The end of a chapter

The time has come to say goodbye to Titan and Asha, forever.

I knew this day was inevitable. I was just delaying the decision. This week the decision was made for me. I received an email from my ex...

"As you may or may not be aware, I am now engaged. With this new chapter in my life starting, it is not appropriate anymore for you to come by the house, irrespective of the reason. This decision was not made overnight, I have really given it much thought and have come to the conclusion that it is in both our best interests if you and I now go our separate ways without any ties that bind. I do understand that you love the dogs very much and as such this decision was not made easily without any thought given to your feelings." (edited and shortened)

I visited them for the last time this morning.

An update on Titan's toe: He had the pin removed last week and should now be on his way to full recovery. He is walking much better already. This whole broken bones thing has meant that we haven't been able to go to the park for the past five months. A good thing about this is that they have now become accustomed to not going to the park.

I leave them in good hands. I know that they are loved and well cared for.

As a final tribute to them, I give you an overview of the posts I wanted to write but never got around to doing so.

Say what?

Some of the words that Titan and Asha know:

• No or uh-uh - for obvious reasons
• Sit, stay, walk, swim, water, bath, leave it - they do a really good sit and stay as part of a game
• Huggies and kisses - they give the best ones, although the kisses are quite slobbery
• Slowly - to try and prevent them from dashing up to another dog and scaring it (it worked sometimes, depending if they wanted to listen)
• Careful - to try keep them out of danger. Although this didn't work so well a few weeks back when Asha touched her nose on the electric fence. She had jumped up to peak over the wall at the neighbours and got too close. She got a huge fright and yelped quite a bit, but had forgotten the whole experience a few minutes later. My poor baby.
• Soek soek - meaning: 'Titan, there is one of those ugly brown moths or beetles flying about, and you need to come rescue me by eating it.'

Big puppy palace

They grew and grew, and the original big dog house that we had bought them ended up not being big enough. After I moved out, my ex bought them a new dog house, which can only be described as a doggy palace or mansion, it is so big. See for yourself:

Bath time

This post is summed up by the two quotes below. And underneath the quotes are pictures from their first bath. Titan was chilled about the whole experience. Asha didn't like it at all. She got used to it as she got older. Also, after the first few times the bath was no longer big enough and the whole activity was moved outside using buckets and hose pipes.

Doggy Definitions

Bath

An activity during which humans soak the walls, floors and themselves as thoroughly as possible. You can assist by shaking vigorously and frequently.

"Anybody who doesn't know what soap tastes like never washed a dog."  - Franklin P. Jones

Seeing bums

I will no longer have this view during trips to the park, but it seems to be the perfect way to say...

The End

Broken bones

My poor boy is feeling very sorry for himself.

When we went for a walk last Sunday, I noticed that the outside toe of Titan's back left foot was swollen, and he had shifted his weight to accommodate it. He was still walking around quite happily and even nudging me along when I stopped to look at the aeroplane coming in to land.

When I dropped them off I had a closer look, and even with probing and moving it around a lot, he didn't moan. But he was licking it, which he does when something is irritating him, and so I knew it was sore.

We decided to give it a couple of days before taking him to the vet, because Titan is quite accident prone and most times his injuries heal within a few days.

But by Thursday it was still swollen and he was still keeping his weight off it - lifting his foot while eating. So my ex took him to the vet.

Not sure what he did, but it turns out the toe is broken in 6 places. And because it hadn't show any indication of healing on its own, he needed to have a pin inserted. This meant that he had to have an operation.

He had the operation on Friday, and was kept over night, arriving home this morning.

Since there will be no walks in the park for the next six to eight weeks (the average time for bones to heal), I went to visit them today.

Xray of the foot from underneath

He also had a cyst removed from his side - the reason for the shaved patch

Dudu in the sun

He has a piece of PVC pipe as a splint, because he broke the original splint that they had put in - one for large dogs. I read up a lot about broken bones in the past two days. Breaking the splint is a common occurrence for the bigger dog breeds.

He will be going back to the vet every Saturday, to have the dressings changed. He will also have another xray in three weeks, to check on the progress.

Drinking from the tap

"I wonder what goes through his mind when he sees us peeing in his water bowl." 

~ Penny Ward Moser

Titan has done it a few times, but luckily the toilet doesn't seem to hold much appeal as a water bowl for either Titan or Asha. They would far rather drink from the basin tap.

It started with Titan when he grew big enough to reach. I must have been washing my hands or brushing my teeth one day when he decided to drink the water running from the tap. From then on he was hooked, and to this day he will wait at the basin until you come to turn the water on for him.

At first Asha was too scared, but she followed her brother's example and started drinking from the tap too.

Of course, this helps in the park.

Although, at Walkhaven there is no tap that they can drink from, so they drink the water in the dam. I've tried offering them the water in the bowls they have scattered around the place, and even from the hose pipe that waters the garden, but neither holds much appeal. It's just not the tap. :-)

Poodles and other small, fluffy things

"I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult." ~ Rita Rudner

Titan loves all dogs, but he has a particular fascination for playing with the small, fluffy variety.

This could be because in his mind he is only as big as they are. Alternatively, it could be because his favourite toy as a puppy was a small, fluffy squeaky toy, which I named Squeaky.

Titan and Squeaky

Unfortunately, it doesn't help that when he goes to play with the small, fluffy dog, it usually starts squeaking out of fright - his size scares everyone, dog or human.

This is particularly the case with poodles - maltese or the miniature french versions. These dogs can make the most hideous noises when they feel threatened, as if they are in the throes of death.

This doesn't bode well, particularly when said dog disappears as Titan puts his mouth over it.

It's just that he doesn't realise the dog is scared. All the noise and hyperactivity makes him think the dog actually wants to play.

The owner of course thinks he is harming the dog, but that's not the case. He is very gentle, as always, and as he was with Squeaky. He never punctured a hole in Squeaky and has never punctured a hole in a dog. (Rather it was Asha that eventually tore Squeaky to pieces.)

Luckily he listens to me and will immediately leave the dog alone when I tell him to.

However, because the situation is never pleasant I now try to stop it before it starts, calling him away from the small dogs and sometimes even walking in a different direction to avoid our paths crossing.

Unfortunately, this isn't always possible. Like this weekend. Some people with pugs decided to walk into our pathway, and before I knew it Titan had run up to one of them and had his mouth around it, trying to play.

He stopped and came to me as soon as I called, but the owners got a fright. Another group of people recognised that he was only playing, but if looks and words could kill, I would have been dead thanks to those owners.

Oh well, guess I can keep expecting those moments.