Oh my Tucker where do I start. Imagine having two of the most adorably sweet doggies that could ever warm your heart every time you looked at them. That would have been my Cassidy and Mckenzie. We didn’t set out looking for two dogs, but these two little ladies were found together, abandoned as puppies and in need of a home.
Cassidy was blonde and had some distinctive lab in her while McKenzie was brown and definitely had some Australian Shepherd in her. We were told that they needed to be kept together. I’m pretty sure the vet just old me that to speed along the adoption process of both pups instead of just one, but I believed him. Just like that and before I knew what was happening, we were in love and we were adopting two puppies.
I know now that getting two puppies at the same time is a very big mistake. Who pee’d, who chewed, you will never know unless you spend every minute with them. Discipline and training are quite a challenge if not impossible. We failed miserably at any type of training but loved them more than words. They spent every day of their thirteen years together. Never apart. McKenzie got very sick and died one very sad morning. Later that night Cassidy’s stomach turned. It’s a condition called Gastric Torsion that can be caused by severe stress such as the stress of McKenzie’s passing. She passed away that same evening. The twelve hours between McKenize passing and Cassidy passing were the longest they had ever been apart. Even so, I'm sure the reunion in puppy Heaven was a sweet site to see. Our hearts were beyond broken.
We are a family like so many that cannot be without a furry family member. We might even be worse than other families. The plan was to power through and after returning from our upcoming vacation we would begin the search for a new pup. We couldn’t bare it. The silence in the house was deafening. The void was more than any of us could handle. Within days we were scouring through animal rescue agencies looking for the next family member. I had some requirements though. I wanted a dog that I could run with, wrestle with, and that had the bark of a real dog. Enter Tucker, stage right. The details of Tucker’s past are unclear, we do know that his human father went to prison and he was left with his grandmother who did not have the ability to take care of him. When someone found him and the conditions he was living in they asked if Tucker could be surrendered into the foster care program. He was then relocated to a foster family that treated him well until we found him. We do not know what his care was like before his owner went to prison, we never will.
We were off to a good start but quickly learned that Tucker was so thankful to be a part of his forever family that he also quickly became protective of us. He was not a fan of quick movement, strangers entering the house, or yard tools. I had never had a dog that came to me with baggage before. I can’t remember life without a dog, but also life without a dog that didn’t come to us as a puppy. Tucker had a past and he had scars that came with that of which we will never totally understand.
I lost so much sleep when we first got him, my anxiety was sky high. How can we keep a dog whose actions we can’t predict? I remember sitting with him one morning in tears telling him that I didn’t think he’d be able to say. It makes me tear up just thinking about those early days with him. I think he somehow knew what I was saying. I think from that moment, that little talk we had, he became joined to me at the hip. He did not want to leave. He wanted so desperately to be loved, I’m certain of that. The family was absolutely adamant that Tucker had to stay. He had been treated poorly in the past and I was told we were not going to do that to him again. He was going to have his second chance at a happy life and it was going to be with us. I was over-ruled and mind you I don’t get over-ruled much.
What’s funny about Tucker is that people seem to either love him to death or don’t like him at all. My father can’t love and wrestle with him enough. Each time he visits you’ll find my Dad down on the floor playing with my pup saying “you are a good dog, yes you are” with such approval and adoration. My mother-in-law in her final years would walk through our house with a pocket of pretzels and her walker, Tucker following close behind. She could have easily been knocked down, but Tucker was her gentle friend because he felt her love. She got so much joy out of balancing a pretzel on his nose, telling him to “leave it” and then giving him the release command watching him toss up his nose and, on most occasions, catch the pretzel in the air. She’d laugh out loud each time. Tucker brings joy to those that let him into their heart. All you’ve got to do is realize he’s not perfect and love him anyway. It’s then that he lets you in.
In reality, we are all far from perfect, we all have issues, and in fact we are all rescues. God continues to love us despite our imperfections, our failed attempts to be perfect, and the baggage of our past and that’s what we will do for our Tuckman. We will love him forever.
My dear friend told me when we first got Tucker that he was in my life to teach me something, there was a reason why he was now a part of our family. Perhaps it was to remind us that love isn’t always easy and it’s not disposable. We could have simply gotten rid of Tucker when we realized he wasn’t perfect, but instead we decided as a family to give him every opportunity to know love, to have a family, to live a joyful life. I’m thankful for this crazy mutt every day. I understand why he’s not loved by everyone, but I’m proud of us for not giving up on him, I’m proud of him for being such an awesome addition to our family, and I’m proud of those that are scared of him for giving him second chances. Sometimes love isn’t easy, but it’s always worth it.
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