and looked at me with a look I had not seen in our then 10 years together. I followed him into the bathroom and sat on the floor beside him. About a minute after doing this the power went out, my ears popped, the house shook and a tornado went through the neighborhood about a block away. I have been around dogs all of my life. At the age of 16 I was an obedience instructor for a very large dog training club in Columbus Ohio. I owned “show dogs”, judged obedience matches, taught private training classes and heard for years that the only dogs worth having were ones that where registered and had been breed properly. Little did I know that the dog canine companion that would touch my life the most was a little pound puppy named Tyler. In July of 2005 Tyler past away just 2 months shy of his 13th Birthday.