Thursday 11 March 2010

DOGS: THE KURIOUS KASE OF KAISER THE ROTTWEILER

This is not Kaiser. I did not have my kamera with me.  Kurious and Kase are spelled with a C and so is kamera. The case is not curious. It is not a case.

Good to get that out of the way. I mentioned the dog in a post last week. For the last few months, he's been hanging around Hendon, accepting food but running away from any attempt at physical contact by a human being. Until last week when Mary, a friend of Susan's caught the dog (which she's named Kaiser, duh). Last night I was asked if I would take it to Vets4Pets today. Of course I would. Then I was told that Lisa the experienced pet taxi lady couldn't get it into her taxi. Susan told me to tell Andrea to bring a muzzle when I picked her up.

Oh yes, this was going to be fun.

At Mary's, when she opened the shutter in the back lane, Kaiser was standing up with Mary holding his leader. when he saw us, he promptly sat down on all fours, one big immoveable dog.

I made friends with him. Well, I talked to him, I offered my hand to his nose, rubbed his ears and under his chin, petted him. Kaiser just lay there. I went behind him and touched  him and he suddenly jumped up and charged out of the back yard and almost bumped into the van. Mary got in the van and Kaiser sat down outside it. Again I petted the dog, then touched its back and it suddenly jumped up again and scrambled into the van where it stayed for the rest of the trip to the vets.

It got out of the van easily and voluntarily and it wasn't much harder getting  him  through the door. Once inside he sat down, again the immoveable object. But without too much difficulty we got him weighed and into the vet's room for checking over. He may have a pulled muscle in his front left leg or possible a small fracture. Either way, he got and injection and Metacam painkiller and we're bringing him back in a week. Throughout the vet's examination he sat without  either moving or reacting.

I think he's been so traumatised by whatever happened to him that he's sunk in depression. The whole time I was with him, he never showed the slightest bit aggression. But then he showed no interest in anything at all except perhaps for Mary.

At the other end, Mary climbed out of the back of the van and Kaiser stayed where he was. So I climbed in and once again showed my legendary skills* with dogs. By gently tapping on his right hind leg he got up and got out, lunging into the back yard and making straight for his kennel.

More fun with Kaiser next week.

* This is a lie. My skills with dogs are not legendary. As far as I'm aware I do not have any great skills with dogs. But I am comfortable with them, know how to approach them, and can generally understand their body language to an extent that I rarely even get barked at by a dog.

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