Here he is - our new rescue boy Custer (we were not keen on Buster) has now been with us about 28 hours. What an eventful time it has been too!
Poor boy is 16 months old, he has had no training at all - not even lead training, and is a big puppy.. infact he is a VERY big, strong PUPPY.
It will be a long road ahead, as not only is he a big puppy, but he is the most stubborn dog we have EVER owned. Not surprising in his short life he has already had 3 homes, we are his fourth. He has also had 3 names, none of which he seemed to know, his first puppy name was Custard, so I thought Custer was close enough and OH refused to shout 'Custard' across the park. Although it will be some time before he is off lead to do any shouting, as he needs some level of control first, which there is none at the moment. Aside from the halti we purchased to stop anyone else ending up on the floor whilst trying to walk him.
This was him this morning helping me to do the hoovering..
It really is such a crying shame people ruin these beautiful dogs so badly and dump them in rescue centres for someone else to have to pick up the pieces of the damage they have done to the dog, through either cruelty or lack of training and boundries. This poor boy hasnt got a clue what his role in life should be, landing in his fourth home too.
But he is adorable when he is asleep look! This was after this mornings lead battle when he spent over an hour glued to the spot before I had to go get him in the car.
This evenings walk with the halti was a much bigger success, and he is enjoying some grooming time. Learning some gentle boundries.. its going to be a very long learning curve for us all, but hopefully Custer will learn to be a relaxed dog and that he is loved in time.
If you wish to follow Custer's future journey you will find it here http://custersfirst.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/introducing-custer.html
As this blog is for my creative stuff, once I get some time to get back to it. Just now though Custer is a bit of a full time job, so the art may well have to take a back seat for a short while.
Yesterday we lost our beloved boy Alfie. The xrays were due for next week but we brought them forward as the pain killers appeared to have stopped helping, there was no doubt our wonderful handsome, gorgeous boy did indeed have bone cancer and it had spread - no more could be done. We took the awful decision to end his suffering. Alfie was due to celebrate his 5th birthday on Saturday.
The above picture is one of the official photo's we had done when we got him 3 years ago, hopefully it shows how much he was thought of then.
Alfie was just so noisy and such an enormous presence in the house it is so painfully quiet here now without him, we are going to miss him so much. So far our remaining dog Jaja seems to be doing ok, hoping it stays that way.
My next post is going to be my experience of Alfie's illness - as during my weeks of research I found very little to read of other's experiences and what to expect, when etc? so I will be doing a post on canine bone cancer with the hope it might help others to know what they are dealing with. After I have done that normal service will resume with the arts and crafts - might be a while after, but I am still arting away here.. not much crafting, but the paints are out.
Goodbye to our darling boy, we we loved so much.
