So, this entry will be a kind of news round up for the last few weeks here at Gealach Mor.
Hard on the heels of losing Inka on the 25 Feb, we were devastated to have Tulsa's recent illness finally diagnosed as lymphoma. It had spread throughout his stomach and intestines and was inoperable. All we could was make him as comfortable as we could, nurse him and try to tempt him into eating when ever he felt like it. That boy, who when he was well, would never turn down any
type of food, would lie beside an assortment of bowls, containing a variety of tasty treats, from salmon, sardines, chicken, tripe, beef, cheese, just about everything you could think of really. However, despite the medications and love we lavished on him, his condition slowly continued to deteriorate - eventually he gave up eating anything at all and we decided it was time for his final journey.Farewell Tulsa, my Big Red Machine - gone to join his half brother Oakley at the Rainbow Bridge.
Gwaihir Strekosa - Tulsa 30 Oct 1996 - 31 March 2008
Whilst still struggling to come to terms with the loss of 2 of our dogs in only 5 weeks, you can imagine the dismay we felt when we watched Keetna stop eating only 4 days after losing Tulsa. Over the weekend, she refused all food and yet still managed to vomit a couple of times. She was taken to the vets on Monday 6 April and following xrays, the vet felt there was a strong possibility that she had peritonitis.
Surgery was undertaken and fortunately, Keetna "only" had severe gastric inflammation, bleeding from her stomach and now, a rather large scar. A few days later, she is well on the road to recovery and pleasingly, for all of us, her tablets are finished. Keetna is not a good patient ! Tomorrow, she is due back at the vets for a quick follow up visit.
There is also some good news, in amongst all the drama.
We are a Siberian Husky kennel, however, we have always had a soft spot for German Shepherds, and have had Tasker, Tasmin and Theo over the years. After Theo died in Dec 06, we weren't sure if we would get another one. Well, we eventually went back to the breeder of our 3 previous GSDs and brought home Ciobair on Saturday 5 April.
As you can see, she is a black - with some sable markings to come through on her shoulders and flanks. She is 5 months old and making the transition to our home, reasonably well. She's never had a collar or lead on - the collar went on ok - lead work is not progressing quite so smoothly. There are definitely both ups and downs to taking on an older "pup".One thing that did amaze us was how quickly she adapted to her new name.
Ciobair is Gaelic for shepherd, and is pronounced (by us anyway) as keeper.
Ruya is once again in season. Dear Lord, does that girl not have a calendar? She had her first season at 6 months and 2 days old, her second season started a week ago, at the ripe old age of 11 months and 2 weeks. Our males are not unduly interested in her yet, however, the next couple of weeks are always fun - not.
Spring is in bloom here in Scotland - despite the snow showers of a couple weeks ago. This of course means that all the dogs are in full "coat shedding" mode. Some of them are further on than others, Wink and Teague are nearly finished, whilst a couple of the others are yet to start blowing it. However, Seven, Milloy, Takeo and Trey are all looking like burst cushions. When they run, there is a cloud of white fluffy down trailing in their wake. The local birds risk life and limb to collect this undercoat for their nests. I find it quite therapeutic to sit in the dog yard, with the sun shining, and groom them, especially the long coated dogs.
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