OT: Dawgs & Katz ** Was: Hideously Expensive Puppy

[Guest guest]

Howdy y'all,

 

Long ago when I was into the hunting dawg kennel business I had AKC champion

Brittneys and German Short Hairs .. but when I returned from 19 + years in

Turkey I decided to no longer deal with such dawgs because Vet bills were

greater than the medical bills for my family .. plus I didn't want to be

raising pups that I had to get rid of after they had " grown on me " . So

now our 5 dawgs and 2 katz are critters that came to us without a home ..

and they are very important members of our family .. but .. they are not

house critters.

 

Hunter .. the first dawg to show up came to us a tad short of 3 years ago.

A more beautiful mixed breed is hard to find .. he looks like a cross

between a Beagle and a Red Fox .. and he is so smart I believe he could work

algebra problems if I could get him to settle down and quite running in the

woods and fields around our place. Hunter and I discuss issues one on one

... he will sit down in front of me and listen to me and then reply ..

sometimes I think he thinks I am stupid because I don't understand what he

is telling me.

 

A couple of months after Hunter showed up .. Shadow .. a jet black male kat

came and he and Hunter became like brothers .. eating and sleeping together.

 

Then I rescued two pure but not registered Chocolate Labs .. Duke and

Lady. They made 7 babies .. two I carried to Maryland (from Tennessee)

and they are now spoiled by John Croskey and his BIL. Then something

happened to Duke .. he didn't come home one day. Either someone had him

penned up or he was killed because Duke would never have left us or Lady.

A month or so later Lady's bad side came out .. she had always been nervous

and frightened and she had snapped at kids riding their bikes down the road

... but when she snapped at Tanya when we were taking her to the Vet for

shots .. it was a tad too much. Passing along a disturbed dawg is not a

good thing so we had to put her to sleep. Some dawgs can NOT be

rehabilitated .. this I know from years of training dawgs in and out of

uniform. Though we don't like to admit it .. some dawgs are like some

folks .. they are dangerous.

 

One of the remaining 5 pups was killed by a car .. broke our hearts it

did. So we sprang for $2,300 to put an underground fence around our 2.5

acres .. the remaining 4 pups .. Bandit, Jet, Prince and Runt .. now 7

months old .. won't approach that fence line. Hunter does not wear an

electronic collar .. he could not stand to be penned in .. he is a free

spirit and a friendly dawg and folks from all the surrounding homesteads

know him and like him.

 

Around 4 months ago a 2d kat came to stay with us. Tiger just showed up one

day and decided to stay. He and the 5 dawgs and 1 kat love each other ..

they roll around and play like mad.

 

We have two large (and expensive) insulated dawg houses off the patio ..

protected from the wind. A couple of times this winter we would see the

dawgs and katz sleeping together and at times the katz would be laying on

top the dawgs .. smart they are for sure. ;-)

 

Maybe 2 + weeks ago Shadow (the black kat) came home with his right rear leg

hanging .. both bones broken. The Vet had to amputate. Shadow was up and

running around on 3 laigs within 24 hours of this operation. We kept him

in the sun room nights because his hair had been shaved and he would

probably have been cold outside .. but each morning he was standing by the

door crying to go back outside. Yesterday the stitches were removed and

Shadow has adapted well to being a 3 laig kat.

 

For sure Vet bills will pile up when we decide to accept furry critters as

members of our family .. but in our case they are well worth the effort.

Just yesterday we were raking oak leaves away from a tree so grass could

spring up .. and I turned around to see 5 dawgs and 2 katz all laying in the

sun within a few yards of us .. watching us work and wondering when we would

stop our foolishness and play with them. Its hard to not stop and do this

... its like they are sending telepathic messages. ;-)

 

That's the tale of our tails .. and glad I am to read of the other folks who

enjoy the furry members of their family. I accept that everyone does not

have the desire or the space to allow their 4 laig (or 3 laig) family

members to live outside .. but glad I am that ours have that freedom. We

have 1 female (my wife, Tanya) and 9 males in our family .. and she enjoys

taking good care of all of us. ;-)

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch ... http://www.AV-AT.com <http://www.av-at.com/>

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

On 3/19/2010 10:00 AM, Butch Owen wrote:

 

> That's the tale of our tails .. and glad I am to read of the other folks who

> enjoy the furry members of their family. I accept that everyone does not

> have the desire or the space to allow their 4 laig (or 3 laig) family

> members to live outside .. but glad I am that ours have that freedom. We

> have 1 female (my wife, Tanya) and 9 males in our family .. and she enjoys

> taking good care of all of us. ;-)

>

 

Last April, a fuzzy monstrosity adopted me...Orange long hair with

yellow eyes...Her prior owners dropped her off....I had responded to a

Craig's List ad...Averting a trip to the Humane Society...

 

She has been temperamental...I suspect abuse in her earlier

days...Things are gradually getting better....Besides, I had missed the

pitter-patter of kitty feet...

 

Her old name was " Chunky " ....her new name is " Psycho " ...

 

Psycho says meow Hi, Butch...<G>...!

 

--

Gary W. Bourbonais

L'Hermite Aromatique

A.J.P. (GIA)

http://www.facebook.com/Le.Hermite