Ten years

 

Ten years

It is ten years since our last Dalmatian died. Frodo the Faller was fourteen years old, quite a good age, considering all the ailments he suffered. He was preceded by Buddy Liver Spots, Dominie, and Cariadd, all of whom lived long active lives.

Barry had run with them for years through fine weather and foul, but his knees were increasingly painful. Once his new chrome alloy knee joints were in place, he didn’t want to wear them out, so running, a life-long pursuit, was replaced by other activities, and another Dalmatian was out of the question. Thirty years of Dalmatians had been great fun, but we recognised our new limitations and anyway, Labradors are so much easier.

The only Dalmatians we now have are ornaments, and some Disney-type iterations. I think they were toppers from large tubes of Smarties. I always loved Smarties, and they’re so useful for number work and simple music theory with young children.

Dogs and chocolate

 

Dogs and chocolate

                            Whisky, gently taking part of a KitKat from my mouth.                         That was the year we had the same colour hair/fur, Whisky and  I, though hers was natural.

In the years before anyone realised that dogs and chocolate were a dangerous combination, we used to hang chocolate decorations on the Christmas tree.

We came home one day to find that all the chocolate had been comprehensively sucked out of the foil wrappings and our Labrador, Whisky, was looking rather pleased with herself. We knew it wasn’t our small children – they would have taken the decorations off the tree in their entirety. It was our fault. We had trained her with chocolate - she was the gentlest dog.

That was the last year we put chocolate on the tree. Now, of course, chocolate is kept strictly away from dogs and cats.

However, Buddy Liver Spots once ate a complete chocolate cake one Christmas, to our grandchildren’s delight and admiration. He didn’t suffer any ill effects whatsoever and didn’t even look full or guilty. 

Buddy Liver Spots,counter surfing, supported keenly and optimistically by Dominie

Dalmatians are as greedy as Labradors, taller than them, and adept at counter surfing! We became quite used to placing food out of their reach  and have to do it still, since Jellicoe is a Labrador in disguise, always looking for something to eat. However, cats can and do climb, so it's even more of a challenge to keep them away from our comestibles!

AI graphics

 

AI graphics

I was playing around with AI, courtesy of a link from Yorkshire Pudding, and was quite impressed with the results.

                            I prefer the real photographs, though. 

Sixteen years

 

Sixteen years

Sixteen years have passed since these photographs were taken. Our Dalmatian years lasted for 30 years, the last one, my velcro dog, Frodo the Faller, leaving us 9 years ago.

                                        Frodo the Faller, my velcro dog

I’ve heard all sorts of stories about Dalmatians. Some people asked us if black-spotted Dalmatians turned brown in old age, or did the liver-spotted turn black with age? One person told me that liver-spotted Dalmatians were not regarded as proper Dalmatians. They are ‘proper’ Dalmatians and some breeders try to specialise in the liver-spotted variety. Many people were surprised to learn that the puppies are white when they’re born, developing their spots from the age of about two weeks until 18 months or so.

                                    Dominie of the thunderous paws

It is a fact that puppies born with coloured patches used to be destroyed at birth. Whether this was because it was thought the patches might become cancerous or because it demeaned the breed or the breeder in some way is unclear. Patched puppies are no longer destroyed and haven’t been for more than forty years. They make fine pets, though they will not be destined for a show career.

                                        Buddy Liver Spots

Like most white or piebald animals, Dalmatians have a tendency to deafness, but this is being addressed with careful breeding and BAER testing (Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response) of registered breeding stock. There are some unregistered breeders so deaf pups are still born. With careful, patient training they can be wonderful dogs, but they require a lot of work.

                        Buddy Liver Spots and Frodo the Faller

We greatly enjoyed our Dalmatians. They were fantastic running companions for Barry and would also walk for hours with me. Now we lead lives more suited to rambling, Labrador Retrievers have become our companions once again. We have come full circle. We started with a Labrador, then had the Jack Russell years, which overlapped the Labrador. The Dalmatians ran concurrently with the JRs for a while, and then led back to Labradors.

                Jenna. the little Labrador with the enormous paws, with her tracker and cow bell, never happier than when retrieving

The Old Grey Mare

The Old Grey Mare

I didn’t understand why white horses were always called greys so I looked it up several years ago. Then, looking it up again to make sure I was correct, I discovered I wasn’t and that not all white horses are called greys. A grey (white) horse is born with coloured hair and black or grey skin. As the horse ages, the colour gradually fades until they are an overall silvery white. Only horses with the grey gene turn white. Other horses without the grey gene retain their coat colour but may develop white hairs around their eyes or muzzle.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Genetically white horses have pink skin and white hair from birth. They usually have brown or blue eyes. The difference between horses born white and those who go white with age can always be told by the underlying skin colour. A grey will have dark skin around the eyes and muzzle while a white horse will always have pink skin.

Most genetically white animals have a tendency to deafness, though this does not seem to be the case with white horses. For example, Dalmatian puppies are born white, the spots developing over the ensuing months. There have been many instances of deaf Dalmatians but careful breeding is eradicating the problem. All registered Dalmatian breeders are required to have their proposed breeding animals tested. The BAER (Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response) test measures brain wave activity in response to particular sounds or tones. It is completely safe and non-invasive and is also used in small humans or others who cannot reliably cooperate with a standard hearing test (though obviously not for breeding purposes!)

                        Jack Russell Biddy with Dalmatian puppy Cariadd 1984

Affected registered Dalmatians are not allowed to be bred from, even if only unilaterally deaf. In this way, the number of deaf Dalmatians has been reduced considerably.

The Old Grey Mare is a traditional American folk song from the early years of the 19^th century. It is about an old, tired horse that is still loyal to her owner.  It is not a compliment to be likened to an old grey mare, another name for old mare being 'nag'.

                                      Although it might not appear to be an appropriate name for a welcoming pub, The Old Grey Mare is the name of at least four pubs in the UK, as well as a pale ale brewed by Greene King. Greene King is a brewery in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

 On the other hand, The White Horse is the name of around 270 pubs, and is the eighth most popular pub name. The White Horse at Blakeney was run for several years by my late sister and brother-in-law. Their younger daughter and son-in-law ran The King’s Head (tenth most popular name) in Letheringsett. My grandmother, a teetotaller, ran a pub in Saffron Walden, so the tendency seems to have run in the family. 

Snack time

Snack time!

Why do dogs always manage to look half-starved whenever food is in the offing?

Jenna and Roxy are always the first to show interest but Roxy is the only counter-surfing Labrador we have had. All the Dalmatians were inveterate thieves and we are tempted to give some credence to the theory of transference of souls as Roxy was born just three days before Frodo the Faller died.

To be fair, the dogs were called over by Susannah to be tempted at close quarters by peanut butter on toast.

Isambard, one of our Ocicats, is always to be found near one or other of the dogs. He does not like peanut butter but joined his friends anyway.

As the smallest – even Roxy, at not quite eight months old, is taller than her - Jenna is often to be found on hind legs, greying muzzle and questing nose searching for the hint of a sniff of a smell of food.

Eventually patience and perseverance were rewarded when the plate ‘fell’ to the floor – I believe it may have been after a nudge from Jenna’s nose.

Footnote: did you know that peanut butter is believed to promote shiny coats in dogs? Just the thought of peanut butter seems to have had the desired effect on our dogs!

The Final Adventures of Frodo the Faller – a Trooper to the End

 The introduction of two beautiful Somali kittens to the Crowthorne Crew in February resulted also in the introduction of ringworm. It is not caused by worms but by a fungus belonging to the Tinea family. It creates intensely itchy spots which are very painful when scratched. Bertie and I seemed to be the worst affected but naturally Frodo had to share the experience. At the same time he had another outbreak of sarcoptic mange (canine scabies) on his shoulder, four months after the first attack.

He had also been experiencing recurrent stomach upsets. Courses of antibiotics and a change to an hypoallergenic diet helped – his appetite was unaffected – a greedy Dalmatian is greedy to the endJ

However, it was clear that he was slowly deteriorating. His system seemed to be breaking down and each new problem or setback took him longer to overcome. He began to sleep longer and longer, sometimes as long as eighteen hours, and each time I hoped and prayed he would quietly slip away but he wouldn’t. The mange on his shoulder broke down within two weeks into a wound that refused to heal, despite antibiotics, and it was clear that he would soon be in a great deal of pain if it were left to attack the underlying tissues and expose the bone. So, with great sadness, we let him go. We were comforted by the knowledge that he had spent so much time with the vets that he was never afraid of visiting them and so his final moments were with people he trusted and who loved him.

Frodo was hard work when he first came home with us at five months old. He liked all our family dogs but any unknown dogs were a challenge and he would always make the first aggressive advance. Even in his (short!) show career he would attempt to take lumps out of other dogs as he galloped past them. For that reason and also because he never really liked shows we stopped subjecting him to them. In any case, the small rings at dog shows don’t really allow dogs to show their full potential. There is nothing finer than seeing a healthy animal at full stretch in the countryside.

Eventually Frodo learnt to be more trusting and in his final years he bore the attentions of puppies and other dogs with grace. He was such a special dog – he had so many problems but he bore them all with stoic determination. He was my Velcro dog, never happier than when he had me in his sight. Indeed, when we went walking together he checked on me every few seconds. Sometimes I would hide from him and he would rush back, a concerned expression on his face. His relief when he ‘found’ me was palpable. He was gentle with small children, the other dogs and the cats. Anyone could steal his food from his bowl as he ate and he wouldn’t murmur, quite unlike his Labrador companions! He was the top dog but never lorded it over the others. If he wanted a particular bed he would loom over the occupant until he or she moved. Naturally the cats refused to move and so he would climb in and lie down on them. They moved then!

Like all Dalmatians (or was it just ours?) he was an inveterate thief and we had to hang the rubbish out of his reach as normal bins were no defence against his raids. The medication he took twice daily to try and control his epileptic seizures made him ravenous, constantly seeking food, not always from an appropriate source. He started to eat Frankie’s books because they had miniscule applications of food on them – toddlers are so apt to deposit tasty morsels everywhere! His tablets also caused him to ‘leak’ and thus he wore wraps or ‘loin cloths’ which added to his dignity rather than diminishing it. He was much admired, even in old age, in the forest, my elegant, loping boy. In latter months he wore a harness which enabled us to lift him if he got stuck somewhere as occasionally his hind legs let him down and he couldn’t extricate himself from whichever flower tub or bush that had trapped him.

He taught us such a lot. We learnt how to comfort him after he had had a seizure and was unaware of his surroundings – how frightening that must be. We learnt how to lift him into the car for the journey to the forest where he loved to walk. We learnt to be patient when he had ‘accidents’ in the house because he couldn’t move fast enough to reach the door. He was a fastidious dog and hated to be dirty.

We miss him – it’s only been four weeks – and I have not yet broken the night-time listening habit that developed after his seizures began, ten years ago. I am sure Bertie misses him, too, for he spends much time wanting reassurance from us.

So ends thirty years of Dalmatian companions. I think we shall not have another – all four of ours had different health problems, though the first, Cariadd, was the strongest and the longest-lived.

Our last walk together . . . 

 Frodo was fun, a character and a wonderful companion. He gave such love, such trust. Sleep well, my boy, in starlight.

 Frodo - Washakie Lord of the Rings: 06.12. 2001 - 23.03.2015