Final Reflections: Inspired by Tessa, Our Much Loved Pet, and Family Member

By Gary Dunn

This story is very much from the heart, filled with intrigue, emotions, and reflections of the life of Tessa. So much heartache with the struggles and hardships of Tessa's mother, Shelby. Her gut wrenching survival when she lost those close to her, and how she had to learn survival skills for the first time in her life. Her will to live was beyond measure.

It takes us to the excitement, and love, Shelby felt when she gave birth to her babies. The pure torture and agony to be separated from them so early in their young life. The pain Shelby must have felt, to never know what happened to them. No closure, just pain, and a constant worry to her for the rest of her days.

It was her loss that became a blessing to those that God entrusted one of her babies to. You can feel the love that Sheryl and Gary shared with Tessa. Experience the injuries that forced the healing process for Tessa, and how one day it was just to much to overcome. Feel the pain Gary and Sheryl felt, with the agonizing decision to be humane and not watch Tessa suffer.

Read about a terrible experience with the bull that would not die. Regardless of the efforts the author himself tried in being humane to this animal. The emotions he felt when he tried all he could, to make it a peaceful ending for this animal. But it very much turned into a nightmare he will never forget.

The authors shares about some other pets in his life. He talks about the euthanization process that is so important in a animals final minutes, hours, or days of their life. A process that is intended to not let suffering drag on when there is not much hope for the animal getting better. To prevent them from living a life of misery and pain.

Listen to his words as he encourages the reader to do what they can to make sure animal cruelty is not an option, and will not be tolerated. He appreciates all the hard work, and endless heartbreaking hours, the animal organizations put in every day, to keep animals safe. To provide them with medical care, and loving homes. Thank you to all that make a difference in the lives of these animals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481753364

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© 2013 Gary Dunn. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/19/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-5335-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-5336-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013910406

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

THE TITLE

INTRODUCTION

This story evolved from a Black Labradore, Chow mix, named Tessa. I will attempt to write about how Tessa came into our lives, and the blessing she has been for my wife Sheryl and myself. And to the friends and family that knew her well. Please bear with me as I share my emotional and heartfelt story of Tessa, our much loved dog and family member.

I will try to share some of Tessa’s life with you, that we were so blessed to have had with her, from March 2002, to a very heart wrenching day, March twenty third, 2013. A day of grief that we knew would come one day, just never dreamed it would come this soon. I will also write about a mix of thoughts, and experiences in my life with other pets I have had.

It is everybody’s responsibility to see that animals are not harmed or mistreated.

The beginning of this story is based on nothing more than my thoughts in a creative, what if kind of thinking. I used my imagination in a far fetched (imagine that, using a word like fetched to describe a dog story), and bizarre way to talk about the life before Tessa.

Since our relationship with her started as an adopted puppy from the shelter. We only knew that Tessa and her eight sibilings were found someplace in Pomona, Kansas. A small farming community about nine miles West of Ottawa, where we live.

I went into the thoughts of her imaginary mother, who I named Shelby. And the fictitious story of her life, to include the love and happiness she felt, and the pain and agony she endured. Her life will take you from the loving family she lived with, to becoming a proud mother, and ending in heartache. One of her babies would become such a great part of our lives.

As a kid growing up, I always loved watching the old show Gunsmoke. Festus Haggen was a classic. His real name was Ken Curtis, born July second,1916, died April twenty eighth, 1991.

His speech was horrendous most of the time. I still watch the reruns whenever possible. I have picked up a couple of his sayings that my wife is tired of me using all the time. But I had to fit them into this book somehow, and hopefully put a smile on your face like it does mine.

The first word is spang. I like it because it is fitting for me to make this book writing a possibility. I am going to jump right spang in the middle of this endeavor or project. I hope with good results. I didn’t even know spang was a word when I first heard Festus use it. I looked it up, and it is a word. It means to be on target, in the middle of, exactly or directly.

If Festus were going to tell this story, he would say I tolt you about it, in lieu of told you about it. I have to share one other phrase he used on one of the episodes and I will get back to the story about Tessa. The other day he used the phrase, by golly beat a pollcat in a bear holler. I can’t help but like that saying. Makes me chuckle just to write it. To hear him say it is funnier than it sounds in writing. Festus Haggen, you made the show Gunsmoke what it was, a classic!

Now my hope is to create something enjoyable for people to read. I will pour much emotion into what I write, and some humor. I hope my thoughts and creativeness do to this book, what Festus did for Gunsmoke. So I will get spang in the middle of it, and you be the judge.

Shelby’s journey led us to the dog in our life that Sheryl and I love so much. She is much more than a dog to us, she is our baby girl. Tessa has been such a comfort to both of us. Especially to Sheryl, when I deployed to Bosnia in 2002 with the Kansas Army National Guard.

I served as a UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter Crew Chief, Mechanic. My rank at the time was Sergeant First Class, as Platoon Sergeant. My deployment was from November first, 2002, to October 2003. We spent three months at Ft Riley, Kansas, and about thirty days at Hoenfels, Germany. So we only had about seven months in Bosnia.

The flight crews flew by helicopter from Germany, over the Swiss Alps. We landed at Linz, Austria, and Budapest, Hungary for fuel stops, and on to Bosnia, Herzegovina. We had a flight formation of six UH-60 Black Hawk’s, and six AH-64 Apache’s. When the deployment was over, I went back to my job as a Army National Guard Technician, Aircraft Mechanic, at Forbes Field, Topeka, Kansas.

I went to Kuwait, Udari Army Airfield September 2005, as an aircraft mechanic, private contractor. In March 2006, I finally got my transfer approved to Iraq. I was stationed at Tal Afar, Iraq, FOB (forward operating base), Sykes. I served in Iraq till November 2007. That was a long stretch for me and the family, to include Tessa. I only came home one time in those two years, for 30 days of leave.

Ten years later I came home from Iraq as a contractor again, and Tessa was with me every day. As I came home injured and not able to work, what a comfort she has been for me the last three years.

Tessa gave Sheryl a big sense of security and companionship while I was away. A security, and a love in our life that constantly gave, and asked nothing in return, but affection. And for me, more of the same, when I came home injured with some depression, anxiety and chronic pain.

I had never dealt with anxiety before in my life. I don’t know what changed with me, but I now have a terrible time with procedures or surgery. I have had a total of two procedures and four surgeries in my life. I used to think surgery was a cool thing to have. I was always amazed by it. Had it not been for the anxiety, my hope was to get healed up and go back overseas. My new hope is to get healed up and find something stateside.

My surgeon refused to attempt surgery until I am able to get the anxiety under control. And of course I have found that I am opposite of most people. The doctor made me seek help with a psychologist. I hear it works for most people, not for me.

Psychology and what they practice, relaxation techiniques, cognative therapy, mindfulness, all made me worse. I thought I had a pretty good therapist. I found out she knew nothing about how to diagnose my condition. She practices in Lawrence, Kansas.

She had the doctor try different anti depressants on me. I tried like seven different presciptions, they all made me much worse. The only thing she helped me with, was to compliment the way I express my feelings on paper. As I would write many thoughts and questions for each session for us to talk about. She said you should write a book. I took it as a challenge.

I have seen a total of five different