Tessa

Shelter

Tessa at the shelter in Alabama

Tessa came to shelter in Alabama as a stray that was picked up by their Animal Control Office. When she arrived. Tessa had a lot of skin issues and was terrified of anything and everything; loud noises, new people, bigger dogs, everything! She would hide in the back of her kennel and just shake in fear. She was absolutely terrified of a leash. Anytime someone would try to pet her, or even moved too quickly, she would lose control and just start pottying everywhere. She stayed alone for about a week to decompress and let her skin issues start clearing up before they found her a friend to see if it could bring her out of her shell. They moved a smaller puppy, Paris, in and boy did Tessa come alive! She was really unsure at first, but Paris is a big personality, and after a couple days, Tessa was up and playing, meeting you at the gate to go outside. She still had her moments of nervousness and shyness, but they were a lot less than before. She watched Paris and started mimicking her, and that’s how she learned to finally walk on a leash. She finally learned to play and absolutely loved it when she figured out how nice it was to snuggle. She was such a joy to have.

Foster

Tessa in her foster home (press the right arrow to see more photos)

From Tessa's foster:

"I wasn't sure what to expect when Tessa came up. I was getting updates from transport saying she was terrified, wouldn't move, eat, or drink, they had to double leash her because she was a flight risk, and she would cower any time someone tried to touch her. However, when she got to my house she walked well on a leash outside before heading into the house. I carried her into the house since she was scared of the door and I didn't want my dog to overwhelm her. There was no need to be worried about that! The second she saw my dog Bennett, she fell in love and was wiggling to get out of my arms and play with him. Immediately she was running around and playing. In less than an hour she was sitting on my lap and chewing her bone. She was so sweet, playful, and braver than I was expecting. She would get nervous around new people on occasion, but no where near as bad as I had anticipated before meeting her. While in foster Tessa participated in a puppy fashion show, had her first ice cream cone, took part in a photo shoot, and learned how to play fetch. She loved every dog she met, but she was attached at the hip to Bennett. She always had the biggest smile on her face and was such a sweetheart! It took a little while for her to get adopted since she was shy at the events and the other dogs with outgoing personalities drew most of the attention. However, as soon as I was told about her potential adopters, I knew it would be a perfect fit!"

Tessa playing at the NCCR office

Adoption

Tessa (now Murphy) in her furever home (including her canine brother Tax)

From Murphy's adopters:

"Murphy (formerly Tessa) is adjusting faster than ever expected. The first two times we met her, she would barely come near us and she would cower every time we touched her. We were skeptical of if she'd ever warm up and if we were ready to adopt another dog that would need a lot of time and effort to get her out of her shell, especially after spending the past 9 months doing so with our current rescued pitbull. However, when she came for her overnight date, everything changed. She acted like a normal dog who just wanted a friend to play with and humans to snuggle up to. She's even been trying to win her kitty siblings over (and they are slowly letting her! Our kitten had even been snuggling up to her at night!). In the short few weeks we've had her, we've seen an enormous change. Murphy no longer panics at every loud noise or hesitates to come through doorways. She has won our hearts and the hearts of all her furry siblings (even the cats seem to enjoy her company every now and then!) She's improving on her leash and has even gone on a few hikes! She just took her first trip with us up to the Thousand Islands for a night where she stayed in her first hotel and did AMAZING! Murphy has very quickly become a part of the family and seems like an entirely different dog than one we adopted. Although we still have a lot of work to do to get her out of her puppy habits, we can't imagine not having her in our lives and we are so thrilled that our adoption process ended up leading us to her."

Congrats to Murphy and her new family! We know she is obsessed with her new big brother Tax!