Animal Insting

Well!  You will never believe what we saw yesterday when we went to physical therapy!  We saw a beagle walking on two legs!  And it wasn't his back legs, like in that video that maybe you have seen on the internet of that little dog that was born without any front legs.  No, this dog was walking on his front legs and holding his back legs up.  He walked clear across the waiting room at the clinic and back again.  I had never seen anything like it before in my whole life, and neither had Gabe, and neither had Mom.  So we all just stared.  Mom wished she had brought her camera, but she hadn't, so she couldn't take a picture.

Anyway, this dog was there for physical therapy, just like we were, and we could tell this because the dog's dad was talking to Dr. Connie.  So later on, Mom asked Dr. Connie what was wrong with the dog's back legs, and she said it was two knee surgeries that had gone wrong.  And she said that the beagle was her special challenge.  And Mom asked Dr. Connie if she had taught him to walk on his front legs like that, and Dr. Connie said no, the dog had taught himself to do that.  And what Dr. Connie was trying to do was get him to walk on all four legs again.

Personally, I think it's much more interesting to see a dog walking on two legs instead of four legs.  I see dogs walking on four legs every day, but how often do you see a dog walking on two legs?  I think the beagle's mom and dad should put him in the circus or on "Funny Dog Tricks" or whatever that show is called on TV, and they could make a lot of money doing that.  But that is just my opinion, which I don't mind giving, even though nobody asked for it!

So while I am talking about physical therapy, I will just say that Dr. Connie thinks Gabe and I are doing really well.  Dr. Connie has told Mom more than once that I am a very smart dog and that I learn fast.  Of course, she also said that I am a little bit stubborn and quirky, but Mom already knew that.  Mom told Dr. Connie that I am so smart that I write a blog, and she gave Dr. Connie the blog address, but we don't know if Dr. Connie ever really read my blog or not.

Gabe didn't go to physical therapy last time because he was all full of stitches that stuff, but he went back there today.  At first he didn't want to go swimming, but after he got in the water, he remembered that it wasn't so bad.  Anyway, since Gabe and I are doing so well with our therapy, we don't have to go back for a whole month.

And speaking of Gabe, he got all his stitches taken out on Tuesday, and I went there, too, so I could get my toenails trimmed.  Gabe has this thing called a seroma where one of his cysts was removed on his side.  It's like a bubble sort of thing under his skin, and it's full of fluid that leaked out of his blood vessels.  Dr. Patricia used a syringe to suck out all the fluid one time, but then it came back.  So she said it was better to just leave it and let it go away on its own.

Here's a photo of Gabe's seroma.  He is embarrassed that he has to go to Texas looking so lumpy and all shaved like a patchwork quilt, but Mom has told Aunt Cheryl and Hank that they shouldn't laugh at Gabe and hurt his feelings.

Oh, and here's a photo of me playing nurse when Mom put some special ointment on Gabe's incision and then put a muzzle on him so he couldn't lick it off.  This ointment is supposed to taste nasty so that dogs won't lick it, but I like the taste of it, so I always lick it off as soon as Mom puts it on.  I was happy to be a good sister and help Gabe out with this little job when he couldn't do it himself.

Okay, I guess that is all I had better write about today.  Mom is busy trying to get some stuff done before we go on our trip.  Gabe and I are mostly resting up so we will be in good shape for all that sleeping in the car while we are traveling.  Mel and Barry have to go get their bordatella vaccinations this morning so they won't get kennel cough while they are staying at Pooches' Paradise.

Well, that's all for now.  Bye!

I might have mentioned one or two times that basenjis come from Africa, but guess what!  They are not the only kind of dog that started out there.  Another breed from Africa is the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and today I will tell you some things about them.

If you look at a map that is up-to-date, you will not find a country called Rhodesia on it.  And that is because Rhodesia is now two different countries named Zambia and Zimbabwe.  These countries are kind of in the southeast part of Africa.  They changed their names when they became independent countries, but the Rhodesian Ridgeback did not change its name, which is probably just as well, because it is hard to keep track of names that are always changing.

Anyway, the Rhodesian Ridgeback got started back in the 18th century when this man named Cornelius Van Rooyen got the idea to make a breed of dog that would be good for hunting lions.  So he crossed his dogs with some native dogs owned by the Khoi-khoi people.  These African dogs had a ridge of hair on their backs that grew the opposite way of all their other hair.  I don't know why it grew this way, but I know that this funny ridge of hair got passed down in the genes, and that's why we call these dogs "ridgebacks."

There are some other names for this breed, including Van Rooyen's Lion Dogs, African Lion Hound, and African Lion Dog.  These dogs were good at hunting lions because they were brave and tough, and also they were smart enough not to get eaten by crocodiles or bitten by snakes.  The way they hunted lions was that they were sent out in a pack, and when they found a lion, they kept it cornered and busy until the hunters could come and shoot the lion.

In 1924, Ridgies got their very own breed standard, and they were registered with the South African Kennel Club.  By 1928, they were being shown in Great Britain.  But they didn't get registered by the AKC until 1955.  Rhodesian Ridgebacks are in the Hound Group, just like basenjis are.

You might be interested to know that there are at least three other dog breeds that have ridges of fur on their backs.  These breeds are the Phu quoc ridgeback dog of Vietnam, the Thai Ridgeback, and the Combai of Tamilnadu, India.

Originally, Rhodesian Ridgebacks could be any of several colors, but now the standard says they should be light wheaten to red wheaten.  It's okay for them to have some white on their chest and toes, and sometimes they have dark masks.

Ridgies are intelligent, loving, and loyal, but they don't always like strangers, which is also true of basenjis.  Ridgies like to protect their people, so they can be trained to be good guard dogs.  I have never met a Rhodesian Ridgeback in person, but they seem like they would be nice dogs.  I asked Mom if we could get one, but as usual, she said no.  Sigh.  Some days Mom is just no fun at all.

Here's a fine little poem I wrote myself, with only a little help from Mom's rhyming dictionary.  I hope you like it!

Fleas are horrible, awful bugs that bite you and make you itch, and they can also give you tapeworms, anemia or the plague.  Which is why I don't like them much.  In fact, I don't like fleas at all, and I think I am not alone in this!

Remember when I told you about the Siberian Tiger, which is the largest tiger that still exists in the world? Well, the Sumatran Tiger is the smallest.  And the reason I decided to write about this tiger is because there are two of them living right here in Kansas City, at the zoo.  Mom took a picture of one when she was there, but the other one was busy taking a nap, so Mom couldn't really get a picture of that one.

But the one she did take a picture of was chewing up a cardboard box.  This is exactly the kind of thing a dog might do, so maybe this tiger is part dog.  Anyway, I think the tiger likes to chew up boxes because it's something entertaining to do while spending time locked up in the zoo.

So now I will tell you about Sumatran Tigers, which come from the island of Sumatra, which is part of Indonesia.  Here's a map, just in case you don't remember exactly where Sumatra is, and the red spots show where the tigers live.  Scientists have tested the DNA of the Sumatran Tiger, and they figured out that this kind of tiger has been on the island for a long, long, time, because the seas rose and cut off the islands from the mainland.  So the Sumatran Tiger is different from all other tigers, including being smaller and having narrower stripes and having more of a beard and mane.

The Sumatran Tiger can swim really fast because it has webbing between its toes.  Sometimes it hunts by driving a hoofed animal into the water and then catching it because it can swim faster than its prey.  Sumatran Tigers like to eat stuff like wild boar, Malayan tapir, and deer.  But sometimes they also eat monkeys, fish, or birds.

There are only about 400 or 500 Sumatran Tigers left in the wild.  Some of them live in game reserves or in a national park, but others live in areas that are not protected.  A lot of forests are cut down in Sumatra because of people making palm oil, and this is not good for the tigers, who like to live in the forests.  And even the tigers that live in the game reserves are not really safe because poachers might kill them.  All of which means that the Sumatran Tiger is CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.

A bunch of people are working on trying to save the Sumatran Tiger by breeding them in zoos and then teaching them to live in the wild again.  I hope they are able to save these tigers, but I'm afraid it might take a really long time!