DOGS

Duke was as smart as they come. When he was scolded for a mistake, he would jump in a chair in the corner and sit there until I went over and hugged him and he would get down. And as years went by so did his vigor. He developed hip dysplasia which is common among good breed dogs like the golden retriever and we had to put him to sleep.

Our next goldie was one we called April, smartest critter we have ever owned. She was given to us by our son for Christmas one year. We lived in a house on a hill. The driveway was steep and a long way to the street. To walk down and back up when getting the newpaper was quite a chore. One day, I took April down with me, picked the paper up, put it in her mouth and we walked back up the driveway. The next morning, I opened the door and told April to "fetch". She ran down the drive and came back up with the paper in her mouth. I never had to go after it again. This was her job and she could hardly wait for me to open the door in the morning so she could get the paper for me. One time the paper was late and I wondered why she was taking so long to return. After a while here she came with a piece of trash that she had found somewhere. She was determined to bring something back for me. A sad day also when she died of cancer.

We got our last goldie from a vet student from A & M. We named this one O'Malley. He was not as smart as Duke or April but what a loving dog. One morning I found him at the bottom of the porch steps with the skin of his right front leg rolled down to his ankle. He had been run over by a car and somehow had made it back to the house. I took him to the vet who had to remove his leg at the shoulder. He hopped around for a few years until hip displasia took the toll on him also.

Most of our dogs have walked onto our place from the road where their owners dumped them. If they stayed, we would take them to the vet and have them "fixed" and get them their shots. One of the adoptees developed a skin rash and lost his hair. The vet diagnosed the problem as mange. There are two types of mange and I don't remember what they are but this one keeps coming back. It has to do with the immune system of the dog which most dogs can use to control this type of mange. Every four months I had to take him back to the vet to be dipped and get a bottle of spray for his skin. The vet finally prescribed 1.2 ml of Ivomec orally twice a week. Not only did this treatment control the mange, but also fleas and ticks. This is a $10 a month treatment and well worth the price. I give him (Pete) this medicine with a syringe with the needle removed by squirting it in his mouth.

Here is more information that was e-mailed to me by Laurie who gave me permission to show it. This may also be helpful. http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/tomsturf/mange.html I'll be adding other things about the nine dogs we have as time goes on. Time now to say something about those cats.

Click here for pictures of the dogs

or

Click here for the dog slideshow

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