Warrior Heart

Thursday March 11, 2010

I woke up early to take CB (short for Charles Bronson) to the spay and neuter clinic being held in Redby.

CB has been my companion and friend for his whole life. He's a dog in a million. Generous and brave, loyal and loving. I don't know what I ever did to deserve him.

Of late, there have been packs of dogs running around by my house, and he was getting territorial and aggressive towards other dogs. I was completely in his corner and I don't want these other dogs in my yard either. Vermin animals, unaltered, untrained with owners who don't care where their animal is.

But I was tired of chasing these dogs off, so I made the choice to have CB neutered, thus changing his life.

CB is close to nine years old. He was never altered because he never leaves the yard. As a young dog he survived anti-freeze poisoning when someone came into my yard while I was at school and deliberately dumped it in his water bowl.

For three hellish days I watches helplessly as he seized and foamed at the mouth. Everytime I would go near him he would warn me off with a growl and snap his teeth at me. This was my child, and he was in pain and would not let me help him. Does that sound dramatic? I could never love another human the way I love my animals, I don't trust humans.

I kept him in a constant supply of fresh cool water, sometimes even putting the hose in his mouth to induce vomiting.

My sister and I knew this poisoning affected his growth, and he's still smaller than his mother or twin brother ever were. But unlike his esteemed parent and sibling (Sophie and Reggie, respectively) he is not nor ever was feral, he was always the most gregarious little imp. CB had one son, aptly named Trouble, because that is what he was...

back to March 11...

I took CB from his area of the yard where he is tethered to sleep overnight, I actually had to drag him out of his dog house as he wasn't really interested in coming out into the chilly foggy rainy morning and put him on a leash and told him we were going for a ride.

He walked calmly over to the drivers side of my truck and waited for me to let him in. I opened the backseat and he hopped right on up, settling in and we were on our way.

Let me tell you something, when you feed your dog leftovers and Alpo, they have some monstrous gas the next day, and it's best to drive with the window down, no matter how chilly it is outside!

I got to Redby with him in the car no problem. However, I arrived about 20 minutes before the doors opened, and CB got bored and found a bag of trash that was somehow missed during the cleaning of the car, and promptly strewn it across the backseat.

We got inside a little after 8am and he got registered, after peeing on my leg three times and marking territory all over the waiting area.

I left him there, feeling horrible as I watched the crate he was placed in being wheeled away, and his brown eyes pleading with me, I could almost hear him asking what he did wrong, why did I give him away?

I stood in the building at a loss for a while, before I realized that I smelled like pee and that got me into motion, and I went home to change my pants and grab another shower.

I played on howrse.com for a while trying to keep myself from going back out to Redby and making a pest of myself...and it worked for a little while, until about 1pm, then I couldn't stand it any longer, the anxiety in my chest was just about breaking, and I got up to leave the house and go rescue my CB.

I was literally on my way when my cell phone rang and they told me CB was ready to come home. If I thought I could have gotten away with it, I would have floored it all the way there.

When I arrived, my poor CB was sitting in his crate, looking beyond depressed, I don't think he noticed me right away, but I walked over to his crate and he perked up, his eyes literally lit up, though he was too weak yet to stand, I knew he wanted to.

I spoke with K. and J. (a volunteer) who advised me that CB was on the thin side, to which I responded that he was much heavier now than he'd ever been in his life. He's always been whip thin, his mother and brother were that way too. The only time CB's mom was fat was when she was pregnant!

I was given Ivermectin for mange, which I will start to administer tomorrow even though I doubt very much he has mange. He's just an outdoor dog who hasn't had a bath since last summer...which isn't unreasonable in the climate we live in. CB's always been very hairy, I've never seen him lose any hair that wasn't just natural shedding...unless there was some clumps pulled by sticks or from rough housing Tatooine.

I walked him around a bit, and he seemed really shaky, and I was concerned, as previously stated, he's been through some stuff. He seemed very interested in the bags of food stacked in one corner, he led me there (I admit I wasn't paying attention to where he was heading) and grabbed hold of one...which was his not-so-subtle way of telling me he was mad about missing his breakfast. A couple more volunteers came over while I was giggling and trying to get him to let go of the bag and helped me steer him outside, where he promptly took the worlds longest pee ever...

I got him home without incident, even though it meant lifting a very stubborn 60 lb dog out of the narrow backseat of my truck, it was evidant he wasn't thrilled coming out of the warm dry cab into the wet, cold mud...he also didn't want Tatooine or Stevie by him at all, so my sister came out with a handful of MILK BONES!! and the dogs went bonkers. Stone was running and jumping like crazy, Tatters and Stevie went over to get some, and I finally convinced CB to come out of the truck.

He walked beside me, pressing against my legs like he was a little unsure and scared, and maybe he was, he was very weak and probably wouldn't have been able to defend himself should Tatters have gotten it in his head to be a jerk. And he walked into the house.

CB is not a house dog, never has been, he hates being inside and has only come inside about three other times in his life. We walked down the stairs and into the utility room where the furnace is. I set up a crate with a plushy warm towel, and gave him a bowl of food. He went to the crate and layed down.

However, it's not as idyllic as it seems. I have six felines living in my house, and they all seemed to see CB as a LARGE THREAT so they were forming a little feline posse and coming towards him with evil intent. To which he felt he had to retaliate...and his voice is a BIG ONE!!

Oddly enough, leading the charge against CB was Sable, our resident elder cat-at 14 she's faced a squadron of dogs who have passed through my life. The great thing about seeing little 8lb Sable face CB was, she did it like a Queen. She has no claws in her front feet (something I am NOT responsible for...just for the record, I don't approve of taking their claws) yet she stood there, in the front ranks...thats my girl.

Even though the warring factions in my basement were both parties I love a lot, it did my heart proud to see the Warrior Heart of my Dog and my Cats. They all know I would go to the wall for them, and they give me just as much.

CB came out of his dog house today, he's running around and even jumped up on me when I brought out his breakfast. He's been getting canned food for the last couple days, giving him a little more calories than everyone else, since he's still recovering. ;)

Thats all for now, until then...