Sep 07 2007
Dog days
With an Indian summer finally here, it was time to get the dogs out to the beach, their favourite place for a run. And I do mean run: from the moment they barrel out of the car they go full tilt, back and forth, running in huge loops before and after me -- that is, when they aren't swimming or wrestling a nice piece of seaweed. Jaspar came within about 2 seconds of rolling on a very large jellyfish -- thank goodness I spotted that before it happened; he was just going into that shoulder dip that makes any dog owner start running in dread of what is about to be rolled on. Leo kept picking up the small ones and carrying them -- ech! -- a bit worrying in case he'd get stung but he appears none the worse. We walked a mile down and a mile back and it was late dusk by 8:30 -- I love autumn, but hate these signs that early evenings are drawing in, and that lovely summer stretch is fading, fading to black.
On the Irish Cavalier Rescue front, it has been a busy summer for dogs -- at one point I had seven looking for homes at once, several of them puppy farm rescues. While typically, none of these were housetrained, only one had taken on that puppy farm demeanour where the creature is in a dire mental state from poor treatment. This was a dog that was growling at people and initially crept on her belly on the floor in front of people. Now, with some time, training and good fostering, she is transformed, a happy member of a three dog, one child family.
The worst this summer I think was a beautiful 8 month puppy, kept day and night in a garage,whose owner had explained his training style to his neighbour. This involved yanking and pulling at the pup til it snapped, then kicking it every time it reacted. :( This poor 10 lb cavalier puppy spent an hour in a garden learning this 'lesson' from a subhuman adult 18 times his size. Fortunately the neighbour was able to persuade him to give up the pup. When I collected him, he retained the typical cavalier King Charles personality undimmed by this cowardly brutality -- joyful and delighted to be receiving some attention. He's now happily rehomed to a family with two other cavaliers for company.
The biggest surprise was a girl we named Ginger, who I bought along with a one eyed companion named Fred (of course) from a puppy farmer getting out of breeding (and who, one rainy afternoon in a church car park in a rural town, produced them from the boot). She was a thin little thing and the foster home was asked to feed her up. About 10 days later, I got a call noting that she was getting nice and fat. Fat? Uh oh. She was despatched off to one of my vets who confirmed Ginger was expecting. Quite a surprise for the fosterers! She certainly has had plenty of litters before, and now has had her last one: three fat puppies, which seem to be lab/cavalier crosses. Two of these already have homes waiting for them when they are old enough to say farewell to mum. Here they are at about four weeks:
But I love this one best:
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