Musings: My Big Brother – Tesla!

November 19, 2017

This is my big brother Tesla. He is a rescue just like me and we think he is now 10 years old. He has been with my new family for three years. Mom and Dad rescued him through the Oregon Humane Society. His story makes me very sad, and very angry (and puppies shouldn’t get angry)! But I am so glad he came to be my BIG Brother!

Tesla was first named, Abraham Nightshade! A funny sort of name isn’t it. But it is also very serious. Abraham Nightshade – or A.N. are the evidence markers for Tesla. This represents the grid markers from when he was discovered in a terrible place, a puppy mill like I came from, but his place was in southern Oregon. Tesla was one of 51 puppies who were saved that day, 41 came to Portland and the remaining puppies stayed in the southern Oregon community.

They think Tesla was seven years old when he was discovered in a cage. A cage they are pretty sure he stayed in most all of the seven years of his life. They also think he was one of their stud dogs (he is beautiful), as he needed to be neutered before he could be adopted. His fur was a mess, he was very thin, in addition to needing to be neutered, he was dewormed four times, and had both eye and ear infections. His teeth were so bad that he had to have 14 pulled and then Mom and Dad had another two pulled last year (they had broken off from long ago).

When Mom first saw him, from an email she receives from OHS whenever a ShihTzu pup becomes available, he had a “medical tag” and a lot of people won’t adopt because of this. But we soon learned this was because of all the surgery he had to have. Sweet Tesla, he wasn’t potty trained, had never been on a leash, didn’t know what a toy was and was “indifferent” (I think that means he didn’t care) about treats.

More than anything, Tesla needed to be loved, like so many other ShihTzu puppies, and so many other rescue puppies – and boy did he find a lot of love in my new house!

Mom was so excited when she saw her two blondies striking a mutual accord! We were sleeping together on the couch. He still gets a little grouchy at me and I have learned not to startle him, because this scares him. I think he has lost some of his hearing from being an older dog and al the ear infections. But Mom said this was a definite breakthrough.