Taking the long way - or - It's a Dog's Life

Above: Bella / Below: Min with Bella and her pups
Below: Newborns and their protective mom
NEMO BEFORE HIS DISAPPEARANCE



Below: NEMO AFTER HIS RETURN!















I keep going back to what my niece said when we were listening to the song by the Dixie Chicks - Taking the long way... she called it "the minshap song"... like a song that defined me or something... Maybe it's true. Maybe I take the long way to get somewhere. It's true, I prefer driving to flying. I like to see the scenery. And If I could choose between sea and air to cross the ocean, I'd take the sea. But that option is usually not available and besides, how often do I get to go across the world? Hmmm... ONCE in my life so far!

On the other hand, it's not like I plan to take the long way - it's more like things happen along the way that I inevitably want to see or experience. So I get diverted and I'm usually happy about that.

But not always! Sometimes, taking the long way is a scary and frustrating business!

Look at this situation for instance:

We have a dog named Nemo (see photo above). We got him when he was a baby to be the playmate and later hubby for Bella (see above).

Bella and Nemo were a beautiful couple, although Nemo was always rather obstinate, and downright disobedient at times, whereas Bella has always been the most loyal, intelligent, obedient, eager-to-please dog in the world.

Eventually, Nemo and Bella produced a lovely litter of nine puppies (see pic). We had no trouble giving them away, but before we knew it, she was pregnant again! So they had another litter together and then I got Bella spayed.

Soon after that, Nemo disappeared. He had always been prone to finding a way to get out of the fenced area around our property, but this time, no matter how hard we whistled and called for him, he didn't show up. We thought he'd be back at mealtime or the next day but we were wrong. We started to ask around, and to drive around looking for him, but without any luck. A couple of months passed and a neighbor told us she'd seen him - he was dead! Though we never saw the body, we came to believe that he was either dead or lost for good. Being a handsome honey-colored laborador retriever, he would surely have been picked up and appropriated by now, we thought.

Around 10 months later, Nemo suddenly appeared! He was skinny and sick, but a trip to the vet proved to be the only thing he needed and in less than 2 weeks he was well. Unfortunately, he seemed to have developed some horrible behavior problems. He constantly jumped Bella - couldn't stay off her, in spite of the fact that she'd been long neutered by then and shouldn't have had any appeal for him. He was overly active, growled at people, and attacked his bowl of food with insatiable hunger each feeding time. The reactions to all of this undesirable behavior among the members of our house varied. Samo insisted that it wasn't really Nemo and we should throw him out. Anto said we should give him a chance, until the day Nemo lunged at him and ripped his jacket sleeve. Car seemed to go from one extreme solution to the other - put him down (after he bit the neighbor's gardener) or get him fixed (after the vet said that would calm him down). We finally decided on neutering and I was the lucky one who got to take him and bring him home. I won't go into detail about that experience or the subsequent recovery period, but the upshot is that, after the operation, we didn't see much improvement in his character - he tore up Samo's shoe in a moment of anger; twice he got out and didn't come home till the next day; he wouldn't obey orders and though he'd attack any person or animal who tried to touch his food, he had no qualms about gobbling up poor Bella's food if she didn't finish before he finished his. So once again we started debating the idea of putting him down.

It's now been over two months since we got him fixed and finally we are seeing some positive changes in his behavior. The other day we actually played fetch with him!

I asked 3 other people what they did when their dogs showed aggressiveness and undesirable behavior. Two out of three said they didn't think twice about putting their dogs down. They were very sure about their decisions.
I guess that when it comes to ending a dog's life, I'll just have to take the long way.