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 Chopin
was found abandoned in a highway, service area.
He was literally skin and bone, and was dehydrated.
Being the middle of winter,
all he could do was lick the ice covered ground
in an attempt to gain some moisture. Passers-by
shunned him; he looked so bedraggled.
With the help of some cat-food, and my former
dog’s rope lead, I managed to coax and
catch him, by kneeling on the ice, then crawling
with him in tow, to my car.
Three burgers later, each
swallowed almost whole; we were en route to Orangeville,
and the home of the then, manager of the local
humane society branch, and her husband.
However, Chopin, as
he would later be called, had other ideas, and
would let neither of these two good folk within
twenty feet of my car, else the car would be
bouncing on its springs. It was agreed that
he would come home with me, that night, and
the following morning, someone would come for
him. That was eight years ago.
Chopin’s tail had been
mutilated, and the end of the stump was festering.
The Humane society vet recommended he be euthanitised,
but we would not hear of it. We were being told
that it was in the dog’s best interest,
for he would never walk properly.
Thankfully, we believed in the power of all-natural,
holistic nutrition to heal the body and the
bones. With sterile washes, vitamin E cream
and capsules, and tea-tree oil, Chopin’s
stump of a tail was nursed back to health. Quality
nutrition encouraged hair to grow over his tail,
and he is now a muscular 97 lbs fifteen year
old, who thinks he’s a puppy.
To protect his hips, we removed
decorative fencing from our property, with the
idea of discouraging him from jumping. Instead,
he jumps over our other two dogs, sometimes
doing his ‘Evil Knevil’ leap of
death over both at once. His classic pose is:
head between his front paws, bottom in the air,
stump wagging, ‘saying’, “come
on then - let's play!”
David Lawrence
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