Tassie came to us about a year ago – beaten up and sad – Tassie was an abandoned German Shepherd. Her previous owners – we think – dumped her far away from home and the street dogs perceived her as intruding on their territory and beat her up. When she came to us she weighed around 12 kilos, was so quiet we thought she was dumb – the day she first barked at another dog – i called out to my dad and said – she can talk,she can talk. it has taken a lot of love and affection to bring her back to being a confident young doggess. And loving her made us a happier family.

One of the things we did do was tell her a lot of stories. Tassie the beautiful dog, tassie the brave dog, tassie the loved dog…. u get the picture. At the end of each story obviously Tassie came out looking good. Believe it or not – madam used to sit up listen to the story and lick my hand all over. Reminded me of the line from 3 men and a little baby – when one of the characters reads out the baseball coverage in a story form – it’s not what u say , it’s how u say it.

Once upon a time there was a dog called Tassie the Hound. She was the most beautiful dogess in the whole wide universe. There was no doggy like her. She had lovely eyes, a long luscious tail, she was wise and she was brave. One day Tassie saw a cat. She growled at the cat. the cat got a shock. The cat ran. Tassie Chased. The cat ran left. Tassie ran left. The cat ran right, tassie ran right. The cat climbed up a tree, tassie barked from down below.

The cat finally jumped into the next building. Tassie smiled and said – oh well i was just playing – i’m a vegetarian

And then Tassie lived happily ever after.

end of story. Tassie would lick my hand clean. put her head down and fall asleep – thinking of beating up dogs and cats and humans who were nasty and cruel to her.