Little dog who suffered now showered with love

This is the story of Tatum – the wobbly but healing Great Dane-mix puppy that has become an ambassador in a cause against pet abuse.

The true story, told by a woman who is trying to feed and love the pup to health, goes like this: A friend happened to drive down an alley behind businesses near Maple and Seneca on Aug. 22. The man noticed a dog kennel behind a Dumpster.

In the latched crate lay a captive, suffering creature. It had been left alone in the middle of Wichita, a city of nearly 400,000 people.

And it was hardly moving, barely alive, lying in its own waste and rainwater from a fierce storm a couple of days before.

The man thought of Diana Frye, because he knew the 54-year-old and her friends rescued abused and neglected dogs.

He called Frye and said: “I found this dog, and I have no idea what to do, and I can’t stop crying,” Frye recalled Wednesday.

“And I said, ‘Bring the dog to me.’ And he said for me to ‘be prepared to cry your eyes out.’

“And when I saw her, I couldn’t hold back, and I broke down in tears. I never had seen anything in as bad a condition as she was in that kennel.”

Frye gently removed the young dog from the fetid crate and took it to a veterinarian for emergency treatment.

She thought the pup might not survive the trip to the vet, but it made it through the first night.

And Frye gave the dog a name: Tatum. Frye looked the name up and found a Latin meaning for it: “lucky.”

At about 4 months old, the large-breed mix weighed only 12 pounds, about a third of what she should have weighed.

Cleaned up, Tatum has silky chocolate-and-vanilla-colored hair. But her wounds still show. Here and there are round, pinkish spots. They are pressure sores from being left in the cage so much, Frye said.

Frye thinks Tatum must have spent most of her four months in the crate.

The dog doesn’t walk normally. She drags her back toes. It’s as if her bony hips can’t quite keep up with her front legs.

But by Wednesday, Tatum had gained 6 pounds. She gets special healing food every couple of hours.

Touching, comforting her

Frye tells people that they can’t understand how much Tatum suffered unless they see her up close. And touch her.

If a person gets down in front of the pup, she peers back a little timidly at first. But she’s calm and accepting, and her long whip of a tail begins to wag.

She rests her muzzle in the cradle of one hand and closes her eyes as her head is petted by another hand.

As one hand moves back from the smooth fur of her normal-size head and droopy ears, it runs over a taut neck that seems a little too thin. As the hand glides over her backbone, it rolls over one rigid bone after another. The bones in her back and hips still protrude so much that it feels as if even a slightly heavy hand could hurt Tatum.

So the hand strokes her ever so slightly. Frye thinks that the gentle strokes bring blood flow and comfort to a body that had been so constricted, so untouched.

Every day, Frye brings Tatum with her to Woody’s Automotive shop at 25th and Amidon, where Frye works in the office as service adviser.

She describes herself as one of “just a bunch of women who love dogs.”

At the shop, Tatum has a soft, clean pallet by a wall, with water and food that Frye sometimes spoon-feeds to the pup.

Frye wants customers to touch Tatum. It gives the pup “inner energy,” as Frye calls it.

“She loves people now,” Frye says. “She knows that she’s loved and cared for. I’ve not heard her bark yet.”

The first days, Tatum could barely lift her head from her pallet. She still walks deliberately.

“It takes all she has to walk outside, go to the bathroom and walk back in,” Frye says. “She’s still very weak.”

On Wednesday, she ambled over to a glass door separating her from the service bay and peered in, head cocking, ears rising, as if curious. She’s become attached to one of the technicians and looks for him, Frye says.

From outrage to Facebook

What outrages Frye is that someone had to have known that the little dog was left in the locked crate and was suffering.

“She’s perfectly healthy other than being starved to death. There’s no reason that this dog should have been discarded.”

The outrage moved Frye to post pictures of Tatum and a description of what happened to the dog on Facebook.

Frye has started a Team Tatum Facebook page with the message: “If you see something, say something.”

Many people don’t speak up when they see abuse and alert police or rescue groups, she says.

“It doesn’t cost you anything to call animal control,” she said.

Among those who have answered back with words of support through social media, she said, is Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay.

Frye hopes Tatum can become an ambassador in a national campaign against animal abuse.

“We’re going to make her our poster child.”

As the story of Tatum has spread, people sent donations for Tatum’s food, her “potty pads” and veterinary care.

“She’s got a lot of followers” on social media, Frye said.

One day, Tatum was outside the auto shop, relieving herself, and Frye heard someone in a passing car yell out: “Go, Tatum!”

Day by day, Tatum is gaining strength.

Frye has watched people come into the automotive shop where Tatum spends her days. They get down on the floor and kiss her.

“I’ve seen a lot of grown men cry this week,” Frye said.

It could be six more months before Frye will know whether Tatum will survive.

Frye already has plenty of experience in helping to rescue abused and neglected dogs.

There was a pit bull whose hindquarters had become frozen to a sidewalk. It didn’t survive. There was one dog who had a choker chain wrapped around its jaw. “She’s in a beautiful, happy home now,” Frye said.

But Tatum’s condition, she said, “is the worst I’ve seen, and I’ve seen some real bad stuff.”

Animals have souls, too, Frye believes.

“I think love has got a lot to do with her healing.

“It wasn’t just medicine.

“She needed somebody to touch her soul and let her know it would be OK.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 8:58 PM with the headline "Little dog who suffered now showered with love."