TAI TAI
Age: 3
Weight: 60 lbs.
State: NY
Small Children Under 4?: Yes
Children Over 4?: Yes
Separation Anxiety?: No
Neutered/UTD: Yes/Yes
Microchipped?: No
Other Dogs? Yes
Cats?: No
Crate Trained?: Yes
House Trained?: So far
Obedience Trained?: a little
Leash Trained?: Yes
Attending Obedience At Foster Home?: Will be home schooled
Adoption donation $250
UPDATED 5/27/04 - Well, Tai has been with us for a month and we can't imagine life
without him! He has really thrived. He has the best temperment and just loves everyone
(except cats and bunnies!). He eats well and exercises alot. He gets up with me at 5:30
a.m. every morning to run a few laps in the neighborhood. Tai is very well known in the
neighborhood and we always end up with an "entourage" when we walk him. My girls are
8 and 6 and they are not the happiest in the mornings when I wake them for school. But
now, when Tai wakes them with big boxer kisses and hugs, they couldn't be happier.
He had his first vet appt. 2 weeks ago and he was deemed to be very healthy. He was
within a healthy weight for his size and he was re-tested for the pancratitis that he had
when he was brought into rescue. He passed with flying colors! The only concern we
have with him is his separation anxiety. We have to crate him when we go out and he
always goes to the bathroom in his crate. The vet suggested Clomicalm along with
behaviour training. Unfortunately, it is a Catch 22. The vet told us you shouldn't crate a
dog that has separation anxiety, but if you don't crate them, then they have accidents in the
house (which is what we came home to the first time we left him alone without crating
him). So we are crating him for short periods of time and when we come back, give him
lots of praise if he doesn't have an accident. If he does, we just ignore it and try again (if
you try to reprimand them, it just adds to their anxiety). And we are just increasing the
time slowly. Hopefully, we should see some improvment in a months time.
Obedience class has been an adventure. Tai is always "distracted" by all the other pups
walking by and by his classmates. There are 2 golden retrievers in the class with us, who
are both much bigger than he is and they tend to really annoy him. By the middle of the
hour, he does settle down and is able to perform the lessons for the day. Our classes are
taught at PetSmart in North Attleboro MA and the "ring" is right in the middle of the store.
Last week, Tai caught sight of a little Lhasa Apso across the store. I just happened not to
be holding his leash at that time as we were working on "Stay". Well, he jumped the fence
and bolted for this pup and his very frightened owner. My husband had to sprint to stop
him from jumping on both of them and got there just in time. The pup's owner was not
amused and yelled at my husband for a good 5 minutes! Needless to say, now I hold his
leash the entire time I am there.
Overall, Tai has been a wonderful addition to our family. He has adjusted well to our
schedule and has shown no aggression whatsoever. He is a little (I mean BIG!) love-bug
and we really love spending time with him. Thank you SCBR for giving us the opportunity
to be Tai's forever family!
UPDATED 4/24/04 - Tai Tai has been adopted!
4/13/04 Hi everyone, it's me Tai Tai.
Mom said I could send in an update about me since she's been so busy.
There's been a lot going on here! First of all, I'd like to report that I
now am getting along with everyone in the house and only have to sleep in my
crate at night because Mom still doesn't completely trust me not to have an
accident in the middle of the night-what she doesn't know is I can hold it!
We all play and sleep together all day long! We've even had a couple of
visitors here and I was great with them too! Mom is watching a very nice
female golden retriever for a few days and I like her too, she's sweet. We
also had 2 young boxers come to visit (one of Mom's friends came over for a
playdate) and I LOVED playing with the puppies, they were a lot of fun to be
with! I love to play with toys now, but there are one or two that I don't
like to share with the "bunch", so Mom usually takes them away so we don't
fight over them. I'm also a little protective of my rawhide bone, so I only
get that in the crate at night (what Mom doesn't know is I love to cuddle up
with it and sleep!). I really enjoy being here, but I would like to have a
family of my own. If you think you can give me a home, please put your
application in 'cause I'm waiting!
4/6/04 Another quick update Tai. I
have gotten him to successfully meet both of my boys (seperately) and has
been great with them! He pretty much follows them around and does whatever
they do, it's really quite cute to watch. I don't think that he's ready to
be with both of them together yet, as they like to play "team up" play and I
don't want to stress Tai out now that he's getting along with them well so
we'll wait a day or two before we get all three together. Tai has also
shown much more interest in toys now too. He has a favorite stuffed animal
that he carries around and he brings it to me to throw for him all the time!
After an hour or so I have to take it away from him because I get really
tired. I bet if it were up to him, he'd play fetch from morning until
night! He's also getting much better at jumping on the counters too, he'll
still try every once in a while if no one's watching but he's about 80%
better than when he first got here. I feel he is now ready for his forever
home, with a family of his own to love and cherrish. Could your home be it?
4/3/04-Just a quick update on how Tai
is doing. We went to the vet yesterday for a re-check, and he has gained 10
pounds since last week! He has not thrown up or had diarrhea since he came
home from the vet and is eating like a champ. His back leg is healing
wonderfully also. The vet is very pleased with his progress! I can also
report that he has finally started playing with me! I took him outside to
go potty the other day and after he finished his business he ran over to me
and started jumping on me getting me to play! I was so happy I started to
cry! Now every time he comes out of the crate he jumps and plays while
saying hello. He hasn't really shown much interest in toys yet, but I think
with a little coaxing he just might.
He continues to be a sweet cuddle-bug, and will let me do absolutely
anything to him. I cleaned his teeth last night and he just gave me a look
as if to say, "Why are you doing this to me Mom?", but did not move a muscle
until I was finished. He also sat like a champ while I clipped his nails &
cleaned his ears.
There's only one negative thing I can say about him, he continues to be a
HUGE counter-surfer. I've been trying to work with him on that, but he's
VERY stubborn when it comes to "free food". He also continues to pull when
on the leash so I started using the gentle leader on him and there's been
100% improvement. So he's going to continue to use one for a while yet.
Other than that, he's a real gentleman and a real pleasure to have around!
3/24/03 Hi all. Just a quick update as
promised on our boy. He had his drain taken out, and doc says it looks
good, but I have to continue to put the antibiotic cream on the site to make
sure that the wound does not close too fast and does not re-infect itself.
I also got an email from the all-breed rescue that had Tai before us and she
said that she was going to fax his most recent bloodwork results to my vet
so he could take a look and see what kind of action we need to take (if any)
about his pancreatitis. Other than that, he's doing well. He's a bit more
lively and the fever continues to go down as well. He's also eating like a
champ. He was weighed again today and he's back up to 50lbs, so we're happy
about that too. We have to see the doc again next Friday to make sure the
abscess is healing well and he will be weighed again to make sure he's on
the right track.
3/22/04 Just wanted to update everyone about Tai Tai. He's back home after 5 days at
the vet, 10 X-rays with barium, pills, pokes, drain, etc. He was very happy to see me and
even happier to be home with us. He even slept in the crate all night without making a
sound! And I think he might have even gained a pound or two!
Now for the news...he had an abscess in his leg, so that was the problem with running.
We put in a drain and it's coming down nicely. He has also stopped throwing up, which is
another good thing. We're feeding him 1/4 canned with 1 cup dry 4x's a day and he's
doing very well. He's also getting an antioxidant supplement and a chelated supplement
with every meal. We found that he has a spine problem, which answered the question of
why he was always hunching his back! He's on Panacur again for the worms, even though
the fecal came back negative, doc wants to make sure those nasty little buggers are really
gone for good! He's also on Clavamox 2x's a day for the fever and the abscess which he
must take for the next 14 days. I also have to put an antibiotic cream on the site 3x's a
day and "move the drain around" to continue to let the puss drain out...gross! He does
have some sort of blockage (I saw it myself when I picked him up and went over the
X-rays with doc), but the food is passing, so we're just going to watch it for now. He has
to go back to the doc on Wednesday to have the drain taken out. The bill has
sky-rocketed past $1000.00, and I can say with confidence that we're not done yet! I'll
let you know what happens when we go back on Wednesday.
3/17/04 A quick update on Tai. He went to the vet today for a check up, and they found
a few troubling things. He is going to be treated for whip and hook worms because he
had tested
positive for them a few months ago and we want to make sure he's really rid of those nasty
buggers! Then I wanted him to be checked for either a UTI/bladder infection because
he's lost the ability to go all night/an extended period of time without an accident. And he
was also favoring his
left hind leg, so I wanted that checked as well. The last few days poor Tai has not been
able to eat more than a handful of food at a time and I've been feeding him between 8-10
times a day, so they're going to check into this with barium and a series of x-rays. The vet
was also concerned about the results of his bloodwork, some of the results were a bit
high, so he wants
to keep an eye on that as well. We also discovered that he had a high fever, and that his
hind leg is swollen and puss-filled, so he will have a drain put in for that as well. He's
staying at the vet overnight while they finish all the testing and should here the preliminary
results by tomorrow,
and hopefully able to come home to be pampered until a course of action is found. I will
update again when we know more.
3/12/04 I'd like to introduce you to our newest foster, Tai-Tai (pronounced Tye-Tye,
formerly known as Tyson). We changed his name slightly to Tai-Tai because that's what
they were calling him, he knows and responds to it well and I don't have to remind you of
how many Tyson's we've had!!! He was a stray and an all-breed rescue found him and
gave us a call as he was not doing well in the shelter, do any boxers do well in shelters?
He's approximately 4 yrs. old, flashy fawn, natural ears/docked tail and a real mush! He
needs to gain at least 20 pounds, he's extremely thin and has a sensitive stomach so we'll
have to put the weight on very slowly! So far he has no issues that I can see, let me touch
him all over, look in his ears and mouth with no problems, and literally eats out of my
hand! He also lets me touch him when he's eating and takes food/treats very gently from
me. He's still a bit skittish, but is much better today than he was yesterday when he first
got here. He has met my 2 boys through the crate, was very good with Blaze but not so
good with Sebastian, but I think that's because Sebastian is such a ball of energy that it
was too much for Tai-Tai. So we'll take the introductions VERY slowly and see how it
goes. He did have an accident in the crate last night, but hasn't had one in the house when
loose & roaming! We'll update again when we get to know him better!