Posted on 08/23/2015 7:32:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
‘’They are my life and my loves.’’
Same here. The whole world revolves around our dogs.
Oh gosh. That’s a pretty big 7. We had 13 once, including 3, 3 month old male puppies (they were the hard part)- thankfully, only for a week & then, back to our (then) 5. We ended up with 8, now 6, & too soon, we will have only 5 again. Not sure how I’’m going to get through that.
The wonderful thing about sighthounds is that the larger breeds are usually either ON or lazy. lol Well, not Iggys. They sound a lot like Eskies, but fragile- which would make me a nervous wreck. Heh. I have never met a badly behaved or hyper Dobie.
I don’t care what gets chewed (my fault if it does), as long as it can’t make them sick or hurt them. I love puppies. I don’t care how crazy they are, I would freeze them that age if I could.
That’s tempting. I just hope they’re all comfortable & happy. lol & eat well. And that the b#st#rds fry up extra hot.
I love them so much, I did a watercolor of one, once, for no other reason than adoring them. LOL
I met my first IG at the Exxon up the road.
The dog and truck were the exact same color, a metallic lavender-fawn.
Can't imagine how much they paid for *that* paint job match.
Very nice people.
They let me cuddle her to my heart's content. :)
I thought of Halla when you said that. But I didn’t want to say because I know how deeply that hurts.
We would probably sell one of the cars if it would save one of our dogs.
I lost Gypsy to something akin to DM/ the regressive one. A couple of months after we lost her, Mia started having issues & our intown vet thought it might be a brain tumor. We ended up taking her to A&M & she was (is?) having these tiny brain bleeds. They weren’t able to pin down a cause. But it has progressed almost identically to Gypsy. Freaks me out. There’s no possible way they’re related except way, way back- origin-of-the-breed related. Gyps & Mia are my heart dogs.
So agonizingly true.
LOL I love that. I still cannot imagine Iggys as hunters, but yeah, they get the job done. As my grandaddy used to say, it’s a curiosity to watch.
(still no way any dog of mine would be turned loose after a hog. lol Call me over-protective, no problem)
Breeds have genetic issues.
Sadly.
I lost two of my Beezers to DM.
Izzy and Pookie.
Izzy was Pookie’s aunt and bizarrely, Izzy’s sister, [Pookie’s mom] who was a massively famous champion, *almost* died, the same day as Izzy did.
[election day, 2008, talk about a double gut punch]
But Izzy’s sister died exactly a week later, of the same thing.
Then I found out that Hannah, who was Izzy’s mom’s sister, *also* died of DM.
They all died at the age of 10.
As if they had an “expiration date”.
‘Halla gutted me like no other dog ever did.
You just don’t bury an 8 month old pup.
It’s a sin against humanity.
I’ll never be “right” again, after her.
For whatever reason [over vaccination, dodgy food ingredients, who knows?] dogs are getting too many weird health problems and it’s become a crap shoot.
I do my best to know every genetic detail I can but even with that, stuff happens.
Terrible, hurtful stuff.
Neither would I but then again, I’m not having to go out and hunt my own bacon. :)
I wish you’d been here the day my 3 Ibizans, 2 Dobes and a Pit lit out after a squirrel tearing across the back yard.
Three of them were just barking like mad but the hounds were doing that freaky “bay/yodel/scream” thing they do, when hunting.
“Cacophony” does not even begin to touch it.
Squirrel got away up a tree, though, except for the end of his tail.
That Rennie, she could sure jump.
“Stumpy” never came into the dog yard again and lived for many years until a stinking hawk got him.
You were. I think people who get into rescue get a crash course in it. Dogs know things that we could never begin to fathom. There are so many stories like this- too many, for there to be ‘’nothing to it’’. And they totally know, when their person is somewhere else- *exactly* what time they should be home, when they leave to come home, & when that car turns the corner. (Some cats have been known to do this, too- all of it)
I am amazed that anyone but Greyts are ‘’common’’ enough to be owned by several people in any given area. Besides the occasional Iggy or very rarely, a Borzoi, you just don’t see the other sighthound breeds here, outside of a dog show. I wish we did.
I could bore you to screaming tears with stories of spooky dog experiences. :)
[if you really wanna scare yourself, install a network camera and watch what your dogs do while you’re gone...and then what happens the instant you decide to head home /cue creepy music LOL]
We are up to our ears in Greys, here because of the proximity to WV tracks [a pox upon them] and IGs and Whippets show up, sometimes.
Rhodesians, once in while and I went to school with a kid whose family owned an Irish Wolfhound.
There was a huge mess over a WV guy who had 28 Borzoi in his house and I saw a Borzoi in the shelter in 1977.
Most people are not equipped to care for or properly contain a sight hound so maybe it’s just as well.
When a 40mph dog takes off and ignores every command to return, disaster is all to common.
aarrgghh That is too many. And 10 is Too. Young.
I remember. I just ached for you, Sal. Some of them are not like extensions of you, but almost like a vital organ. I’m scared of it. I really am. Like you don’t know who you will be, almost.
There are. I haven’t posted to the Eskie board yet (I cannot handle sympathy- at all.), but we’ve had all these dogs- all had the same food, distilled water- always, the same people food, same vetting . Mia’s feet have rarely ever touched the floor (she’s blind. & scrappy), is microchipped & was Immiticide treated before we got her. Gypsy was neither. Both took heartgard- Gyps for nearly 15 yrs, Mia for 9…but so did 3 of the others. The other 3 have been on Dimmitrol since Lina had her Ivermectin crack up. So I just don’t know. We went to 3 yr on vacs or titer 4 or 5 yrs ago.
Losing a puppy would just do me in. I could never raise dogs because I know it happens. Scroo this ‘’cycle of life’’ bs.
LOL Oh, I can imagine. With mine, it’s firetrucks that set them off. They’re pretty cool with squirrels. (we love our squirrels & feed them. lol & our possums get scraps. Weirdos)
She’s so beautiful. What a face.
With ‘Halla, it was probably the hideously filthy structure she and her mom were in.
It was a gutted travel trailer that had crud and trash piled on side and *fighting cock* coops on the other.
Vets have said that exposure to the roosters’ zoonotic filth *or* the many chemicals may have doomed all the pups since they all had that terrible strabismus eye thing going on and *none* of them “acted like puppies”, at all.
Many is the time I’ve wondered if I should have just left her laying in that cold bathtub, near death, instead and walked away.
But *what if* only “loved pets” make it to Heaven?
My pain is a fair trade, if that is so.
I wish I had better answers for you since you seem to have the same worries as I do.
I used to religiously train all my dogs to the point where they could have been Hollywood actors.
Now, about all I ask of them is “Please stay healthy and please don’t die.”
[that’s the post-’Halla mindset talking, right there]
I’m sure this “says something about me” that I probably shouldn’t admit publicly but without dogs, I feel like nothing.
Empty.
Alone.
I need them more than they’ll ever need me.
Probably goes back to the pedo uncle and the fact that only my Dobe kept me safe from him as the parents sure didn’t.
No. 3 Eskies, an Eskie/ Cattle Dog, a No Telling (Murphy) & a Boston Chiweenie.
Wow. You are extremely talented, Sal. You should be doing greeting cards on Cafe Press or Zazzle or something.
We had a neighbor, years ago, who had a pair. PRECIOUS dogs! And I used to work with someone who was with Houston IG Rescue. After I ‘’discovered’’ sighthounds, I read up on all of them. I think we’ve settled on a Saluki or 2 (if I live that long) if & when. I don’t know if I can give up having an Eskie, though.
This isn’t going to happen for, Lord Willing, years. The boys would just be broken hearted & I’m not sure what Lina would think, either.
She was a beautiful soul.
Utterly sweet to a fault and never so much as cast a cold look to anyone.
Yet, when it counted, she totally broke character and jumped on the ex, who was choking me to death.
His shock at her totally insane turn of character is the only reason he let go of me.
A great dog that I believe, with all my heart, was sent by God because He knew I would need her, some day.
[same as the ‘stray Dobe’ who showed up right after I prayed to God for one to protect me from the uncle..and we sure didn’t have gobs of Dobes just wandering around, back then]
Thanks but I have never made a dime on my dog art.
It all gets donated to rescue auctions.
[stupid starving artist syndrome] :)
I hope you get a Saluki, someday.
I used to hang around them at the local annual AKC meet, like a groupie.
I could happily drown in their deep, soulful eyes.
:)
You, weirdo?
NEVER!
I had a “welfare mom” possum here for a while.
She would have her babies and then dump them off on me, to raise.
The *only* thing Beneful dog food is good for, is possum food.
Every night, at dusk, when the babies, who were living n my smokehouse woke up, I would take an old microwave bundt cake pan and soak their Beneful for them.
I’d set it out and then go inside and watch them from the bathroom window as they chowed down.
I was very careful to not habituate them to humans because not every person they would meet is like me.
One by one, they’d ‘grow up’ and wander away to live solitary possum lives.
The little runt was the last to leave and I cried the night she didn’t come to chow.
I feed the ants in my lane.
Now *that* is “weirdo*.
:)
I think that all animals go back to God. They are His & lent to us only for a short time. There’s a book- I need to look it up. I’ll Freepmail it to you when I find it. Actually, I think there are several & based on Scripture.
I’ve only trained mine to sit, STOP (moving- “stay” right where they are), & walk ahead of me, always (I know this is backwards, but I want them & everything around them where I can see it). I added down much later & very half heartedly. My girls have always been perfect (they really trained each other). The boys are just…crazy. They *can* behave, but they very rarely do. Unless there’s food involved.
I guess I have a similar problem. They are my tether to this earth. Empty, yes. And lost. Not only alone, but lonely (which I’ve never really been yet, but very briefly, between my first Eskie, Jolie, & Gypsy. I definitely need them more than they need me.
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