Santa

Santa

White and black dog back of the line up in the main picture. She was a sweetheart and no one human or animal was nasty, she was very dim. Santa was the most psychic animal we had and l trusted her judgement on humans totally. She had been abused and could sense things in people even if they looked normal. She did not growl but her body language changed.

We went up Teide taking hubs Mum for a drive on Boxing Day. A car was by the side of the road and as it drove off a dog ran out. I bellowed “they dumped that dog”
Hub slammed on brakes and started to reverse. We got back to her and both jumped out the car. She took one look and ran off about 30feet looking up the road. When hub moved she was terrified so he sneaked slowly back to the car, every move he made she jumped and l attempted to catch her.
This was finally accomplished after 20 rounds of ring around the car and we continued with our drive. It took months till she trusted him totally and never felt safe around men.

Santa’s skin was appalling. I don’t think it was Scabies and it did not smell like Demodex whatever it was it was raw and sore. We decided the best thing was to have her put down.
The next day we went to the vet, and spent about 3 hours outside. One of us would say ok the best thing is to have her put down, the other would agree. Then the one that said have her put down decided maybe not. Talk about indecisive!
In the end we went in and spoke to Sara the vet. She said there was nothing she could do about the skin and that Sana had an infection pointing to her vulva. Actually Santa was just in season not a pyo, we left.
Later that day we went to a decent vet and he got Santa started on baths. It took about 6months but finally she was clear.
Tony neutered her as soon as her skin cleared up and he was happy with it also it had to coincide to when he was next out. It was a long time in between and we acquired Wibble and a kitten (Ginger) and Santa gave them milk till we had her spayed.

Santa was such a sweetheart, she always seemed to be in the wars and never complained and gulped any medication. She always had a bad eye, it never usually bothered her if it did we would put cream in, she chipped a bone in quarantine, that had to be removed, she got bad arthritis- treated, she had incontinence – treated.

I would take her into work to keep a closer eye on her. If she saw an open kennel she would jump into it the occupant would look at her confused and she would give them a dopey look and a lick. No matter how nasty the dog was, they never got nasty at her. She would lie in prep next to the desk and never needed tying up, the only time she moved was if she needed the loo would walk to the back door and await someone opening it.
If we met strange dogs when l was walking my 3 l found it was best to let Santa say hi and establish friendships first. That meant Wibble would then feel less scared and because the other 2 were ok Poca lost her excuse to jump in and rip the throat out of the poor passing dog for saying hello.

I used to hand raise a lot of kittens & some puppies. Santa would do the work, however if she trod on one and they cried she would jump up in the air very upset. She would not jump sideways and you needed to grab her and move her sideways, there was always a look of relief that the babies had stopped crying.
Her biggest brain wave was when a tiny kitten walked between her front legs and tried to get into her food bowl. No luck it was to small, so it planted a paw on her leg and tried, still no use. Santa woke up from her munching daydream, looked down, you could almost hear her mutter “ola baby” as she picked up a mouth full of food and spat it out by the bowl. Kitten happy, Santa happy she had solved something for one of her babies, me not happy and scooped kitten out of dog food and cleaned up mess.

She lived to about 14years old (we guessed her age at 1 when found). Around 4 years ago l got home and hub said she wasn’t “right” one look and you could see she had decided “no more” it was in her eyes. We took her in and after she had gone the vet felt a tumour in her abdomen. There had been no sign, l feel bad l had missed things. The only consolation was she did not show anything and it was only when she had gone that the lump could be felt. Very often tumours can not be felt in the abdomen as the animal ‘boards up’ but she had seemed happy till the end and l am sure she is surrounded by loads of babies, that would be her idea of heaven.