Bye Taz, We'll Miss You....

She was a good dog, and part of the family for twelve years....

I've always been a dog person. Big dogs. Not little 9 lb dust mops like my in-laws shitzus, or poodles, bichons or even beagles. Nope. Labs, Goldens, German Shepherds, and just about any other type of bird or hound dog.

Back in Oct 1997, we decided a dog would be good for Jesse, and we went down to the humane shelter in Fort Worth. There were lots of puppies and dogs of all ages. Vicki's only requirement was it couldn't shed too much.

We eventually found a pair of six week old black and tan pups who were listed as border collie & Rottweiler mix -- one male and one female. True or not, I convinced Vicki that Rotts didn't shed much, paid our fee for the female, and came back the next day with Jesse to make sure he was OK with her. She had to be spayed before she could leave the shelter so a couple days later we finally brought her home.

She had the coloring of the Tazmanian Devil cartoon, and after some shameful leading and lobbying on my part, that's the name Jesse eventually picked out.

The first couple weeks were rough. She barked in her kennel (which I'd borrowed from a friend) the first few nights (normal), and since we were both working full time, Taz was usually pretty wound up when we got home. Finding a routine was difficult, as our daughter Emmy was born a few weeks later, which brought along its own chaos...

Taz grew pretty quick, and we eventually were able to put her outside for the day while we were at work. In theory, that worked pretty well, except for two things..

First, she liked to dig under the fence... Once I put landscape timbers at the bottom of every fence panel, the problem was mostly solved (she could dig, but not very far), and she eventually grew out of digging.

Second was a life-long vice for her -- she barked. A lot. So bad that our neighbors left an anonymous note on our door one day (we figured it out because she was the only stay-at-home mom around us...). I went to Petsmart, and came home with a bark collar which shocked her after a warning beep... It worked.

As she grew, she started shedding. A lot. Instead of Rottie hair, she wound up with Border Collie hair, and lots of it.... As a result, she spent little time in the house, and a lot more time outside.

When we moved a year and a half later to our second house, there was a perfect corner for a doghouse. She apparently liked that, and getting her out of the doghouse at times was a challenge... We eventually stopped trying to bring her in at night, and let her stay in the yard where she was apparently happy. And that's how she spent her next few years -- as an outside dog whenever weather permitted.

All dogs have their quirks...

Taz hated storms... Living in Texas, thunderstorms are a way of life from April to September. She'd start barking (shocks from the collar be damned) until we brought her inside to the laundry room. We couldn't leave her anywhere she could see the lightning, or else she'd continue to freak out. On February 1, 2003, we woke up early to find Taz barking like crazy at the back door. I could hear the bark collar going off, but she kept barking on what was otherwise a perfectly clear day. When we heard the news a few hours later about the space shuttle Columbia breaking up over Texas, I knew she'd heard the sonic booms of debris re-entering, and probably thought it was a thunderstorm approaching...

She was also deathly afraid of storm drains and swimming. If we were taking a walk and there was a storm drain on our path, she'd start pulling as hard as she could to get away from it. Best I could guess is a bad experience before being brought to the shelter... When we built our pool, we found out she could swim as well as any of our other dogs could, but never voluntarily. We'd toss her in once in a while if she got particularly muddy, and she hated it. To the day we left Arizona, she never really trusted me when we were around the pool...

Even as a puppy, Taz wasn't one to play with toys. Throw a ball at her, and she'd just get out of the way. Tug-o-war ropes? Forget it. She'd go to town on a real bone, but just couldn't be bothered with rawhides.

Being part Rottie, Taz was protective, and occasionally had a nasty streak, especially when around other dogs. She also snapped at the kids (and nieces and nephews) once in a while, sometimes breaking skin...fortunately ,she never bit a non-family member.

And then there were her paws... She was deathly protective of her paws. Trimming her nails was impossible without serious effort (wrapping her head in a towel to protect me from being bit). When we built our pool in 2001, that helped a lot, as her walking on the concrete deck wore them down to a managable length. But to the end, if someone went to touch one of her paws, she'd usually react with a snap or a growl.

We started camping in 2003, and on our longer trips, it didn't make sense for her to go with just to be locked inside, so she stayed home and we had the neighbors or Jesse's classmates look after her. Being an outside dog, it was usually just a matter of making sure she had food (we free-fed her), and she'd drink from the pool. On shorter trips within Texas and Oklahoma, she came with us. She loved riding in the car and occasionally the bed of the truck.

In 2005, we took her with us to Caprock Canyon near the Texas panhandle. While I was walking with the kids in the campground, she pulled a little ahead of me (rare), and then turned to block us from walking. She'd never done that before, but after looking about 15 feet down the sidewalk, I saw why -- there was a 5 foot long rattlesnake sunning itself on the sidewalk... I don't think she'd never seen a snake before, certainly not a rattlesnake, but the border collie instinct kicked in.

In 2006, we moved to Arizona, which was a big change for Taz. No longer did we have a yard she could live in 24/7, so she moved into the house... She was nine by that time, and had mellowed a lot, but still shed hair like crazy... Knowing her aversion to snakes, I wasn't too concerned with that possibility, but there were also rats, spiders and the excessive heat to deal with. We knew we would have to get used to the hair, and she'd have to adjust to losing her doghouse. She started out by sleeping on the floor by our bed, and then moved up to on the bed to sleep at Vicki's feet. She may have been old, but was never too old to jump up onto the bed or the couch...

Taz's undoing was eventually her temper. In 2007, we got a yellow lab (Maggie) who she promptly ignored for about two months, and finally started to assert her place as the Alpha. Even when Maggie was twice her size and weight, Taz maintained her Alpha spot. In 2009, we got a third dog (chocolate Lab) (Coogee), and as with Maggie, Taz ignored her for the first few weeks, and then let her know who was really in charge.

Maggie, unfortunately, was technically a teenager by this time, and decided that she'd had enough of being the #2 dog. What used to be playful wrestling with Taz started to get ugly. More than a few times, Taz would instigate a fight, and they would both wind up with cuts on their snouts and ears. In one particularly nasty fight, Maggie suffered a 2" diameter tear on her shoulder (and we suffered $400 in vet bills), while Taz wound up with some nasty contusions on her jaw that took about a week to heal.

Every couple of weeks, they'd get into a really nasty fight, and while Taz continued to hold the top spot, we knew the day would come where Maggie would stop backing down and we'd have serious injuries for one or both dogs.

A couple weeks after moving to Illinois, they had a knock-down-drag-out under the kitchen table, and Taz's jaw wound up with a 3" long rip in it... Even after we got the bleeding stopped, she wanted to go back for more.

Three days later, we had her put to sleep.

Putting her down was horribly difficult for both Vicki and I, but we knew it would eventually have to happen. Aside from the fights, she was in good health. She had all her teeth, didn't suffer from being blind (although I think she was developing cataracts..), arthritic, or some other illness, and it's a little comforting to know she was never in any persistant pain. We also didn't have to go thru the trauma of coming home to find that she'd died (or worse, to have it happen while I was away on business). Still, we knew that the fighting wasn't going to stop, and it wasn't practical to keep the two separated at all times.

All that said, it was painful nevertheless for us, and I'm sure we'll always second guess the decision.

The day before she left us, we had a family birthday party for Emmy, and from what I could tell, Taz had a good day. No dog fights, and at the end of the night, she was chasing her tail, and rolling around on the carpet, acting a little like a puppy again for a couple hours... She had no idea what the next day had in store for her (or maybe she did?), but that's how I will remember her -- tongue out & smiling, rolling around on her back on the carpet. She did that on the grass in Texas, in Arizona, and in Chicago. And I'm sure she's probably doing that now...

She was a pain at times, but Taz will always hold a very special place in our hearts. I miss her terribly, and am thankful she was able to be part of the family for as long as she was...