A Little Bit on A Little Dog

Tali came to us from the Eagle County Humane Society. Like most mountain town humane societies Eagle is a no kill shelter. When they have room they take in animals for kill shelters around the state. Tali had been the youngest member of a feral pack in Mesa County when she was brought into the shelter. She and her brother were on the list to be put down when they got a free ride to Eagle. (Which I find ironic seeing as though the towns in Eagle County will buy a bus ticket for feral humans wandering their towns to ship them to other places.) We saw Tali’s picture on a web site and loaded up our older dog to make the drive to meet this little white puppy.
She was shy, timid, and quiet in clear opposition of her six-month-old puppy frame. She had been attacked by another dog and had a large bite wound on her muzzle. Because of this she spent her time in the shelter in quarantine. We took her out to play with our other dog Riddle and they got along, Riddle wasn’t quite sure what to do with her. My wife and I took Riddle on a long walk around the area, talked about this little white puppy, saw her one more time and that was that. We signed the paper work, loaded her into our car and we were now a two dog family.
We discussed names on the way home and Talus was our favorite. Our first night with her was a foreshadowing of the months to come. When it was time to take the dogs for their nightly walk it was snowing, (yes this was June) with 50mph winds and felt like total chaos. Tali was terrified and shook and refused to pee. So we made the decision that we would just have to clean up after her in the morning.
The weeks to come we learned what we were in for. Tali it turns out loves to talk, she barks at just about anything she can. She was terrified of any dog, car, person, tree, leaf, or shadow we came across on our walks. She was so petrified that she would hurl herself into the air in absolute hysterics anytime we came across another dog. Two full one on one dog training sessions later and weeks of constant obedience work, we weren’t sure if we could give this little puppy the home she needed. However, we made the commitment to take this dog in and we need to do what ever it took to make her happy.
(more to come)