Put a dog down today.

[ShadowsDad]

Been there, done that---never gets less painful, my heart goes out to you and yours.

Thanks. I've put down far too many. It never gets any easier. At least this one didn't die in my arms after bleeding from every orifice all night. That's happened (mast cell tumor). 

But on a positive note I never knew such a thing existed, Flight Nannies. I'm working with a company now to set up someone to hand carry the pup (in a carrier) on an aircraft up to Maine. That's far better than being in a cargo hold. Instead she'll be pampered for the flight. Though the breeder told me today that in her experience they sleep through the flight. If things go as I'm planning the new pup is 3 weeks away. Fingers crossed. We've never had an adult dog as small as this will be and never a pup this small.

[ShadowsDad]

Some pix of the new pup. Sorry I forgot to post for this long. She was 4 months old the end of February. I'll post them in order of her "aging". I think we got her when she was 9 weeks old.

7 weeks old and too young to leave her mom. This is a picture from the breeder.


Winter aka Winnie aka Win with Shadow. He has a new "sister" and they quickly became best buds. She wasn't going to take no for an answer.










So I finally found a flight nanny service that was capable, TLC Flight Nannys. Very professional. The FN was a flight steward but on his days off. I'm trying to remember, I think she weighed 8# and change the day of the flight. She spent her days indoors in Florida and never experienced anything outdoors. She doesn't like the cold and never saw snow. It was a hard time to get acclimated to cold as it was some of the coldest temps of the season. But she wasted no time going outside to do her business. So my "fear" of house training her was unfounded. She learned very fast; go out, do her business, and come back in sooner.

So she's house trained and had very few accidents (2?) . She knows "come" and her name. But she's a pup and has a very short attention span. OK, no attention span at all. If it isn't play or involves food it's not going to happen. She's a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and they have been described as a big dog trapped in a small body. That describes her. She doesn't know fear. She's also very willful. When she gets something in her head she has a one track mind, for days she'll work on it. I've scolded her and she stood up to me and started to tell me off by barking at me. But she's learning. She loves people, and that's typical for the breed.

Last week we took her to the vet to get shots and chipped and she weighed 18.6#. So she's growing. There is a picture below of what she's potentially going to be built like. They are very stocky. Her final weight should be near 28#. The bull terrier in her breed name comes from the fact that their job in the bull baiting ring was to grab hold and hang on. You can see the strength in the head and body. I don't think Winnie will get much larger in height or length, but she should add mass in the form of muscles. The vet visit... We've had our vet for decades and he had an AmStaff that he recently lost. He came out to tell us that he was going to kidnap her. The vet tech who finally brought her out, we can't go in due to the covid madness, said that she was the star of the day. Yeah, I can see that, she loves people. The vet said that her tail was wagging the entire time.



Her older brother is an American Staffordshire Terrier which was bred from the SBT, obviously to be larger. He weighed 90# when she came into our home but has lost weight due to the exercise she forces on him through play. We've increased his food, but it's a guessing game. We'll keep a closer eye on his weight. He was depressed over losing his older sister, but that depression is a thing of the past. Now he has his paws full with "little killer" aka Winnie.

[GAW9576]

Glad things are working out well with the Dog. They are such a huge part of families that love them. We miss our little chihuahua that passed the end of last year. The one we still have is doing well with the loss but is not quite the same without her friend.

[ShadowsDad]

They grieve family member loss the same as we do. If anyone had told me that 50 years ago I'd have claimed Bovine Excrement! But I've seen it too many times for it to be accidental.

I don't know where it happened but it was suggested to me, and I believe it, that we should have allowed Shadow to view his sisters body for closure. We screwed up on that. Never again. From now on full disclosure for the survivor. Our other dogs saw the body and handled it much better. Lesson learned.

GAW, you know you need another dog. They need a companion the same as we do. At my age that's being driven home in spades. I can't play with Shadow as I used to but she can. I just hope he survives. He's 11 and doesn't need some of what she puts him though. I know the feeling. Right now she's in a hard crate to give all of us a break and so that she is forced to take a nap. Two steps forward and one step back, but she's a puppy.

[GAW9576]

They grieve family member loss the same as we do. If anyone had told me that 50 years ago I'd have claimed Bovine Excrement! But I've seen it too many times for it to be accidental.

I don't know where it happened but it was suggested to me, and I believe it, that we should have allowed Shadow to view his sisters body for closure. We screwed up on that. Never again. From now on full disclosure for the survivor. Our other dogs saw the body and handled it much better. Lesson learned.

GAW, you know you need another dog. They need a companion the same as we do. At my age that's being driven home in spades. I can't play with Shadow as I used to but she can. I just hope he survives. He's 11 and doesn't need some of what she puts him though. I know the feeling. Right now she's in a hard crate to give all of us a break and so that she is forced to take a nap. Two steps forward and one step back, but she's a puppy.

I know another dog would be best but we have 8 outdoor cats that spend half the day inside (not my choice) and three kids ages 9 to 13. (I alow them to live indoors too.) so our chihuahua gets Lots of attention. I homeschool our kids so we are home a lot too. If we were gone more I would definitely get another dog to keep the one company though.

[ShadowsDad]

Yeah, one almost needs to allow the kids to stay inside! Too funny!

[Wchnu]

Beautiful puppy. Veddy happy she is working out. Looks like she has settled right in.

[ShadowsDad]

I weighed the pup on Saturday (6 days ago) and she weighed 28.6#. When we picked her up she weighed 8# and change. She's maturing rapidly and bowels and bladder don't need emptying every hour. Soon I hope we can leave her out of her hard crate at night. Also soon, I can start to train her because she'll have a long enough attention span.

[Wchnu]

I weighed the pup on Saturday (6 days ago) and she weighed 28.6#. When we picked her up she weighed 8# and change. She's maturing rapidly and bowels and bladder don't need emptying every hour. Soon I hope we can leave her out of her hard crate at night. Also soon, I can start to train her because she'll have a long enough attention span.

SAAAWWWEEETTTTT. Thanks for the updates!!