Poor old boy

Earlier this week Yankee developed a walnut sized bump under his right eye, it looked rather like an infected tooth so Thursday morning we went to the vet and their diagnosis agreed with mine and Yankee was prepared for surgery.
Three teeth had to go: two of the 4th premolar tooth (also known as the Carnassial tooth) which is the largest tooth in the dog's mouth. It is located midway between the nose and the angle of the jaw. This is the main "chomping" tooth used for grinding up food and also one P2 which had also cracked. As the vet said: he has enjoyed many lovely bones in his long life.
It was a rather big surgery as the roots of  the P4's are long and strong and has to be cut out more than pulled out so for the last few days, poor Yanks has been on soft foods and pain killers. But today he came along on a nice long walk in the slush and was quite ready for some more chewable treats :-)
And soon he will be ready to enjoy the next big bone

Evil owner

Wild canines spend large amount of their day foraging for food, but our pets normally inhale their dry fodder in a mantter of minutes. This leaves many hours of the day to be filled - often with mischief - so we always make our dogs work for their feed, getting it out of soda bottles, or most often, finding it scattered all over the land. However, this persistent winter is posing new challenges to our poor African dogs as they are forced to find their kibble in the snow! Today was particularly bad as the snow was pelting now and thick fresh snow was hiding the food ...... But the dogs were persistant and stayed out till the last little bite of kibble had been found.

a good beginning....

Puppies are planned, yes, and have been for some time now, and I am not the only one awaiting Sammys  approaching heat with great anticipation. 

However, gorgeous Ben lives all the way in Munich, and with such a travelling distance, I thought I'd better get Sammy checked by the best alternative reproduction veterinarian in Denmark: Tove Due in the cosy little village of Korinth on Southern Funen. Apart from being an experienced veterinarian, Tove is a trained acupuncturist and osteopath (chiropractor) and years back she helped Puuma to reabsorb her ovarian cysts and become pregnant again.

But this time I came with two "healthy" girls - Eliza, our little Manchester Terrier girl, who still hasn’t succeeded in ovulating and Sammy, Puumas daughter, who I just wanted to be sure was in top form to the physical challenge of carrying a large litter of puppies.

It was a huge experience - Eliza received cranio sacral therapy as one of the bones in her scull had misplaced it self, and got a good few bones in her back set, as well as acupuncture to activate her ovaries. Sammy got a wauw - 100% clear totally healthy, very strong energy lines..... until Tove reached her rear end, but just over her pelvis things changed and it turned out that her pelvis was quite badly aligned (maybe the reason that she never wants to jump into the car?) and one of her legs had also got quite a bad hit. This was carefully moved back and also she got a back full of needles

On Safari in Kasted Mose (the moors)

As the freeze goes but spring approaches the wild animals gets more and more visible .... and smellable.... first Eliza wrenched herself out of her harness hot on some unseen scent, seconds after peace was restored and all three dogs safely on leash 8 large deers jumped right across our path - it is amazing to see so many of these large animals and how quickly they can move across the frozen fields. The RRs kept insisting that they DEFINITELY would be able to keep up with the deers - but a kill joy as ever I wouldnt let them but held on to their leashes for dear life. Then a hare hopped by - oh well, I could handle that. But then... as we had gone further into the bog area, enjoying to be able to walk where it is normally far too wet, the dogs noses started coming up in the air, we were approaching the lair of the large red fox who usually tries to raid our chicken coop. This fox KNOWS that the dogs are leashed, and he couldnt care less about them - so we werent surprised when he suddenly sauntered right past us. He is HUGE - and bright orange red, with clear white trimmings, and looks well fed and happy..... probably thanks to the decimation among the neighbourghoods chickens , and - says evil toungues - one or two missing deers. The dogs did their best to let us know that they were quite ready to kill him, thank you very much, but fortunately the leashes held. A few minutes later another 4-5 deers jumped next to us aiming for the same wooded area as the fox had disappeared in and a little later we saw another fox, this time chubbier and very dark red passing by at some distance.
Altogether the "Safari" bagged the sight of probably 18 deers, 6 rabbits and two foxes. Not bad for a walk in right outside your own door step.
And the dogs..... they had a good sleep this afternoon :-)

Vale Lewanika Famuyeke - Diezel - 24/6/2008-7/2/2009

Smukke glade og blide Diezel er ikke mere, for kun 36 timer siden var han en sund og rask Ridgeback dreng, der var til stor glæde for sin familie, men igår fik han en akut infektion i rygraden som gjorde ham lam og han sov stille ind her til morgen. Mange hilsener og knus til Diezels familie fra os alle.