You Can’t Take the Farm Out of the Dog!

(Trials and Tribulations)

By: Jane DeJong and ‘King David’

I thought I had all the time in the world. October’s All Breed Dog Show in Tillsonburg seemed like years away, so I was in no panic to worry about how ‘King David’ was looking. I should have thought again!

By August David’s natural thick fluffy coat was falling out in huge clumps of matted fur and blowing carelessly around the farm yard. David has a good life of freedom. He and his mom run the 100 acres without a care in the world.  Not being one to pamper my farm dogs they generally take care of their own grooming.  One day I took a look at David and thought “How did you get so skinny, and scruffy?”  A frantic call to Amber confirmed he needed to be fattened up before I could ever consider entering him in the up coming show.

Being on extremely good terms with the local butcher, he began giving me all his bone meal and leftovers from the grinders. David was consuming four pound of meat mixed with oatmeal, eggs, and molasses every day.  The weight went on and he started to look good.

 That is until he had a run in with a raccoon. I found the corpse on the front lawn, but not until it had taken a good swipe at David’s nose, leaving a nice bare crater across his white muzzle. Panic!  All I could hope for was that the fur would grow back before the show. I spent hours on the internet searching miracle cures for scratches and cuts.

Being close to fall now, David and his mom took to enjoying running the tree line fence row. What great fun they would have tearing up and down. No cares. To my dismay, the fencerow also contained hundreds of burdock bushes. You know the kind. The plants with the large claw like burrs. King David came home covered head to toe with these clinging little monsters attached everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. Poor David! Panic struck, and I sat outside for 4 hours painstakingly weaving every individual burr out of him. His mom had to be shaved. The next morning he came to the door for his “bone meal banquet’, and he was the same again. Three more hours. The next morning, the same, 2 hours.  This continued until I was ready to shave him the next time he came to the door looking like a bad Asian area rug. 14 hours I had totaled in pulling burrs. My fingers were raw and the skin peeled off in thin layers.  But David was beautiful. He was ready for the show.

That thought became short lived when David had a one on one with a bee hive. He poked his head in where it should not have been, and by the time he pulled back out, a bee had managed to sting him in the black of his eye.  The poor thing swelled up like a balloon.  Yes, three weeks till the show!  I could have cried. The sting eventually came to a head and I squeezed out the yuckies, thinking this would help it to heal. Wrong! I made it worse! O.K. calm down Jane. Maybe this show was never meant to be. Another call to Amber. She is so reassuring! I tell her that David had a long way to go in three short weeks before he will be ready to show, but I am doing everything I can to make it happen. 

One week and a half before the show, and I have been pulling burrs everyday, applying ointment to the eye, and doctoring a scratch across his muzzle.  David is beginning to look half decent again. He is looking like the’ King’ he is named after! He will be ready. He will enter the show!  Amber I am going!

Seven days before the big event, I called out the door for David to come for his “bone meal banquet” and morning burr picking.  I could have cried.  Across the yard is David, happily bouncing across the tarmac, on three legs!  No! It can’t be! He comes to the door, happy as can be, with one leg dangling in the air.  Oh CRAP!  A trip to the vet confirmed a dislocated claw and infection starting to set in. The vet says “He won’t show.”

I could have died right there and then.  I have poured all my time and energy into getting this dog ready for this show only to have him do this to me one week before the date.  Amber, I won’t be coming to the show!  David is trying to kill me!

He came to live in the boot room.  I administered his medicine regimentally. I was advised to give aspirin for pain relief and I prayed. Oh boy did I pray.

Saturday of the show rolled around and Amber and all the Kuvasz ladies were off in Tillsonburg eating pizza and partying without me. I felt alone. I felt sick. Life stunk!

Saturday night I look at David and low and behold, he is walking on four legs. He is running on four legs.  His eye is clear, his scratch has vanished, his coat looks burr free, and he is on four feet! A miracle has happened!

I quickly called Amber. I am coming to the show in the morning.

I wish I could say David won Best of Breed, Best of Show and Mr. Congeniality, but he didn’t. The thing is, that’s not the point! I learned a valuable lesson throughout the whole ordeal!

God blessed me with a gorgeous, gentle guardian for our farm.  He is not meant to be in the ring!  He is the King, and being the King he rules over his domain which is right here where I sit.  The FARM!  That’s where he will stay, and we will both be happy!

David is now lying on the porch, he has burrs in his tail, and he smells like skunk!  I wouldn’t have him any other way!