Story and Photos by Ginny Jablonski
Six years ago we made the difficult decision to risk our hearts once again and adopt a dog from a shelter in Phoenix. The photo with the pink heart was our first glimpse of her on the Rescue Me website. When we saw her, we instantly knew she was ours, but we also sensed a message of urgency.
We drove to Phoenix the next day and adopted her. On the drive home we noticed she had a cough, and we immediately made an appointment with our veterinarian. Within hours of adopting her we were advised that she had double pneumonia, probable tick fever (she had been covered in ticks when she was brought in), and giardia. Our vet was not optimistic.
She had already stolen our hearts, so we embarked on a treatment plan which included medication, home nebulization and coupage to clear the volume of fluid in her lungs, and lots and lots of love. This treatment went on for weeks with check-ups at the Vet every few days.
That was just the beginning of her journey with us! She was frightened outside of her kennel, did not enjoy going for walks, was very anxious about food, cowered when approached, did not like being picked up, was fearful of other dogs, especially big dogs, and seemed to mistrust men. Most of all, she did not trust us. We were just humans, not to be trusted in her eyes.
With all that in mind, we contacted a respected animal communicator, and we were able to understand much more about Tala’s behavior in just one session. She definitely had priorities when communicating with us. Firstly, we were pronouncing her name wrong! She was adopted as Natalie, and that’s what we called her. Well, she insisted her name was N’Tala. She spelled it out: N ‘ T A L A! But, she added, we could call her Tala for short. With that settled we were able to move on.
The next thing she talked about were her puppies. She wanted to know where they all were and expressed extreme sadness. We were given the strong impression she had several litters of puppies, and they were taken from her over and over again. This helped us to understand she came from a puppy mill and somehow escaped when she was pregnant.
She further shared that she didn’t enjoy her walks because she lived in a cage her entire life. She said it was scary not living in a cage, that being outside and going for walks frightened her. While she was living on the streets after somehow escaping the puppy mill, she had several altercations with bigger dogs, and being pregnant at the time this made a big impression on her. It was obvious a second ranch dog was not in the future for us.
She went on to describe how she was cared for by a man who would use food to bait her, and then grab her to put her in with a stud dog to breed her. That explained why she would not eat when we were near her and waited until we walked away. She had never been held, groomed, loved, petted or walked, and her new life with us was very confusing to her.
Lastly, she shared that she was frightened of being hungry during the day, and that she preferred to eat three times per day instead of two. We felt certain that she had only been fed once per day, so we immediately changed her feeding regimen.
Since then, we have spent a lot of time talking to her, both out loud and telepathically. We spoke out loud to her every day explaining about our life as we went along. We shared where we were going, why, and especially when we’d be home. During that time she always stayed in her kennel as she was more comfortable there.
Her walks were limited to our property only. Over time we walked her down the driveway and back and eventually off the property. When feeding her we put her food down and walked away, completely out of sight. Over time we would stay in the kitchen, but not look at her. She improved quickly after we made these changes.
It took a while for her to be comfortable around our horses. We walked her on a leash in the barn, the stalls, the turnouts, and the pasture. We allowed the horses to say hello slowly, but she never enjoyed being close to their heads. Over time she was able to run and play freely in the pasture, and she particularly enjoyed sharing a bite of grain.
With the help of animal communication, she has come to enjoy our walks around the neighborhood, barking at the mail lady and even warming up to new visitors in our home.
Thank you, Tala, for blessing our life with your companionship and affection.
