Saturday, November 24, 2018

Since my previous entry, several things have happened, one of the reasons I didn't feel like updating the blog. Exactly 4 months after she had come to live with us (6 days after my last blog entry), she broke into our aviary one night and killed one of our laughing doves. We were extremely upset (our doves and other birds are very special to us) and emotionally we became detached from her. We just took care of her physically, but ignored her further. We really did not want her any more, but couldn't find her a new home. She really sulked, it showed ... Gradually (since her conduct was good again), I could feel that the initial upheaval in me was subsiding, and I started relaxing towards her.

But then, barely a month after she'd killed our tame dove, she again attacked another dove, this time one of our wild doves, who visit us twice daily, for food. This happened early morning, just before we fed the doves. The poor dove was so mutilated, that Pierre had to kill it to stop its agony ... Both of us were very upset, because we love our doves, both tame and wild, and want our yard to be a safe haven for them. Again, we got detached from our dog emotionally.

She had already gone through one period where she was on heat, and we booked her for a sterilization. We decided to go through with it, even if we found somebody who wanted her. At least then we could give them a spayed dog ... The operation was done on the 25th of October, and she weighed in at 38 kg. She had already gained 17.7 kg since finding her just over 6 months earlier, which is about 87% of her initial weight.  For the first ± 36 hours afterwards, she did not want to eat anything, but she recovered well and regained her appetite soon.

It was raining often for a while, so we skipped her weekly mange treatment a few times because of the cold and dampness, but then the mange got a foothold again ... Now we make sure that we do not skip any – if we miss it by one day, we do it as soon as we can afterwards. Overall her skin is now in good condition, although the new hair has not yet fully covered her, so there are still some patches where the hair is shorter than in other places.

Now another month has passed, and her behaviour has been good (apart from the fact that she sometimes does things like damaging our small fig trees, by chomping off their leaves and branches sporadically ðŸ˜•). Emotionally (towards her) we're not yet where we were in the beginning, but our dismay towards her (because of the two innocent doves) is gradually wearing off. She now leaves our doves and other birds alone, and is actually becoming a joy to have around. She also has not pulled our washing from the wash-line again, something she did a few times, right in the beginning.

One day we left our front gate open for only a few moments (wrong move!!), and suddenly we heard her barking very loudly and sounding quite aggressive. A stranger had seen the open gate and tried entering (we later checked it out on our security cameras), but she rushed towards him, and stopped about two metres from him, where he was standing in the entrance. At that moment my mother was sitting in her wheelchair in the garden under a tree (out of sight from the gate), and during those few moments of her barking, Kosbaar twice moved in the line between the stranger and my mother, like she wanted to protect my mom from him. Had she not intervened, there could possibly have been a tragedy that day ... She continued barking aggressively, until Pierre came out, and tended to the situation. She clearly showed that she is a very good watchdog! ðŸ˜ƒ

She NEVER barks when people merely pass by, and often several days go by without us hearing her bark at all! But when she does bark, we immediately go out and see why she's barking. Over the years we never allowed our dogs to bark for every bit of movement, because that can become a source of great irritation for one's neighbours. The only time she barks, is if it is necessary to alert us – like when a stranger comes to our gate.

She loves going for walks, and especially when she can swim – it is such a joy to see her play in the water! 






My sister brought her a squeaky toy yesterday, and she loves it! First looked at it suspiciously on hearing the first squeak, but then just enjoyed it! Unfortunately the light is quite poor in the video, because it was already early evening.



We've had Kosbaar now for just over 7 months.

Riana

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