dogs in my bed 4

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carolyn dewrance
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dogs in my bed 4

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continued

THE BULL TERRIER AND THE PUG

When I was just a high school kid
And life was rather dull,
My father kept a pike eyed Bull T
My mother had a pug.
And every Sunday you might see
Mom, Dad, bull and Pug
And me trotting around Hillbrow
After tea.

The pug I could never bear
For he was piggish with eyes that stare
The bull t on the other had
Was white and fat, somehow I
Could not stand him either.
Oh dear how I disliked those dogs
The Pugs features just like
A frog.

The Bull T slept about all day
Not much fun with which to play
His teeth were sharp his eyes
Were pink and at times he?
Looked just like a pig.

Then one day as I walked with them
I saw a dog that changed my mind,
His curled tail held up high behind
His blue-black tongue I did not mind
His little eyes just closed up tight
Oh yes that CHOW was quite a sight.
His golden fur and cheerful grin
At any show he was sure to win.

But alas he passed me on the way
With his mistress in her jaunty way
So after them I did run
And proposed to her on
Bended knee
To ask if she and her CHOW would marry me.

For to live with a Bull T and a Pug
Any longer and I'd be a shmug
I'd marry her just to escape you see
From Mom and Dad and Pug and Bull T.

She stopped and smiled
And to me she said
Get you a Chow with golden Head
And we'll marry our dogs instead
For you are just to young for me
And I'm already married you see.

So CHOW with golden head I got
Goodbye to Pug and bull T
Along to her house we gaily trot
On a bright Sunday morning in May
My CHOW placed his paw on hers and
Got married in the old fashioned way.

The nine weeks later to the day
Golden bright puppies
One Two Three
Now have we






ECLAMPSIA
Candy, my little Maltese, was 60 days into her pregnancy, it had been a good pregnancy, and I could feel her puppies moving quite vigorously. On the Saturday 2nd November, she seemed to suddenly quieten down, she would not eat, or drink and her temperature was 38.5. Rather strange behavior, but I thought it best to leave her to se what progressed. By the time I went to bed she was still lying next to me, breathing gently, and although she appeared to be in a deep sleep, she was not agitated.
At 2.20am I was woken up by a terrible scream, she was swaying her head from side to side, the fit only lasted a few seconds, and she then settled down to sleep again, an hour later she had the second fit. Oh my god I thought this is Eclampsia, I knew that it was imperative that I get calcium into her blood stream, and not having calcium injections, I missed a spoon of Cal sup into half a cup of water and syringed this into her mouth, she swallowed it all and again fell asleep, at 4 am she had another fit, but not as bad as the first two. I again gave her the cal sup mixture and again she settled down to sleep. But she was still not right, as she slept her head was in a thrown back position and her back legs were stiff, there were no contractions at this time. At 6am she started to have slight pushing contractions and these carried on for almost 2 hours. She still appeared to be in a comatose state. At 8.15am she gave birth to her first puppy, I revived the puppy and offered it to her but she was not interested in it at all.
As our Vet only opened at 9am, we took her over and waited for him. When he arrived I explained to him her condition, and he agreed with as to the trouble. While examining her before and X-ray was taken, she screamed again and then gave birth to her 2nd puppy. Once the Vet had taken the X-rays in which we could see another 5 puppies still to come, He put her on a drip, of glucose, into which he injected Calcium gluconate, and Oxytocin. During the day she recovered enough to take interest in her puppies and delivered another 4 healthy puppies, but by 4pm she still had not give birth to the 7th one, it was then decided to do a caesarian Section, and to spay her at the same time, due to a malfunction which showed up on her heart in the X-ray.
The 7th puppy was very weak but alive, and was put into the incubator with the others. Candy was then allowed home with her puppies.
These were fed by tube every 2 hours while their mother slept. This morning they all appeared well and candy was much better, although still very weak, she had started to take note of her babies, and was cleaning them. They were put to her teats and allowed to suck. I gave them a tube feed before I left for work. Knowing that my son would watch over them during the day and if anything went wrong, he would take them to the vet.
Eclampsia is a lack of Calcium in the Blood, which can lead to fits, coma and death, this usually occurs in small and medium bitches, but can affect any bitch, either before or even after whelping. It is not very common but is very dangerous, when it does occur. Emergency treatment must be sort after as soon as possible.
Post script: 4.7.2004
A week ago my little Maltese bitch Roxy gave birth to 5 lovely puppies, but tonight things started to go horribly wrong, she became very restless and would not attend to her puppies refusing to go near them or feed them, she would not eat of drink and her gums and tongue went a bright color red, immediately this started to happen instead of panicking I started to give her Cal Phos tablets 2 every 10minutes I gave her a rescue tablet as well, When she started to pant and breathe rather to quickly for my liking, I made strong black coffee and put a lot of sugar into it, this I feed her with a syringe into her mouth and she was able to swallow it with no problems, I wrapped her in a cold damp towel to bring her temperature down which helped dramatically, there was almost an immediate response for the better in her condition. Her Eclampsia started at about 10pm and with out a car I was unable to get her to an emergency hospital, I kept up the treatment until 4am in the morning, when she started to breathe easier and settled down with her puppies, as her heart beat slowed to a normal rate, and she looked more comfortable, she eventually went to sleep, exhausted but breathing normally and temperature normal. During the day I continued to give her 2 Cal Phos tablets every 2 hours, and that evening she ate all her food as well as a bowl of milk and then a plate of scrambled egg. To day I gave her a Niacin tablet which contains 234 mg of Calcium phosphate, 100 mg Niacin, 8mg Vegetable Steanic Acid, 4mg Vegetable Cellulose, she has recovered and is eating well and feeding her puppies. Yes I took her life into my hands, and with the help of her protector she is much better and is her loving self again.

ENTROPION

We all know what entropion is and have almost all gone through the operation with our precious Chows.
When my little Tammy was born and opened her eyes for the first time they looked perfect, When she went for her first inoculations the Vet even remarked on her lovely eyes, but by the time came for her second inoculation he said that she may need a small operation on the one eye as the lid had a small defect.
Last Monday I took her for a major eye operation for entropion, bot lids were infected, so infected they were, that they had affected the third eyelid that was forcing her eyes back into her head an the theirs eyelids were growing over her eyes, all you could see was a mass of red flesh and hardly see her eyes. The operation went well and although she is still full of stitches, and her eyes are very sore, at last you can now see her lovely brown eyes. She may have to undergo another small operation to tighten the lower lids so that hey don't droop, but that is just a tuck in the lids to lift them up. This is a congenital defect of the eyelids, and I wish I knew where my Tammy had got it from, Her Mothers eyes are lovely with no problems and Baxter never had a problem, in her Grand parents line Denim is clear and Sharin had a slight entropion, but nothing to really worry about but I don't know about Baxter's side, maybe there is something in the American genes that he carried, which has come forward in our lovely puppy.







HOW CLOSE HAVE YOU BEEN TO RABIES?

We often take Rabies for granted, our dogs are inoculated every year and we know that they are safe, but two weeks ago I wondered just how safe they were. It was a Wednesday night at about 11pmwhen we heard a terrible scream coming from one of our dogs. Robin Rick and I ran outside to see what the matter was, and found that denim had cornered a large mongoose in the bottom field, he was attacking it, in our rush to get to him I forgot the gate open and this was an invitation to all the unkennelled to get in on the attack, Sher was first there and grabbed the mongoose away from Denim, I grabbed her but not before she got a nasty bite on her lip, Robin then managed to get hold of the now dead animal, and Rick grabbed Denim. I managed to get the other dogs back into their kennels, and took Sher and Denim into the house to attend their wounds. Denim has some very nasty bites on his nose and on the skin below his eye, these I washed with eusol and then treated them with Germolene. Sher was bleeding profusely from her lip, she had a nasty big bite that had opened the skin, and I managed to stop the bleeding and gave her some arnica tablets. She soon settled down for the night but Denim was very agitated, I took the dead animal into the kitchen and after putting on my rubber gloves I examined it. It was an adult Male in lovely condition but very dead. How sad I thought, he must have been some ones pet at one time, and had come down to eat the left over dog’s food. I had seen the prints of a small animal around Tao's dish on and off for many nights and thought it might be the monkeys coming down looking for food, I now know that it was this little Mongoose.
The following morning I phoned my Vet and he said that the dogs should be fine if they had had their Rabies injections, but I still worried, so I phoned the State Vet, and he told me the same thing, but if I was still very worried to have them re inoculated, so this is what we did, I still watch them very closely but thank god there is no signs of Rabies, and that they are both well.

All warm blooded animals carry Rabies, there-fore it is really very important not to miss the vital yearly inoculation of your dogs and know in your mind that you have done the correct thing in safe guarding them from a terrible death, as well as safe guarding yourselves and your children from been bitten and contracting the terrible illness of which there is no cure.
Meltari Blue Denim


Meltari Sherazad
I sold Sher when she was a puppy to an ex member of the Chow chow club, He worked on a game reserve in Northern Natal. The first phone call I got from him was when she was three months old, saying that she was just the bitch he had always wanted. And was growing well, then in December I got another phone call to tell me that Sher was having trouble walking and the gentleman had taken her to his vet and had x-rays done saying that she had a very bad hip Dysplasia. I of course was very shocked and of course very upset and I told him to bring her back and I would give him another puppy from my next litter. He said that he would bring her back on the 22nd December. I waited in vain, he never came, I really thought that my puppy was dead, On the 26th January 1996 I got a call from him when I got to work saying that Sher was very bad and unable to walk and he was bringing her back that afternoon, This was five days after the death of my Beloved Baxter. It was a very hot day and when she arrived thank heaven my son Robin was at home, She had not been given a drink of water on the long trip in a completely enclosed van with no air conditioning, she was so dehydrated that she nearly died of heat exhaustion, Robin got her over to the Vet, who treated her and kept her in the hospital overnight, the following morning he x-rayed her hips, there was no sign of hip Dysplasia, but she had a problem he called Panosteitis, or Nutritional secondary Hyperparathyroidism This disease is caused by a deficiency of calcium or Vat d in the diet, it is common when the unsupplemented "all meat" diet was given. Sher had only been fed on Venison, as this was plentiful on the game reserve, she had not been fed a proper diet, and had no calcium causing her long bone in the back legs to slowly disintegrate, this cause a weakness which made walking very difficult for her and caused a lot of pain. After three days of treatment of massive doses of Calcium and pain tablets called Auathrodese, Sher began to getup on her hind legs, she first started to bunny hop and when she got tired she would drag herself around on her bottom. She has been home with us for 4 months and is now running and walking very well, she is still getting her Calcium tablet every day and only very seldom need to have a pain pill. She chases the cats and plays with her older sister, Nikita, they run around the garden, and the other day she stood on her hind legs for the first time trying to catch a bird in a tree near her.
She has made an amazing recovery and I hope to be able to show her next year, she eats like a horse, and has grown twice the size in the short time she has been home. She now goes for walks on the lead every weekend up and down the road, to give her feet a harder surface to walk on, and is doing very well. When I think back to how she arrived home the pitiful state she was in and that I really thought that I was going to loose one of my Baxter's puppies, I am so proud of what I have done for her and how she has improved. At her first open show she was awarded best puppy and she was still limping, slightly at the time. Next year who knows, I will just have to wait and see. My advice to all those who sell puppies, please make sure you tell the new owners that a growing puppy needs the correct diet not just meat on its own. This man had owned Chows before. He never came back for his replacement puppy.
Sadly Sher had to be put down at the age of 5years when her spine collapsed.


TIDBITS

These are two little stories told to me by my Vet.

THE GREAT DANE AND THE SOCKS.
Sadie the Great Dane loved playing with the washing and in particular socks. One morning her mistress phoned the Vet, "Charles" she said, "Sadie has just vomited up 3 socks", bring her in to the surgery and I look her over " he said. At the surgery she promptly vomited up another sock, "Well " Said Charles "everything in pairs' He sent her home on antibiotics to ward off any infection the socks might have caused. But alas all was not well, the following morning, Sadie was even worse, not eating and not passing any stools, back to the Vet. Charles decided to X-ray the Great Dane, and got trapped, the only cure was to open her up and remove the offending object there it was another sock stuck in her mall intestine, it had passed through the stomach. This was done, and Sadie was once again a happy Great Dane no worse for wear. All the socks in the house are now kept well out of the way. Let this little story be a lesson to all, don't let the dog play with your smalls, it might just turn out to be more costly then buying a pair of socks.


PIP AND THE CHAMELEON
Pip was a Toy Pom puppy, therefore she was still very small, as you can imagine. Her owner also had a pet chameleon, but the day the Pom and the Chameleon met is to be remembered by many especially the Vet for a long time.
The vet "Charles" received a frantic call one morning " My toy Pom puppy has swallowed my pet chameleon, what can I do. I can see the Chameleon wriggling in his tummy". Well holding back his laughter Charles said to wait and see, as the chameleon would surly die and the puppy would pass in a stool in a day or two. Well an hour later another frantic phone call. The Toy Pom puppy had vomited up the Chameleon, What could she do for it, as it was still alive. Charles of course suggested bringing both the puppy and the Chameleon to the surgery. Pip the Pom passed a clean bill of health and the Chameleon was given a wash and survived to continue his creepy crawly life, well out of the way of the Toy Pom puppy.



Meltari Jon Bon Jovie Jon & toy pom puppy


THE TIME OF OUR LIVES.

There comes a time in the life of a dog, when enough is just enough. Two weeks ago Monique and Sharin led our mistress a merry dance early one morning chasing our neighbor’s sheep. Now they also have this giant creature that hangs her head over our fence and makes a most peculiar sound. It sounds like "Moo" so this I presume is her name, she has the biggest brown eyes I have ever seen and looks quite gentle, but for her size, this terrifies me, she is a lovely warm brown color and the strange thing about her is that she only eats grass all day long. Early in the morning before the sun comes up I hear her Mooing away in her kennel, then when I peep through the fence to see what is wrong, I see one of the kennel boys sitting beside her squeezing her belly, which in turn is squirting white stuff into a bucket, one morning he saw me, and brought a dish for me to drink, I was very cautious at first, but the smell was very familiar, "How" I wondered, "Can milk cone from an animal, that eats only grass all day, surly it should be green", Apollo can't stand her, but then he can't stand any other animal who invades on his property, He only likes us females, he can't even stand looking at doc or Champ, and even managed to get out of his kennel the other day, while Doc was out, that was some fight, and very difficult for our humans to separate them. Thank heavens Apollo has a very thick coat or he might not have been to well off. Anyway my mistress eventually asked Rick to take Doc home as they could now afford to feed him. So we still have champ, and Apollo hates him as well, while poor Champ was sleeping the other night, he unfortunately allowed his ear to stick out through the bars of his cage, He awoke screaming, with Apollo hanging onto his poor little ear, Well Carol really gave Apollo a good smack and put him back in his kennel for the night. Then attended to Champs ear. Heaven help the sheep and the "Moo" if he got hold of them, he doesn't even like our little puppies very much.
Carol has been talking about getting chickens "what ever they may be" but unless she builds a strong kennel for them, she can kiss them goodbye, right down Apollo and Sharin's bellies. Although I must say I am not an angel myself, a nice tasty tit bit, I would love as well.
It' been raining very hard in this part of the country, and the stream at the back of the garden is full of water and tiny tadpoles. On Sunday while Sharin was playing with a big black bird on the hill she lost her footing, the hill is very high and there was our silly Sharin, slowly at first and then faster and faster she went down the hill, until she landed on a ledge, about 3 foot from the ground. She then jumped right on top of the tadpoles in the stream, splash went a very muddy chow, Well we all laughed at her, until I saw she was crying, and holding her foot in the air, where was all this red stuff coming-out, so I barked for Carol and she picked up Sharin and mud and all put her into the bath. The she attended to her foot with that awful purple stuff, patted her on the head and said she would be fine. Of course she had to miss the P.M.B. show because of her limp. Things are really different down here, but I do miss my walks in Johannesburg, at the Carlton centre and to Hillbrow, We have such a big yard here we can take ourselves for walks.
As told to Carolyn Dewrance by her chow Tasha.



Meltari Apollo the star



A SNAKE 'EE STORY
I was busy supervising the cleaning of the kennels when I realized that there was only one kennel boy working, "where are the Other boys I asked" " In the kitchen, trying to catch a snake" he answered. I ran to the kitchen to see what they were doing, they were all standing on the kitchen cupboards, throwing loaves of frozen bread at a poor little snake.


I ran to the kitchen, and there I found seven fully grown black men all standing high up on the kitchen counter, and one very small harmless brown house snake, lying curled next to a food bin, even more afraid of the men that feared him I took it upon myself to try and save it’s life I took a wooden spoon and a large plastic bag and tried very carefully to entice the snake into the bag, but to no avail, he was to fast and too scared, he slithered like lightening behind the large motor of the fridge, making it impossible to reach him, not once did the snake try to attack me. I watched silently for a while to see if he would come out of his hiding place where he was warm and safe, but he stayed still, so I went to the phone and called the S.P.C.A. to find out if there was anyone who worked there that would be able to assist me in saving this snake. Well eventually two hours later, a snake catcher arrived armed with a snake catcher stick and a large strong paper bag, I showed them where the snake was, and to the disappointment of the boys in the kitchen, they were unable to get the snake our, "Sorry said the S.P.C.A. man, but you will have to leave him there until he decided to come out on his own. Please phone us when he is available, and we will come and collect him. With this they left. Well I kept a periodic watch on where I last saw the snake, but as he had chosen a very warm hidey-hole, he was not at all keen to leave it. On finishing my work at 5pm, the snake was still there and had made no move to venture into the dangerous world around him. I left him a bowl of water and hopeful he will feel in a better frame of mind in the morning and allow me to catch him.

P.s.
One week later.
Paulus, our kitchen help told me that he had received a letter to day, " I won't be coming back, have gone on a long holiday don't look for me." E'Mamba.




TURBO'S GREAT ADVENTURE

My name is Cherie's Super Turbo, ''Where I got such a name, I really can't tell you, but we American's are different, anyway you all know me a Turbo, and this is my story, as I have told it to Carol, as she is a human with hands she can write it down for me, I find it rather difficult to bark the story out in American, and She speaks South African, but we get along fine telepathically, so here goes.
My home was in California, in the U.S.A. I was really a star in my kennels, and was quite happy as a pampered Show dog, then one day I was driven off to a place that I had never been to before, well thinking it was just another show I was quite happy to go along with my owner Sherie Harper, she tried to tell me that this time I would be going on a long journey, far across the sea, to another land, South Africa, and I would be living with another family who would love me as much as she did. On arrival at the Airport, I saw some very large bird like machines jumping into the sky and then falling down again, I was afraid and the noise these birds made was terrible. I hid behind my mistress, begging her to please don't let me go into the belly of one of those mechanical birds. Well she ignored my pleas, and slipped my leash on and lead me towards a large box type of cage, this smelt strange and I found my bladder wanted to work, so I lifted my leg against it, not very nice but, what would you have done, I ask you. Well I was put into the box and saw that there was a nice fur carpet for me to lie on and that there was a dish of water as well as food, But once the door was closed it was dark and hot, I barked and barked, but no one listened to me. Then I felt my self moving, rolling along a bumpy road, then I was lifted and with a thump I found myself in a very dark place. This must be the belly of the bird I thought, I had been eaten alive or something like that, because I was not dead, and I could still see, hear, smell and think. But it was very dark and I could see nothing, I heard another dog crying and realized the bird had swallowed another little puppy as well as me, He must have been very hungry. The puppy cried and cried, and I tried to talk to him, to calm him down but maybe he did not understand the language of the chow, or he was missing his mother. I could not reach out to lick him as we were both locked into our boxes. The puppy made me sad, and I cried as well.
Ten I heard a noise that I shall never forget, the sound of a thousand devil dogs baying their heads off, We were moving now in this mechanical bird that goes up and then falls down in the air, faster and faster we went, my ears got a terrible buzzing sound in them and I started to cry again, I was just as scared as that little puppy and I could not see anything at all it was so dark. Well for hours and hours I lay in my box, afraid of what was to become of me, then really exhausted, I finally fell asleep, I dreamed of all the show I had been to, and of my friends in the U.S.A. and my sweet little wives and sisters, and all out puppies, of open fields and California sunshine, and all my old friends at the show's, how I would miss them. I now understood what Sherie had said, when she told me I was going on a long journey.
Suddenly I felt I was falling, and woke up to find the bird I was in was falling to the ground, maybe it would let me get out of it's belly I hoped, then I could just go home again.
The bird opened it's belly and the puppy and I were rolled out after each other into the fresh cold air, of winter, strange when I was put into the bird, it was summer, and only a few hours later it was winter, very strange indeed, I shivered in the cold, and could see white stuff lying on the ground all around.
I wagged my tail and barked when I saw a human face peering in at me through the door of my box, I don't know where we were, but nothing smelt American here and no one spoke a word that I understood, the people looked the same, but somehow they wee different, I barked at them "I'm Turbo" I said, but they did not seem to understand, I was very thirsty and really wanted to pee, so I barked some more, then two men came up to me and said what sounded "Hello" one of them had my leash in his hand and the other opened the door of my box, well when you have to go you just have to go and before they could get my leash over my head, I had gone, rushing out of that dreadful box for dear life, I had to find a tree or something, my feet slipped on the white stuff and it really was cold, I ran and ran, around and around, in circles, with at first two men and then soon followed by many others, I ducked and I darted, this was fun, I had never had so much fun in my life, as soon as one got to near I would growl at him to stay away and I would run off to another corner of the large field, with all the giant birds on it, I lifted my leg against trees, and lamp posts and even somebody's car trey, and I ran again, you should have seen me, and all those humans trying to catch me, I really thought it fun, and saw no harm in it, I did not really know how wrong I was.
Then suddenly it was all over, A large net was thrown over me and a strange man stood near me with what looked like an injection needle in his hand, now I know what an injection needle is as I have had many in my life, the next thing I felt myself drifting into a refreshing sleep. I felt someone lift me and put me in my box then I went to sleep.
I woke up when once again we wee resting on the earth, I heard a distance voice calling me, "turbo" "Turbo" it said, "come on wake up its time to go home now Boy come on wake up" I did not know the voice, but I understood what it said, and I trusted it, so I lifted my head, and looked into its kind eyes, and knew that my flight in the belly of the bird was truly over, and I had come to my new home at last. "Turbo"


THE IMPOSSIBLE COCKERS

A few years ago I was asked to keep my eyes on our neighbors cocker spaniels while they were away for a week. There were four adults and six ten-day-old puppies, Now in my opinion no one should ever leave a bitch alone with very young pups. But this does happen and often. Well it was a week of rain, and I had my hands full keeping my own dogs dry and warm and apart from each other. Now I was burdened with ten cocker spaniels. Well the only thing I could do was to lock the bitch and her pups in the bedroom and place a layer of newspapers all over the floor, I filled her food and water bowl each morning and evening and made sure the puppies were cozy and warm and that the bitch had enough milk to feed them.
The other three were the problem, to keep them locked outside was cruel and dangerous in the bad weather, their box was not adequate and the drain on the balcony blocked therefore flooding the whole balcony in water. In some places 15cm deep. I decided to allow these three almost drowned animals to sleep in their owner's kitchen. So once again I put down a lot of newspapers on the floor and gave them a large bowl of food and water and locked them in, at least they were warm and dry and out of the rain.
Well for the week that my neighbors were away, the bitch and the puppies thrived and grew, but the three locked in the kitchen was another problem; each day they did something they should not have done.
Firstly they tore up the entire lino on the kitchen floor, not satisfied with that they ate their way through a bag of potatoes, a bag of onions and the cord of the electric frying pan. Any plastic dish or cup that was within reach was eaten; the tablecloth and the curtains were torn to shreds. Every day when I came home from work and went over to feed those dreadful horrors, they had done more damage. I eventually had to remove everything out of the kitchen except the fridge and the stove, cupboard doors did not stop them getting at the utensils inside. I put everything in the dining room and hoped for the owners to come home soon.
Never will I be tempted to own a golden cocker spaniel. Give me the quite chow chow any day. Once my neighbors came home, they laughed when I told them of their dog's destructive ways and did not seem very worried at all. If they had been mine? Well they are not so I say thank you for my chow chow's and know that anything I leave out will not be eaten.




A CAT CALLED NELSIN
She was born in the garage of our company some time over the Christmas break, I only saw he when I got back from leave and she must have been about 5 weeks old, she had 3 siblings a black a black and white and a lovely Tabby. I started to feed them, and then I decided to take these totally wild kittens home. It took a few days to plan their capture and then one at a time I managed to get three of the kittens. I took them home and placed then in a holding cage, I had the black we now call Nelsin, the black and white and the tabby, after 2 weeks I let them out hoping they would settle down, but not to be the black and white made a run for it, the Tabby vanished but Nelsin settled down slowly. A week later I found the Tabby behind the fish tank and she was jus learning that humans would not hurt he when she got out of my bedroom window and was sadly killed by my Dobermans. But this story is about Nelsin, whom was at first called Nelson because she is so black with yellow eyes and we thought she was a male. But after being with us for 11 weeks we knew she was a female. The first six weeks with us were pure hell for her as well as us. She screamed for her food, peed on the bed, and then one day she was gone, I could not find her anywhere. This was the day that the tabby died. Well I thought I only had them for 6 weeks, I should never have taken them away from their original home. One of my Chows had recently passed away suddenly after been bitten by a snake, and I went to her grave and spoke to her. "Nickie" I said, "Please help me to find Nelsin, send your sprit back and find the kitten for me" I stood at her grave for a while and then left. It was while I was getting supper that evening when I heard the meow of a kitten; it was dark so I took the torch to look for her. I eventually saw her walking up the drive with my other cat speckles, a Maine coon, my prayer to Nickie ha been answered. Nelsin was very hungry and was only too happy to be home. Nelsin is now home bound and has grown into a lovely pitch-black cat and has been a mother herself a couple of times. She still screams at me when she thinks its supper time, she loves to watch the fish in the fish tank, and often sits and watches TV she is a gentle cat with a lovely nature. And She loved speckles and would sleep curled up with him between his paws. I trust that Nelsin will have a long and happy life with us, and her other cat friends.

MELTARI NIKITA AND NELSON CAT.

FROM THE TEMPLES OF TIBET TO SOUTH AFRICA.

Hundreds of years ago, high in the mountains of Tibet, where the temples of the Buddhists, High walled temples which no one could enter, unless by appointment.
Behind the walls of these temples, were the ling dogs of Tibet, these wee not the Tibetan Terriers or spaniels, but the very rare Blue dogs of Chins. With thick coats and blue tongues, they were the beautiful blue Chow Chows. They were the guards of the temples and the dogs were treated like royalty. As you all know there are various colors in the coats of the Chow chow, ranging from the deepest red to a creamy white, But the Blue Chow is a very rare specimen seldom seen and when bred from, unless mated with another blue chow will possibly never produce a blue chow of her own, of course the blue color must also be in her genes. The blue chow is not the color blue as you and I would see it but more of a charcoal gray, or some would call a light black. These chows are still the guardians of some of the temples of Tibet today.
One evening on our daily walk to the Carlton Center, a family from Bangkok stopped Robin and me as we were walking our Chows past the Towers Hotel. Who were so excited to see the Chows Chows. We talked with them for a short while and the young girl "Pete" said that they had a home in Oregon as well as in Bangkok and were also owners of the Chows Chows.
She told me that their Chows were much bigger in height and weight as well as bone size to the Chow we have in South Africa. And she showed me a photo of herself in Bangkok with one of her chows. Who appeared to be very lion, with a huge Maine covering a very square head, with very flat features and eyes that you could hardly see, for the size of them were more like two little slits in its face. His body was very square and his coat very long almost touching the ground. In many ways very different to our chows, but maybe because of the very cold winters the coat had more growth then ours. The dog stood about 23 inches from the ground to his shoulder and must have weighed about 80lbs. or more. A massive cobby dog with lovely bone, equal in both front and hind legs…
Oh I wish I could breed one like that!

Another story she told me was of the beggar and his White chow in the streets
Of Hong Kong.
It was a very cold winter and the man and Chow had no home to go to, they had settled down for the night in a doorway of one of the shops in Hong Kong. Due to the weather being below freezing the man took off his warm coat and placed it over the sleeping dog and then he himself curled up close to the dog for warmth. He could have died of cold by the warmth of the dog's fur, the coat and his own body heat kept both of them warm and alive.
It shows that no matter where in the world you are the chow chow is a very special dog, highly respected by everyone who owns one.





APOOLS
You belonged to me for eight short weeks
How proud I was of you,
Then one Monday morning
You sickened in the strangest way.

You slowly faded from my sight
Grew thinner every passing day.
Apools my Chow Chow all my own
What can I do, I prayed and prayed.

To day my friend I shed my tears,
As you were released from pain and fear
I can never replace my beloved pet
God claimed you to walk with him
To be his Champion.

Up in those Heavenly show Grounds
Along with Chow Chow's of great renown
You will again raise your beautiful head
With "God by your side
You'll be his Champion.

In memory of Desnuki's Apools of Meltari.



MISCHA'S STORY
Meltari Mischa was born out of Meltari Miss Sharin Gold and Meltari Doc's Triumph. There were 4 puppies in the litter, Mischa, Dr.Zivargo, Tanya, and Larissa. I kept Tanya as she was the smallest and sold the rest to excellent homes. But as the title goes this is Mischa's story, as told by Mary-Ann Griesse.

Poor Mischa! Right from the start, he has had to battle the odds against survival. This chow puppy has something to teach us all, because in the face of all adversity he has remained as sweet natured and gentle as he was when we first bought him.

He came to our home at the age of eight weeks, a little blue-gray fluff ball with floppy ears and an endearing way of looking at you with his tongue hanging out and his head cocked onto one side. We already had two chows, and Sun Li, our beautiful but volatile female, had a little one of her own. In our ignorance, and we only have ourselves to blame, we thought that she would welcome the puppy, as she was still full of maternal instinct, and her second puppy had not survived. Oh boy, were we wrong! Within the first ten minutes she attacked him, biting my husband through the hand in the process.

"They then brought Mischa back to me, hoping that Sun-li would accept him if he were a little older he spent the next week with his mother and sister."
After his initial fright he again settled down once he went back to Mary-Ann's home, sleeping with her eldest son in his room while he got used to his new life.

We watched Sun Li carefully, and she began to tolerate him, even if she didn't exactly love him. Then one day, when no one was home except myself, he wandered too close to our electric fence, and shocked himself. He yelped in fright and pain, running away as fast as he could, and Sun Li attacked him again. I managed to pick him up, and hold him away from her, but she was beside herself, and attacked me because she couldn't get to min.

This has to have been one of the most dreadful experiences of my life, and, I am quite sure, of poor Mischa's as well. Eventually I managed to get away, and staggered into the house. Both Mischa and I were bleeding and in shock. A visit to the Vet and to the doctor later, we all settled down again, but the stress was beginning to be too much, as we had to watch Sun Li constantly. Sadly, she went for him again, and in view of the fact that she had turned on me, her owner, as well, we had her put to sleep. Her puppy, Mayte, became Mischa's best friend, and my beautiful sweet-natured Meltari Sultan whom I had also bought from Carol, became the Daddy. All went well until the night they escaped from the property and went walkabout. Why do chows love to wander? My son found Sultan and Mayte, but of Mischa there was no sign.

We spent the next 3 weeks searching and asking. Posters went up, and so did my phone bill. Other chows were seen at the SPCA but not Mischa. A mysterious phone call claiming that Mischa was in a suburb on the other side of town amounted to nothing. We heard horrific stories about people stealing thoroughbred dogs and selling them to overseas markets. We went to schools and offered a reward. Nothing. We mourned, but didn't give up hope.

A month later, my lovely grooming parlor owner, who was besotted with all three of my chows, phoned. There was a gentleman with her, who recognized Mischa from his poster. I spoke to him, and he said that the Africans on his farm had been telling him about the "Lion" wandering around the farm. He had posted two of them to watch Mischa, and came to fetch my son and me.

The relief and joy we felt on seeing Mischa again, as filthy, thin and covered with burrs and ticks as he was! We just hugged him and cried. He had obviously been trying to find his way back to us having escaped from whoever had him, as the farm was not more than half a kilometer away. Being starved and having biliary, he was just too weak to go further. And if we had found him just a few days later, he would not have been alive. He could barely wag his tail, once he recognized us.

To day he is well, still thin, but eating everything we give him. Sultan and Mayte welcomed him back as if he had never been away, and we have learned some hard lessons. A special thank you to Grant Blakeway, the farmer who found him, and to all the wonderful people who helped us look for him and let us put up posters.

"Mary-Ann phoned me at work when Mischa was found, and I cried with joy, the thought of one of my puppies vanishing from his home for 7 weeks and then being found, he must have had a guardian angle looking after him, or maybe the spirit of his Grand Father, Anlia's Dr Halley of Meltari.

I often see Mischa and Sultan who are half brothers; up at the dog parlor, where they go for grooming and both are Chow's that I can be very proud of.




LIFE GOES ON
A heart-warming story
By
Pat van Nierop
As printed in the Chow Chow Club Newsletter.

Brother and sister from the same litter, Keifer and Philly (red bitch and black male) were acquired at the age of 15 months, 7.5 years ago.
Their origin was the Mingtjou kennels. Keifer, full of bonhomie and good nature, has always been the source of much admiration and respect from visitors, not to mention the cuddles and companionship from me! Philly on the other hand was of a very wary gentle nature with a beautiful soft silky coat, which gave her heart completely when she decided it was safe to do so. Of these feminine qualities she was abundantly aware and wasted no opportunity to wiggle her frilly knickers seductively in the presence of any admiring male dog. She showered Keifer with attention and kept him clean as he is a messy eater and drips like wet washing after a drink1 After only half and hour apart, one of the two having decided to come in doors for a while, there was always much excitement and ritual greeting and squeaking. It was always a joy to watch them playing and wrestling with the ritual "bottom in your face" every now and again turning the back to call the other's bluff.

Sadly Philly, still in peak condition, died very suddenly on the 6th Jan 2002 from an aneurysm caused by a malignancy near all the blood vessels in the liver. She had just come to me for a gentle pat, and backstroke, and then lay down for her final peaceful sleep. Keifer and I were at first unbelieving then devastated. Anyway, after going through all the stages of doggy emotions 4 weeks later he was a clinging insecure doggy, still pining badly for his life long companion. Something had to be done.

The only available chow bitches that I had managed to locate were already taken, son when eventually Randburg SPCA told me they had a 2-3year old red cross-chow I quickly agreed to have her spayed and a tag implanted then brought her home. Her new name is Demi (she is a "demi-semi" chow as in the notes "quavers" for the musicians amongst you). She certainly provided the much-needed distraction, but turned out to be a very different nature from the subdued reserved chow-like nature she displayed in the dog pound!
After a bath and brush up, with masses of he abundant coat needing to be removed due to clumps of fused hair following her unknown wanderings, she was a very pretty medium sized creature. Her chow coat and Alsatian face with alert intelligent eyes make a sure winner with the crowd.
An absolute bundle of intelligence energy and affection, all she wanted was someone to throw sticks for her to retrieve. She ran rings around the bewildered Keifer, who initially ran in the opposite direction when she bouncingly approached him.

Two weeks later I concluded they would never be compatible companions, so when told by Joy of a rescued black chow bitch needing a home, I took my 2 to meet her. It was love at first sight with Keifer! There was much mutual pawing and soliciting, so it was her obvious destiny to join "the pack"
She was duly collected a few days later having also had a tag implanted.
This gentle dog (also 2-3 years old) has had much of her silky black chow coat removed by her kindly rescuers who were unfamiliar with the breed. Her name was reputed to be phonetic "she ann" so not knowing whether this was the French word for female dog- "chienne" or the Indian tribe "Cheyenne" I chose he latter.

Watching the doggy dynamics played out was fascinating. Once in his own territory, Keifer was very aware of his status and no longer allowed the new black female to take liberties with him, growling menacingly when she overstepped the respect line. The bitches were initially wary of one another, so I kept them together in the house during the day for the first couple of weeks. Whilst Keifer could communicate with them through the security door, he was always sitting outside with a silly benignly indulgent father expression on his face when I came home after work. Apparently having 2 female companions was a new luxury for him!

The females have sorted out which is dominant by "play act" climbing onto one another's shoulders. It seems the first smaller bitch is the winner!

It is well over 2 months since Philly passed away and Keifer is only now starting to solicit play from the first bitch that doesn't understand exactly what is expected of her. I believe it will take another couple of months before all have learned to adapt to the others play styles. The blooming rubber bone will have to be slowly removed altogether from play. That is unless the proper chows learn to retrieve!
Carolyn Dewrance
4 Fernwood Close
Richwood
Cape Town 7441

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