The Tay aka Taysia Blue and her mom.

I went in to our local shelter on a beautiful Saturday morning in May of 2008 to work my volunteer adoption counseling shift.  I was relatively new and didn't know my way around very well so when another volunteer asked me if I wanted a tour of the ‘back areas’ I gladly agreed.  I was hoping to figure out where the vending machines were.

I was taken through the back kennels where all the strays are held prior to evaluation and surgery before going in to adoption.  If I had a lost dog, the lost and found staff would take me through these kennels to look for my pup.  I was overwhelmed with the number of kennels there were.  Rooms and rooms of kennels.

I was walking along, talking to the pups I passed when I saw them, two beautiful, pleading eyes, one blue, one brown, looking up at me, trying to communicate with me.  The eyes belonged to a raggedy Siberian husky that was obviously matted, filthy and scared.  My feet were planted and I couldn’t leave her kennel until I knew her story.

She had been an ‘owner surrender’, once in 2002 and then again on May 5th, 2008.  She was thought to be about 9 years old.  I have tried over and over to understand how you can love a dog for 7 years (they got her when she was about 2) and then give her up when she needed you most.

Her paperwork didn’t forecast happy news for this dog named Princess.  She wasn’t in good health and had been vomiting since she arrived and a seizure that morning didn’t help her health evaluation.  Her fate had been cast due to health and age and having been around rescue for a few years, I understand this.  I don't like it and I want to work to bring about change, but I understand the numbers.  Overwhelming numbers.

I immediately sought out the vet on staff and asked about her.  Without my husband’s knowledge, I found myself saying, ‘If I’m willing to take on her medical needs, can I adopt her?’  The answer was yes and now I had work to do on my home front.

The drive home after my shift was torture.  If my husband says ‘no’, her life is over.  As that weighed heavily on me, my stress elevated.  My husband finally got me to utter the words, “It’s about a dog”.  Thankful that it wasn’t anything more serious, he agreed that this was something we had to do.  We were determined to try to find out what was wrong with her.  If she could be treated, then she’d live a happy life with us.  If not, we’d consult with our vet and go from there.

We returned to the shelter with our 2 resident dogs for a dog introduction.  This was also extremely stressful as we realized that if it went poorly, this would also seal her fate.  I won’t tell you that it went well, but I’m not sure we were prepared for any other result other than leaving with Princess, soon to be Taysia Blue that day.

Taysia is short for Anastasia, the Russian princess.  Her middle name Blue is in honor of Doobie Blue from Yukonwinds Kennels in Michigan who went missing almost a year to the date I met Taysia.

To say that my youngest husky, Jambalaya and Taysia Blue didn’t get along is being kind.  We had fights, territory wars and bloodshed for the first 90 – 120 days.  There were times when we had to keep them in separate rooms.  This was heart breaking and inconvenient, but we felt it was our responsibility as pet owners to make this work.  I consulted with local trainers, people experienced with dogs and Siberian huskies and spent a lot of time on the phone with Paige from Tails of the Tundra Siberian Husky Rescue in Pennsylvania.  I took notes, soaked in as much information from every source I could find to help these 2 dogs that I loved.  We worked through the issues with patience and time.  Two years later, it’s not perfect, but they are fine – in fact there are times they become BFF partners in crime and go off together to nap.

The medical problems were equally as challenging and frustrating.  Taysia Blue was regurgitating her food on a fairly regular basis.  Early on, we all called it vomiting and would go through periods of doing the small quantities of a bland diet.  Once we realized that what was coming back up was undigested food from 12 hours ago, we realized that we had a different sort of problem.  Taysia Blue was diagnosed with Megaesophagus.  The good news was that we had a name for it, the bad news is that there’s no fix, no cure, only management.  I won’t go in to the details, but click the link for a great article on this often undiagnosed problem in dogs.  Megaesophagus.

Taysia Blue was regurgitating as much as 20 times per day. We’d follow her around with a dust pan, squeegee, paper towels and carpet cleaner.  She couldn’t keep water or food down so she was dehydrated and malnourished.   She was coughing like an elderly person with emphysema.  By April of 2009, she didn’t look well and didn’t appear to be long for this world.  I was devastated at what I thought would be a decision I’d have to make.  Patience and a little dumb luck paid off when I brought her in to test for pneumonia.  Her regular vet wasn’t in that day, but he was going to read the results the following day.  Another vet unfamiliar with her case took it upon herself to offer up a ‘treatment’.  I was a little put off initially that she would even try – after all, we’d been at this for almost a year, what was she going to tell us that we hadn’t already tried?  She prescribed a cocktail of steroids and antibiotics when we picked her up and gave the drugs a try.  Within hours, her chronic cough had ceased and she had gone 4 hours, then 8 hours, then 8 days without regurgitating anything.  This is highly unusual for dogs with megaesophagus, clearly Taysia Blue was a minor case. Since then, she has had little to no problem with regurgitation.  She still coughs here and there, but it's not constant and she seems happy and healthy.

Taysia Blue celebrated her 11th (we think) birthday on her ‘gotcha day’ in May 2010.  She is an elderly dog with some funny quirks, but I can't imagine life without her.  It certainly wouldn't be as humorous.  She had one seizure after coming home with us, but that’s been over 2 years ago and no signs of seizure since.  She still looks up at me with those pleading eyes and I can’t deny her.  Rescuing Taysia Blue, aka Taysia, Tater Tot, The Tay has been the single most rewarding thing I’ve done.  She inspires me to do more, to make a better world for animals, to help provide good and responsible homes for dogs that deserve better, to take the first steps and the next and the next in starting Taysia Blue Siberian Husky Rescue in Nebraska.

In peace,

Jackie