The heating vent, really?

 
In the years I have spent in rescue I have had many dogs pass through my home a few were for a week or less but most for over a month and some for over a year. Now these numbers are well into three digits. I have had my favorite and I have had my not so favorites. But every now and then one will come into my life that just leaves me in Ahwww. I have one now that is so smart he amazes me all the time. The fact that he hates my PIO Sipan to the point of his memory of the last place he saw Sipan will make him nuts till he looks for himself to see is if he is really not there.  This has left my doors and gates beat to hell.  He beats one down I get another. He figures out how to get through or around a gate I have to figure out how to stop him. Now I have had lots of time with him and I thought I had all sights, and sounds of Sipan blocked. We have a magic trick we play on him which we use the different doors to let him in and out of the house.  Now I have to admit I have almost screwed up and forgot which dog was behind door number two. I put one on the back porch then run through the house to get dog number two. I have to get him up stair, back through the house and put in the back room before Mako opens the door and lets himself in the house. Yes the easy way would be to lock the doors so he cannot let himself in but then we forget the door is locked and it is not fun locking oneself out in your PJ's and slippers standing in a foot of snow. Yes he opens doors and if he can't open it he just body slams it with his weight and it pops open. He knows how to open the door to the upstairs and then he has access to the bathroom upstairs GAWD he can make a mess out of that in a split second. He knows how to body slam the back room door and so we have chairs in front of those two doors and new gates throughout the house. We are on total lock down now. Finally the old boy is starting to settle down.
The last few days he has been going between the chair and the sofa and growing. It has taken a little while to figure out what he is doing as there is nothing between the chair and the sofa except a heating vent. So we yell at him and he leaves the space but not long after he returns and starts the growing again. Now Sipan in the basement is really very quiet and just hangs out on my bed, but even he has been barking and for no reason as of late. So the other day Mako goes to the space between the sofa and chair and starts growling. Then Sipan starts barking in the basement. OK now I have find out what the hell is going on.  I get up and go look and here is Mako with his nose stuck into the heating vent and growling. Then all came clear to me; my bed is directly under the sofa in the basement and the heating vent is blowing right on my bed where Sipan likes to lay as it gets nice and warm under it.  So when Mako is growling at the vent they are directly over each other and pissing a moaning at each other through the heating vent. Seriously, how the hell did he figure that one out? It is very hard to know that the dogs are truly smarter than me.

Dog walking

Mako's story

Update Mako has been adopted

This is the first time I saw Mako, he was a picture on the internet. I learned quickly he was in need of help. He was tied out on a roof in Peru. A friend in Peru was asking for some one to adopt him and get him off the roof. My friend went to see him and found that his skin was cooking on him. I knew he need to be rescued. My friend helped me get him to the USA and at the moment I let him out of the kennel in the parking lot of the airport in Washington DC, I knew his skin was in much need of help.  I got him into my vet and he was put on meds and special shampoo to help his skin recover from all the exposure to the sun. He fit into my pack but we soon learned he did not like other big dogs. My Sipan, that was also rescued from Peru, and Mako started out mostly growling at each other till the first fight and ever since that first fight they have hated each other. The two of them rotate floors of the house and must be kept separated with three different gates.
 Now to know Mako is to love Mako. He tolerates all the little dogs that have come and gone through my home since June. He is a dominate dog and he will try to take over the couch and any humans and keep the small dogs away. He loves to play and cuddle and is smart.
He developed cancer from his long exposure to the sun while tied to the roof. His story is much like most dogs that end up in rescue.  He has cancer, the kind that is treated with surgery, when the scabby cells appear they need to be removed. This chases most folks off and they do want a dog that has cancer. His cancer is not the kind that grows tumors it is in the cell of the skin. They have no way to tell how long he can live with this.  How fast it will grow and if the surgery we have already had him through caught all the cells that will turn into cancer.

 

He can live a long life or he can live six months no way to know, the way he acts and his personality I think he will live forever. He has been through so much in the past year and it has not slowed him down one bit. He has been in three different countries, flown in a cargo hold and kept in his kennel for about 30 hours, road across to countries on a 3600 mile road trip and had two surgeries in six months.

He has so many thing against him one being his cancer, two he is 6 years old, three he is hairless, four he is a primitive breed and he hates big dogs and tolerates small dogs.  He loves humans and will snuggle with anyone. He is not shy and warms up quick. 

 This is in the car after we picked him up from the airport in Washington DC

This is his first day in my home in Michigan

 This is just him hanging out with the girls

    He snuggles with anyone.

And he is like any other hairless dog he loves the sun. But now must always have sunscreen and a t-shirt on.

 He begs just like all dogs

 He is curious and wants to see what is going on. As the girls sort the donations that come in he is right there to see if he gets something.

 And yes he is a Damn Dog.

  Mako is looking for a forever home that he can spend his final years in happy bliss. He has lived more life in the last 6 years and most of it not so good. He is a Peruvian Inca Orchid which is a primitive breed that are thought to be little altered from the ancestral wolves in behavioral attributes. In the first changes that domestication had on wolves were behavioral, selecting for animals that accepted the presence of humans without continually challenging in a pecking order situation.This being said he needs a firm but gentle correction when challenging the pecking order.  He is smart and catches on quick so he is easy to train. The humans must always be the head of the house and he will challenge that sometimes but a firm gentle correction he stands down and stops his behaviors. Mostly he like to growl at the others and when sleeping and a human brush against him he comes out of his sleep thinking it is another dog. My kids have learned that they must put there hand directly on him so he knows they are there and not one of the little dogs. He has never bit any human but has bit a couple of my small alpha dogs who want to be the head of him. He has only a couple of wore down teeth so he does not break the skin on the dogs he gives them a bruise, again it is only the alpha's that he does this too. and it has only happened a couple of time to them. He is goofy and lovable all who meet him like him.  But because I have another large dog we must keep the house all gated off and one dog on each floor of the house so they can never see each other. I love this dog but he needs to be free and so does my Sipan. My blog is to reach the folks that are not in my circle of friends that have big dogs or at there limit on numbers of dogs. His chances are so small of finding his own family because of the things that I have mentioned. For the right family I will move heavens and earth to get him to them and his adoption fee is one dollar and signed contract. I just want him out there to give him a better chance of finding a home where he can live out what ever life he has left. If you can give Mako a forever home and you are interested please contact me at  crested@sbcglobal.net. He is in Michigan.

Mako playing with toys

Snow storm of 2014

As I sit here with the wind chills dipping below -0 degrees Fahrenheit
and snow is drifting up to two feet with work and school closed, I have time to reflect on my child hood.
This is a time of great memories and happy times. My memories are rich with life and void of riches. although we were poor I never knew what that was. We ate even if it was poor mans gravy on potatoes.   Dad always made things for us to play with and we had fun. Mom got commodities, for all who do not know what that is, It was food staples from the government. Flour, sugar, powdered milk, powdered eggs, etc. Now most did not know what to do with all of this so Mom often got the goods no one wanted. Mom would bake and we always had yummy things to eat. Home made bread and she would take the left over bread doe and fry it and shake it in a paper bag with sugar and cinnamon. All the neighbors knew when she was baking and the kids just started showing up for all the yummy stuff. I am so blessed that I still have the memories of such innocents that the kids of today will never know. When I see 5 year old's out to dinner with the family talking on a cell phone I can not imaging what they will have to tell their children in 30 years. Life is being lost to technology and kids are not kids anymore they are just little versions of the parents who find themselves caught up in the techno era. Kids don't want real toys they want I pod ,cell phones, x boxes and every other gadget the society seems unable to live with out. Every few months the latest greatest version of what ever gadget you spent your money on is out and the hype that you will loose out on something if you don't get it the latest version, is causing us to dig into our pockets again for the same thing.    I can not say that the craziness has not gotten a hold of me, I am very blessed do have memories of a great child hood and a life I could have not made any better if I had planned it.  I have tried to give my kids memories but the harder I try the more they resist as technology is winning, the pressure to keep up with the rest of society is so strong that I fear my anger of such things will turn the kids even worse. I am not sure what to do but give in and let it be what it will be.
I will not worry about it and just move on, they will get what ever they want from this life with or with out me. When the stuff is gone I will still have the memories.
As I travel down memory lane.

Always loved dogs. They were always a part of my life.

My life long friend. Carlyn

My cousins Gail and Neva

Mom and Dad with older brother Fred.

Older brother Fred and younger brother Jim. I am standing by the tree. Dad made us a go cart.

 My older brother cooking Saturday mornings

 Summers with the family even around the house we all were there to enjoy.

Dad plowing the field with my older brother and I and neighbors sitting on plow. Yes we did all the dangerous things that we would call the law on someone doing today. There is lot to be said about innocents.

All of us kids and Mom. She still has the same ear rings.

On vacation I came down with the mumps but still had a good vacation.

Even the fish where bigger back then.

Taking a nap in the back yard was better than a slice of bread. The path between houses was well worn as we played with the neighbors and we went to each others house.

 and the things we could do with a wagon.

Naked kids playing in the water tank was the best.

Christmas was a great time and toys was what it was all about.

We went out to play staying in the house was unheard of.

Snow storms were even better. We had to crawl out windows to get out.

A Turkey leg was hours of fun.

Dad flooded the back yard every winter to make a ice rink for us to play on. We found all kinds of things to slid around on.

There were many snow sculptures that adorned the front yard.

 

Ice caves and snow ball fights where a way of life in the winter.

Even cutting trees down brought out the whole neighbor hood and God did smile on us as we had no idea how to cut the tree down and survived along with the house and garage. Life was so different.

I can't say that any of my neighbors know us or care. I see them and wave, we are not connected to people any more. It is a sad thing that we are loosing. What will our kids remember?????