We have dogs!

This was never supposed to be a “cat blog”—I only had one, crotchety old cat when I started writing here, but now I have seven completely different cats, just one of them crotchety.  I feel like I sometimes neglect the dogs, so here’s a cute picture of our troublemaker, Dante the Anatolian shepherd:

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Unfortunately, I noticed that Dante’s foot histiocytoma returned today, and you can see it in the photo between the two first toes on his left foot.  I’ve put him back on prednisone, Atarax, and hydrocortisone cream, and I hope that will resolve the problem.  The lump vanished almost instantly last time when we started treatment, so I hope tomorrow will show an improvement.  The last thing we need right now is another vet bill for surgery, especially because surgery on such a large dog ends up being quite expensive.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 05/15 at 12:43 AM

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  1. What a beautiful boy.  Hope the histiocytoma clears up.

    Posted by Simply Coll  on  05/15  at  08:50 PM

  2. With that innocent face he’s saying, “Troublemaker? Me? Inconceivable!”

    I’ve never heard of or seen an Anatolian Shepherd before—he’s a beautiful dog.

    Hope the histiocytoma clears up!

    Posted by Helena  on  05/16  at  07:13 AM

  3. Oooh! Oooh!
    I LOVE Anatolians, where on earth did you get him? It’s a breed I’ve considered, if I can ever break my addiction to Rottweilers; they have very similar temperaments.
    I spent several years in Turkey, as a kid and well remember the Turkish guarding breeds, there’s several and they’re really impressive.
    Gosh, I am jealous. What’s his personality like?
    And, I hope his toe heals up OK without surgery.

    Posted by Carina  on  05/16  at  01:03 PM

  4. Dante was a sort of “rescue”.  We saw him for sale at a “puppy store” when he was about four months old.  He was on sale because he wasn’t a tiny puppy—he was really quite large by then.  I wasn’t familiar with Anatolians either, but I came home, did some research online, and realized that he wasn’t the kind of dog that should be in a pet store (not that any should, but he wasn’t a puppy mill dog like the rest of the dogs in stock).  So, we went back to the store and bought him for $200, and at the same time we were given our little terrier-mix, Cricket, for free by the store owner.  She was sick and a mixed breed, and some other store had rejected her :mad:

    I feel somewhat guilty that we actually gave money to a store which supported puppy mills, but on the other hand, Dante definitely wasn’t supposed to be there.  I got his AKC paperwork, contacted his breeder, and there was a big “to do” about how he’d ended up in Las Vegas at all, and it caused a bit of an uproar in the Anatolian community (which was quite small at the time).  He’d had hernia repair surgery and had some sort of small defect in the appearance of his ear, so it seemed as if someone had perhaps dumped him as he wasn’t show-quality.  His grandfather and his uncle were both “best of breed” at Westminster, so he really is from excellent lineage.  We had him neutered with a bit of remorse, because I felt badly neutering a dog breed which was in short supply.  On the other hand, I wouldn’t have felt right breeding him for a number of reasons, not the least of which being I don’t feel qualified and didn’t think the world needed any more dogs brought into it by amateurs.

    He’s honestly been a difficult dog to own, and I don’t know if I’d own one again.  I definitely would never recommend one to an inexperienced dog person.  He’s extremely stubborn, and despite months spent in one-on-one training with an experienced Anatolian trainer, he’s completely undisciplined.  We can basically speak plain English to our German shepherd and she does whatever we ask, but Dante has to usually be persuaded to comply.  He’s sort of like a child in that way—you have to make him think he wants to do the thing you want him to do.  He’s incredibly strong, and very emotional on a basic level—he has fun to the extreme, he is sometimes fearful to the extreme, etc.  When we first moved into our house he was afraid of the shiny linoleum floor, so he spent a few nights outside, in the rain, in February, because he refused to come inside.  He dug himself a little den in the dirt.  Both Flippy and I are amazed at how “primal” he can be—he’s domesticated, yet there’s still something quite wild about him. 

    He loves everyone, is gentle with the little dogs and cats, but doesn’t know his own strength so sometimes steps on the smaller pets.  He defers to the older, female German shepherd, but about once a year they have a fight over food and there’s usually some bloodshed.  He can be very moody—one of his odd quirks is that when he gets sleepy, he goes outside and barks and barks until I open his crate door for him so he can go in and sleep.  When he’s tired, he’s like a cranky old man.  I’ve never been able to leave his crate door open during the day because he drags his dog bed outside, tears it up, and then wishes he had another one.  Those “Orvis Indestructible Dog Beds”?  We’ve been through three of them with him, and they last about 10 minutes.  Now he has a Kuranda bed which he likes, but it has no cover because he tore it into little pieces.  On one of his “moody, sleepy” nights about three months ago he bit me on the arm.  I take responsibility for the bite because he was tired, there was food involved, and he wasn’t feeling well, but still, this isn’t anything I ever worry about with our other dogs.

    Now that I’ve said that, I have to add that he’s incredibly patient and stoic if he’s got any injuries.  He lets me put ointment on his cuts and scrapes without any complaint at all, even when it must be painful.  He’s perfectly behaved with the vet.  He understands when I ask him, “Do you want me to put cream on your elbow?”, and he sits and lets me apply lotion to the dry skin on his elbow.

    He’s eaten our linoleum floor.  He’s eaten the sliding screen door and the window screens.  He’s torn down the vertical blinds.  He ate most of a “living Christmas tree” that I’d planted in the yard.  The only chew toys which last and have any durability are traffic cones/pylons from Home Depot.  He’s not unsupervised, as we’ve always worked from home, but he’s a bundle of energy and activity.  We luckily have a large yard for him as he loves to run and jump—he “skips” and “bounces” a lot, and I often tease him about being like one of Santa’s reindeer.  He wants to play like the German shepherd plays, but if I throw a ball for him he runs in the opposite direction.  He’s never been hit with the ball, that I know of.  Sometimes when he runs his ears turn inside out, and we call him “Princess Leia”.  If he were human, he’d be gay, but uptight about it.

    More than you wanted to know, I guess, but I’ve had lots of dogs and he’s just not normal :)  I absolutely love him—he’s like the horse I never had as a kid—but he’s a challenging breed.  I’ve no doubt you’d do great with one, but they aren’t for the faint of heart.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  05/16  at  10:33 PM

  5. Wow, Leigh Ann - he sounds like a really complex dog. In some ways similar to my Daphne, aka Retardo-Rott, Destructo-Rott, Idiotweiler, Sillyweiler…you get the picture. She was from the shelter, had a bad past as a ghetto Rottweiler. If she was a person she’d have generalized anxiety disorder, ADHD, learning disabilities, obsessive-compulsive disorder…for the first year I had her she did literally thousands of dollars worth of damage despite my crating her when we left. Submissive peeing, seperation anxiety, goes into a drooling, quivering trance in front of the TV and sometimes mirrors, will obsessively lick glass (which makes car rides a pain)....utterly unsafe around small dogs. The list goes on. Had she ever exhibited aggression towards humans, she would be singing in the heavenly choir right now! But, she has always been sweet with people, including children. Had her on Clomicalm and Prozac (no, really. Didn’t help.) She’s been thyroid and everything else tested, there’s no physical reason for her, umm, idiosyncracies. She is just poorly wired. And as I look back on this, Dante seems much better grounded than Daphne! (She’s eaten indestructible dog beds too, and can dissemble an indestructible black Kong in about 15 minutes.) I try to be really good about taking her for bike rides, long walks, training, anything to wear her out and discharge energy. But this can take time away from Cooper the Good Dog.
    Like you, I also have a Good Dog.. And then, there’s Daphne…
    I came very close, once, to having her put to sleep because I was up to here with the challenge. I even wept in my vet’s office, and he told me nobody could fault me if I made that decision. I wept to my friends, who said pretty much the same thing. Then I was absolutely horrified with myself, that I was even thinking that way. So here she is and the damn dog will probably live to be a rare 18 year old Rottweiler. She is roughly six? Seven? now, and I’m heartened to see some grey appearing on her muzzle, so maybe she’ll pop off soon. Oops, did I just say that? Haha.

    “Sometimes when he runs his ears turn inside out, and we call him “Princess Leia”.  If he were human, he’d be gay, but uptight about it.”
    Bwahaha! I just about spit coffee on the monitor reading that.
    How old is Dante? You probably already know this, but some breeds take forever to mature and get their final brain shipment. Like 4 years old, they suddenly get sensible. Rottweilers can be like that.
    Who wants normal dogs anyway, LOL. I visited with a friend this evening, she’s always had Goldens and they are such easy dogs. About a year ago she got an Australian Shepherd who was supposed to be put down for nipping and being generally squirrely. We talked a bit about how much you learn from the challenging ones!
    Give Dante a hug from me!

    Posted by Carina  on  05/17  at  06:39 PM

  6. I’d have to agree that Dante seems more grounded than Daphne, just because I think he’s perfectly “normal”, but I’m not used to that kind of “normal”.  I also agree that he took a LONG time to mature.  He was about four before he started to settle down a bit—it was surprising how long he acted like a puppy.  He’ll be six on July 4th, by the way.  He can be so wonderful and affectionate (he still wants to sit in people’s laps!), but he’s like the gentle giant who doesn’t know his own strength.

    I forgot to mention the time he grabbed the yellow pages off the kitchen counter (a great big thick yellow pages), and then took them outside and tore them up.  For days we’d see little sheets of yellow paper floating by…

    He also ate part of a sofa (the arm), but it was second-hand so we just tossed a cover on it and now it looks even better.  I think that was his “interior design” gene expressing itself.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  05/19  at  03:39 AM

  7. Oh, his histiocytoma is receding nicely.  Three days of pred plus Atarax seems to have shrunken it again.  If it returns a third time, I guess it might be time to have it removed as I know he finds it uncomfortable, and any sort of “lump” is disturbing.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  05/19  at  03:42 AM
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