Tama YepCats! English Pointer Salt Lake City, UT

Tama was captured as a stray by Animal Control in December 2009 and came to me a couple of days later. She was only about 9 months old and skinny, skinny, skinny. She was also terrified of everything - so much so that I couldn't get her out of her kennel. She crawled way to the back and I had to go in and drag her out. She was so totally uncomfortable with people and just about everything else that I'm amazed animal control was able to catch her. The shelter people told me she'd been on the run for a long time and they finally cornered her in a barn.

I was pretty new to rescue at the time and just didn't have the experience to work with her properly. She was way out of my league in terms of behavioral modification and she broke my heart.

At the time there was a relatively new rescue near Sedona, AZ managed by the Buddhist temple Kunzang Palyul Choling. Many of the monks and nuns had worked saving animals during Hurricane Katrina and purchased a lovely tract of land in the desert for their sanctuary in 2006/2007. They called their rescue Tara's Babies. I knew one of the women who worked there through another dog rescue that I helped transport for. They took in dogs from euthanasia lists all over the country and went as far as Taiwan. The animal world was singing their praises and so grateful to them for taking in these unwanted dogs. I thought a Buddhist sanctuary would be a wonderful place for Tama to be rehabilitated. They accepted her and a chained dog from me immediately and the dogs were on their way to AZ in January 2010.

For a while I got updates from the sanctuary and followed Tama and Skipper on their website. The updates became less frequent and I got busy with the never-ending stream of Utah dogs. My occasional forays onto their website didn't show either of my dogs listed so I assumed they'd been rehabilitate and happily adopted.


In December 2011 I received an e-blast from Best Friends that Tara's Babies was closing and if there were any rescue groups that could take any of their dogs to please contact them. Tara's Babies had been so helpful to me I emailed them immediately and said I'd take any pointer-types they had. I was horrified when they told me that Tama and Skipper were still there - 2 years after they'd arrived. I made arrangements to get them immediately and both were back with me on January 3, 2012. Neither dog had improved at all temperamentally; Skipper was worse. I was sick that I'd abrogated my responsibility to these dogs. I learned a valuable lesson at their expense: "Don't expect someone else to fix your problems; suck it up and deal with them yourself. If you don't know what to do ask someone who does and keep working on it."


I took Skipper to my vet and it was obvious he'd had a number of strokes that left him turning in circles and very unpredictable temperamentally. We euthanized him.


Tama came home with me where she's been ever since. When we brought her home she was so scared of people that I had to leave a 30-foot lead on her when she went out in the yard or I'd never get her back inside. My husband and I rarely saw her inside for the first 2 weeks - she'd hide on a bed behind the table or cat tree downstairs. We'd hear her racing across the floor at night for a drink and then race back to her safe spot. After a couple of days she started to pack up with my dogs when they'd go in and out and race between them to go through the door. If she didn't quite make it she'd circle the yard (and us) but not let us near her. So I'd send my dogs out for her again. It was about 7 months before she'd go through the door by herself to come in. By November 2015 she'd finally race inside on her own and sit on her bed expectantly waiting for a treat.


Interestingly Tama was always very good with other dogs and cats. She seems to take great comfort in being in a pack - the larger, the better. In March 2012, I started taking her to daycare and she loves it. Her tail goes up, she romps and plays - just like she does when I bring a new dog into our home for training.


We've been walking her on leash with our pack on the weekends and she's good on a split leash with my dog, Misty.


She had a major breakthrough in November 2014 when she decided she liked sleeping on the bed with us. She no longer cringes or quivers when I reach out to touch her at night and she's even started licking me (in bed only). She also started to snuggle in bed.


However, we still can't approach her in the yard without her quivering and running away. She'll usually go to greet my husband when he comes home from work. If she ever gets off a leash or out of the yard we know we'll never see her again.