Tate’s Tale: A Love Letter to my Dog Tate

Tate’s Tale: A Love Letter to my dog Tate

Written by Jaclyn Shuster

I have always loved animals, cats especially. I grew up with my mom’s first cat, Ingie-Boo, who my mom had in her 20’s.. Then, our two Persians, Boo and Gussy and my Himalayan Asher. 

It wasn’t until middle school that we BEGGED our mom to get our first dog, a pug named Troll was the goofiest “little” thing. And by “little”, she was 30 pounds of squish. She ended up bonding with Boo and became another cat. 

Ten years later, we lost both Boo and Gussy. After losing them, we brought home three ragdoll kittens, Teddy, Bingy and Georgie. Troll was OBSESSED with the kittens. 

Sadly, we lost Troll by a negligent, recently graduated ER vet that misdiagnosed her. We of course were devastated.

My family and I agreed at the time, we didn’t want to get another pug and possibly go through the same thing. We all decided to go with rescuing a dog instead. 

It was months and months of looking for the right dog that would fit into our lifestyle AND get along with cats. We initially found a wonderful dog that my mom bonded with right away but unfortunately/fortunately the shelter didn’t approve the adoption because we didn’t have a fence at the time. 

This brought us to Northshore Animal League on Long Island, NY. We looked at every single room and just didn’t get that gut feeling about the dogs we saw. Then my mom spotted her. This tiny little TWO MONTH OLD black shepherd chilling in the back of her cage completely quiet, while all the puppies/dogs were barking their heads off. 

We knew she was our dog. All it took was a few hours of calling references and we got our new dog. 

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. When we brought Tate (stalking wolf in Native American) home, she immediately took to the one year ragdolls. Like, literally. It was a merry-go-round of Tate chasing the ragdolls around the kitchen table. 

We found out we had to work EXTRA hard in training Tate, since we later found out after doing a DNA test that she was mostly Belgian and German Shepard. Aka two very smart and very stubborn breeds. 

Looking back, I laugh at the fact that I used to be afraid of Tate. Seeing as how we went from a pug (all she could do was maybe hickey you to death with her smushed face) to a Shepard mix, who has a nice smile with very big teeth. 

My mom put in a lot of effort in getting me to work with Tate. At the time, I was in my first year of grad school for teaching. I kept telling my mom I could NOT get Tate to listen to me. It was somewhat easy for my mom to work with Tate because she already had a deep voice —  a voice deep enough that people would mistake her for a man on the phone. 

My mom kept telling me I had to change my voice and make it firm because otherwise she won’t listen. As it turned out, training Tate helped me to have a firmer voice in the classroom.

As Tate grew up, we would bring her to clothing stores and she learned that she would be stuck there for hours so she learned to just fall asleep. We joked that Tate is a retail therapy dog. 

Unbeknownst to us, with all the training we did with Tate, she became a certified reading therapy dog. 

My mom and I initially took her to nursing homes for her therapy dog work. Little by little, we noticed how Tate was with kids, so we would eventually bring her to schools and libraries for the kids to read to her. 

After the first few students, Tate would always be fast asleep but the kids would always be happily reading and petting Tate. 

I had an amazing opportunity to be able to bring Tate into some of the schools I worked in. Tate always loved seeing the teachers and students I worked with. It was incredible seeing those students who were initially afraid of dogs, be able to pet her tail towards the end of the school year. 

A few years into her therapy work, the students who struggled to read inspired me to write a children’s book about a dog who faced the same issue but got help from elementary students to gain the confidence to read. I called it Tate’s Tale. 

Tate had such a positive influence on many of the students that read to her. Some even wrote letters to Tate. Tate of course “wrote back.”

Over the years, many students have had the chance to read to Tate, including students in 2nd grade from KHS back in 2016-2017

Tate was also a huge part of KHS

She also has several fans in former students, former co-workers and their own children, and authors/bloggers/friends that Tate has met over the years.  

It is mind boggling how many people Tate has reached. Whether it’s who she meets on walks, the kids who’ve read to her, or to those who’ve read her book. 

She has also been a big part of our other pets’ lives as well, including her buddy Midge, whom Midge protects as if Tate were her own. 

Tate has been such a HUGE part of my family’s life and my life as well. She is now 13 years old and has definitely slowed down over the years. 

It is with a heavy heart that I write this, but sadly, we recently found out after getting daily fluids for her kidneys, Tate is now in kidney failure. 

We have been taking this day by day, giving her lots of good treats, along with her kidney meds, and as much yummy food to get her weight back up. 

“To you, your pet is just a small chapter of your life but to them, you’re their whole book” – Unknown

Thank you Tate for not just being an incredible and kind dog but being part of our family.

Love, 

Your Jaclyn”