Dante And Mina

Sometimes I wish I knew Dante before he was a tripawd. Was he this goofy before? Was he so very far from graceful, like he is now?

He was such a young pup when it happened that I doubt I’d know the difference, with puppies being gregarious and clumsy. But honestly, if you look up the word “Goofball” in the dictionary, I’m sure Dante’s goofy big face would be staring back at you.

He’s got bald knees when he sits, his ears look like satellites, and hubby always says he has a man ‘bum’. He’s the first dog I’ve ever seen who actually has bum cheeks! Of course, he’s goofy looking in the most adorable way possible.

He get’s himself in the most interesting predicaments and positions. We have a coffee table that is 16 inches tall, with a shelf 6 inches below the top. Dante is 20 inches tall now. It would be difficult enough for a quadpawd to wiggle their way in there at his size, on the slippery wood. Dante does it, he runs and slides into it, like he’s sliding into home base. He then flips onto his back and pops his head out like a snapping turtle, and playfully nips anything that walks by.

Last night we had to pause the movie we were watching because Dante had wormed his way behind the giant couch cushion which then fell over. He then teetered precariously on top of the cushion, contemplating a leap of faith onto the coffee table.

I find a lot of humor in his tripawdness now. The way he moves, the way he looks doing things with one front leg. When he wants to wrestle with Mina, he rears up like a horse, steadies himself on his back legs and then – *Smuck*! Down comes his giant front paw onto her head. He does this playful, goofy, side step hop around the cats when he wants them to play, he almost looks like a little a bucking bull. He does perfect somersaults all over the house, all of the time.

Most of the time I know he doesn’t realize he’s missing anything. Other days I swear he’s well aware and he plays it up! If we want him to come inside or go into his crate when he doesn’t want to, he’ll simply let himself fall over to the side where his leg is missing. He then gives this pathetic look of “But, LOOK AT ME!! I only have three legs!” Sometimes he will do this on the deck or couch, and threaten to roll off, so we have to go run to him to catch him. You know how they say you should never go to your dog when you want them to come? Dante has perfected making us come to him!

He’s learned to wait until the other dogs are chewing their bones, so they will hold the bone for him. They’re pretty patient and most often let him get away with chewing their bone while they hold it upright. It’s pretty cute to see. His head is very strong, he’s compensated for his missing leg by using his head to pull himself up. He’s perfected the “Dante Head Smash Moms Computer Move” by pulling his front half up on the couch and them slamming his big, strong head onto my lap top screen. Mina barks at me to get off the computer, Dante just tries to break the computer.

I wonder some days if he would get away with as much as he does, if he weren’t a tripawd. Sometimes I am just too amazed that he’s capable of doing what he just did, to correct it. Other times it just has me in stitches on the floor, laughing too hard to say anything aside from “What are you doing goofy boy?!”.

He really has been a lot of fun and a source of endless entertainment.

Goof-Ball

Adj.

Silly Or Outlandish

Three months ago, we brought home two tiny puppies. 10 weeks old, 9 pounds, and small enough to walk under our 11 inch Beagle, Coda.

Three months ago, Dante couldn’t play with the other dogs, he sat and watched them, as his world flew by. He hopped around, often falling and tumbling. He’d bite at the air where his leg was, yelp and scream. I’d cry, he’d cry and I was seriously unsure if we’d made the right decision.

Three months ago, we were new to the world of tripods. Brand new territory for us, and one we weren’t sure we should have ventured into.

Flashforward to now

We have two, 29 pound puppies, who are 18 inches tall, tall enough for our Beagle, Coda, to walk under. Now, Dante can run and keep up. Dante falls still, but we’ve found the humor in it, rather than the pain. Dante can do perfect somersaults, too! Dante doesn’t cry or yelp anymore. Now, we can’t imagine not having Dante in our lives, and I’m not sure we’ll ever be without a tripod again. (We also can’t live without another beagle, or pitbull – what are the chances of us finding a beagle/pitbull mix who is missing a leg?? LOL)

Dante and Mina are housetrained and in puppy kindergarten. They are becoming fine little members of doggie society and I couldn’t be happier. Coda still loves them and they still love her.

3 months ago, I had doubts and regrets. I wasn’t sure we’d done what was right for him. I thought maybe he’d do better with someone else who only had him, and could spend all their time with him helping him get stronger. I thought maybe we’d made a mistake and weren’t equipped to help him grow and learn.

Now, my only regret is that Dante didn’t come with a straight jacket! What a crazy, energetic, hyper, trouble-making boy he is – and I love every second of it!

I am amazed at Dante’s progress.

He can keep up nearly side by side with the other dogs and has been playing like crazy. He hasn’t figured out the couch yet, but has stairs down pat and walks are going GREAT! He isn’t resisting anymore and he can go further and further each day.

Right now all three are snuggled up on the dog bed sleeping. We separated the pups into their own crates. They were just getting too squishy for comfort and waking each other up. Dante isn’t quite getting the hang of house training yet, and still wakes up I’d say 3/7 nights a week – Mina has house training down pat for the most part – though she likes to abuse her ‘door scratching’ powers to get me to let her out 800 times an hour to go run laps, LOL.

We took the pups in for their shots last week and I learned some interesting information about Dante. His accident happened for the few days the owners had taken the pups and mom home. They had taken Dante to a vet different from the one the shelter uses. The owners then surrendered the pups again and Dante’s leg was dead. According to the shelter vet, they think he was attacked, although the original vet who treated him wouldn’t share information. He has a large mass of scar tissue on his neck that has gone down considerably, and the vet thinks he was chewed up and needed surgery there. When the leg was amputated the nerve had been severed – not consistent with a break, and he also has some scaring on his face and side that is consistent with an attack. Poor guy, we thought those scars were from rough-housing with Mina – and we thought the scar tissue in his neck had something to do with the amputation – but nope, the shelter vet had said they were going to remove it, but it’s gone down a lot on it’s own now, so they’re not concerned any more.

He’s a little trooper that’s for sure!!

They’re growing like weeds. They were 10 pounds the day we got them – 16 now! 6 pounds in 3 weeks. Teething has begun, and everything is free game – so that’s been….fun?

They’re great pups, generally well behaved 95% of the time – and we love having them! They’ve settled in so nicely that it’s hard to remember a time when they weren’t here. Although, the constant noise does remind us of the peace and quiet we used to have!

It’s been really fun the last three weeks. Dante has surpassed our expectations as this point, and continues to surprise us on a daily basis.

Long weekend this weekend – looking forward to it! Might have some time to play around with my blog settings and figure out how to add some pictures. They’re already starting to look less like puppies and more like little dogs!

Happy Easter from our Zoo – Coda, Dante, Mina, Zoey and Resin (And the pawrents, too!)

The puppies are starting to figure out the ‘house rules’ – no chewing the coffee table, carpet, couch, bookshelf, mom, the cat, etc. They’re also learning what ‘get down’ means when they climb on the coffee table or the TV stand. They’re slowly learning that licking is OK, biting is not – but they sometimes get too excited and I turn into a chew toy yelling and flailing – puppy teeth are sharp, especially two sets of them!

They currently sleep in Coda’s plastic travel kennel, but they won’t fit in there comfortable too much longer – and Mina really seems to dislike the wire crate we were hoping they would move into as they grew. I guess we’ll play it by ear – I am leaving the crate out with toys and blankies, hoping they will go in and out of it and get comfortable with it before we need it. If Mina still has a hard time with it, I guess we will have to buy another larger plastic travel kennel for them to sleep in.

I might get to take them for their first walk today, or attempt a walk since they hate their leashes – if my hub comes home early enough and the wind and snow stop. I want to start socializing them at the dog park in a few weeks, so they need to get comfy with leashes before then. I am a little weary with Dante on a leash and collar, since he’s a front leg amputee – I’m not sure it’s a good idea to be giving him a tug and pulling him forward when he resists having the leash on. I’ll have to take a peek at the other options out there if he continues to resist. We’re going to have to get them chain leashes, Dante loves to chomp on the leashes instead of walking.

Coda absolutely loves them – she doesn’t like it when they fight with eachother, she’ll give a big beagle woof at them to make them stop when they get too rough with each other. Last night she slept beside them in the wire crate, instead of on her bed. She tried to get IN the plastic kennel with them, but they barely fit, never mind her in there, too!

I slept on the couch in the living room with them, which may be the route we have to go until they sleep through the night. We live in a two storey house, and it’s REALLY difficult to rush two puppies down the stairs in the middle of the night, and make it through all of the doors and such safely when you’re half asleep. Our living room has a sliding door out to the back yard, so it’s easy to open the door, scoop them out of the crate and take them out quickly.

They actually whined in the middle of the night too, to be let out. Which is good, the two nights they just rustled around and I barely heard them, ‘mothers’ intuition seemed to wake me up, more than their movement I think.

I am going to have to read up  on the forums to see if there are any tips about walking a fore-leg amputee, I am nervous about it!

Boy, it’s been a busy few days at our new home!

Mom has had to put us in our crate for puppy naps so we will settle down. The vet said no running and jumping for two weeks – yeah right! Dante has already figured out how to jump up and down off the deck, including a few super man leaps with all legs splayed. Mina is brave and quite adventurous – running all over the place.

Our beagle sister adores us. The only thing she doesn’t like is when mom gets up with us at 4 in the morning for a pee break, we run straight to her bed and wake her up. She doesn’t like having two puppies on her in the middle of the night, we’re not sure why! Mom also does not seem to want to play at 4 am, who knew. Party pooper.  Dad is not happy that we both snore. Now there are three snoring dogs in the bedroom at night – dad says mom snores too, but mom doesn’t believe him!

So far, we have made it 6 hours in the night both nights without needing to go out – not bad for being only 11 weeks old.

Mom and dad got to see Dante run for the first time yesterday! Boy is he quick, when he is running you would never know he is missing a leg!  He also holds his own pretty good when Mina tries to take his toys. He has figured out how to pounce and do a play bow, too – he’s a trooper!

The cats are adjusting to us, they still hiss but they are pretty passive aggressive, so we’re not worried about them.  We love it here and we have settled in quite nicely.

It has been 3 weeks now that Dante had his leg amputated and all that remains are a few scabs – they seem to bother him a bit and get itchy, he will roll around and try to bite where his scabs are – but other than that he is doing excellent.

Mom and dad have already taught us to sit and stay at the door when we come in, to dry our feet. We are smart cookies and have learned a lot since coming home two days ago! We can sit. Dante can lay down (Mina is too stubborn and independent for this one) and we haven’t had many accidents and seem to have figured out that we need to pee as soon as we get outside.

Mom only has one concern, and that is how much to allow Dante to do on his own, and how often she should pick him up and help him. He sometimes whines to be picked up and mom isn’t sure if she should encourage him to keep going, or if she should just pick him up. Mom doesn’t want to baby him too much and turn him into a 70lb dog who expects to be carried in a year, but does not want to over-do it. Dante seems to whine the most when he is unsure more than tired. He mostly sits when he is tired and takes a little rest.

Mom will get it figured out and ask the vet some more questions when we go back for our booster shots next week!

Dante & Mina