This morning, I went out to see Tyson at Pasado's. Every time I see him patiently waiting at the corner of his yard for me, I get excited. I muse that he is there awaiting my arrival as much as his neighbors, Mary and Trigger, might be. I know I am the treat lady to those gals, but I came on a mission today sans treats. Today, I went strictly for the boy.
See, I've been in touch with a behaviorist named, Dr. Dodman, who is sure he can help Tyson overcome his fear around other dogs, making him compatible in multi-canine environments and I am hopeful. Dr. Dodman is head of his department at Tuft University in Massachusetts, is a researcher and practitioner of the words he preaches. With medicine and behavioral techniques, Dr. Dodman believes he can curb poor behaviors, thwart aggressive issues, and altogether balance an imbalanced critter with a certain plan of action--individually prescribed and monitored. Now, every progression has a set-back, but and yet, those set-backs aren't poor, they are just learning curves. And as I have stated time and again, you can't know one thing without knowing its opposite. As such, if there are relapses, and I imagine in the first few months, there will be trials and errors, success can only come in the end.
I found Dr. Dodman in a magazine. The doc obviously wasn't stuck inside of those high gloss pages, jumping out of them and at me, waving his hands in the air and screaming for me to notice, but he was quoted in an interview about older dogs and their blindness causing certain bad behaviors that resonated like a beam of light off the page. I think angel-song resonated in my ear or something. So, I Googled him. I searched the Amazon book pages and "looked inside" his books and found he does some great things will blindness and aggression--the two, perhaps, going hand in hand--or paw in paw in this case.
In securing a home for Tyson, we must all exhaust any and all resources. I am not sure what the other stories are, but the story for Ted and me has been met with a lot of dead ends or a lot of bad advice, even some advice that seemed rather scary in tactic, like putting an eye bolt in the floor, tying Tyson up to it, and just letting him have a free for all with any cat who dared to approach-squirt bottle in hand for bad behavior, or even putting our cats in carriers and just letting this prey-driven pup have a heyday sniffing and pawing at it until he became bored enough to leave it alone and get accustomed to the smells. Meanwhile, we have PTSD cats on hand. (Let me explain prey-driven again: Tyson was alone, lost and blind. He likely had to find food wherever he could. If that sounds bad to anyone, he's not the right dog for you, but if it sounds reasonable, then you might grasp how desperate hunger is for any being. How much it would suck. How scared you would be. Now add to that--you are totally blind. You see nothing and sounds are scary, not friendly. So, you do what you must. And given his horrifying emaciation, he was very poor at the "hunt" itself. Ugh. Poor little guy. I am so glad he's safe now.)
Right off the bat, Tyson's not an easy sell to most, because he is blind, older and has some aggression issues resulting in his blindness and whatever else happened to him when he was lost and emaciated--alone and fending off a scary, dark world all by his lonesome. While for others he's an easy choice--only, they have other pets. So, the plan is to help Tyson overcome his fears and learn to trust other canines around him, even when he can't see them coming. He needs some assurance that he won't be injured, that nothing wishes him harm, and that he will still be fed, not losing out because there are other dogs around. I hope this will work. It has to work. I am positive this will work. But if not, I know I there is another way;)
And while my intent through all of this has been to see Tyson in my home, just waiting to be added to the family Christmas-time photo, I am thrilled to see him in any loving home. And yes, I mean that. Though, I suppose that can be intimidating to some. How can this couple, who spends so much time thinking and doing for Tyson be so apt to just allow him in another home? If you knew Tyson as much as we think we do, you, too, would only want him to be pictured in one of those Norman Rockwell-style paintings somewhere in front of a roaring fire between two loving owners: The owner on the left with his hand on his head, petting him, and another hand of the other owner on the right scratching his belly. Also with each owner holding open a book with a cat curling between legs and nestling into Tyson's belly for even more warmth. And so, that is how it is for us- We want him happy and warm, a part of a family, comfortable and sated in every need (maybe a little spoiled, even).
As my husband said, he's not a dog park accessory. He's more of a lap dog though he's not ideally small like a Cockapoo or a Chihuahua. He'd be a bed hog, a couch cuddler, a stick-by-your-side kinda guy. Tyson's not terribly social with other pups, but he loves humans immensely. Today, he sat in front of me at the Adirondacks, both paws on my chest, licking my face. I had to clean my lenses off with all the slobber. I pick him up and put his 80+ pound body on my lap and hold him like a lap dog. I have fallen asleep under the stars with him, his paws on me while I held him. I am truly in love with him. But love is big and strange. I want for his happiness, more than I want for mine. And so, with this treatment, we seek you--whoever you are--to take him home, love him like a son, give him snuggles and scratches, massage his massive muscles and never let him ever experience what he once had to go through ever again. Like one of the volunteers up at Pasado's, you, too, can have Tea with Tyson.
Tyson needs you, and I won't give up until we find you. Just...help us out and do a little "screaming" from your high gloss life so we can see you a bit more easily;)
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