The random chat thread for throwing out things that don't matter

My son  got tested before going in for out patient knee surgery. He is positive so the surgery is put off for a week or so. 5 years ago he was in an accident and tore all 5 tendons in his left knee. The reattached 3 of them and a 4th reattached itself later. he had a strap and screws put in to hold the bones. they later removed that and he has had infections and drainage since they did surgery and removed a stuture  they missed after taking out the strap nd screws because of ongoing infections. Now they are removing a piece of plastic, scrapping several bone spurs and injecting a quick acting glue to strengthen the bone. He has no meniscus in joint anymore and will need a knee in the future. They are waiting as long as they can as artificial joints are improving every year. It helps that he only weighs around 140. They have an artificial meniscus that has been developed and that is another possibility. His knee looks terrible if you aren't used to seeing it. he wears compression socks and a compression knee pad/sleeve. Hopefully he can get this next surgery in a week or so. He gets around decently and can stand on it fine so far. But with no meniscus that wears out joint faster than with it. 20 years ago they would have amputated his leg above the knee cause of the torn tendons. they didnt know how to fasten them all back or what order to do so and not lock the joint but discovered how a couple decades ago.

Then one of my wife's foster dogs, a 6 month old puppy just had a front leg amputated cause of a birth defect. It seems to be a rather common defect. If the Rescue had gotten him earlier they might have saved it but he is too old, to grown, for that now and the had to remove it for it gets bad the older he gets, I am amazed at how well he is getting around as they removed it yesterday and last night he was going up and down stairs to get outside. He isn't smooth but can get where he wants. He trots better than he walks. He has more trouble with the cone than the missing leg. At 6 months he is 45lbs looks like a cross between a husky with blue eyes black and with coat, but not a heavy coat. looks crossed with a coon hound or some kind of lanky short coated hound. Barks like a Husky, blue eyes like a Husky, black and white like most huskies, but lanky, with the build of a hound, and the coat and tail of a hound.

It almost seems like dogs don't care about their impediments. They get around them like they don't exist, and they're happy. Well, except my dog. He's never happy. He's just a grouchy old man.

I have quite a few dogs. You can see from my Avatar that dogs are "my thing". The Avatar is Cairo, the Belgian Malinois who sniffed out Bin Laden. One of my pack is completely blind and was about to be put to death when I adopted her. She has a great time and runs with my sighted dogs either by smell or by resting her head on the back of a lead dog. They (my dogs) take care of each other. I have 100 acres for them to run and she never gets left behind. Another way they run is with one guide on either side of her. They are not trained to do this (I would not know how!). Thank God that dogs are dogs. They work it out!

They are doing his surgery now. The covid didn't stop it. We were all surprised.

The only impeadimemt the dog has is not being able to jump up on my bed...yet. That will soon change as he gets around and used to the missing leg. For now I put a foot longer foot stool and a box down for him to use as a stair to get up and down it.

@grumpy One thing that I did since I have two ELDERLY poodles in my pack (20 and 21 years old) is that I removed the mattress from the bed, put the mattress on the floor, and we sleep there.

@desertwanderer

We have 6 acres fenced in for the dogs. We have done rescues for 30 years. Deaf, blind, deaf and blind, abused and normal. we have had up to 20 dogs here, both ours and rescues. We end up with many who are unadoptable. One was starved abused so bad she hated all men especially dark tall bearded men, which is me. She absolutely loved my wife, she would have died happily fighting off someone who tried to hurt my wife. She finally got to tolerate me. For years she would grab my hand and not break skin when I had to separate her from another. she might have broken skin maybe 3 times doing that hundreds of times over the years. after 10 years she would let me pet her, after another couple she actually would sometimes come up and put her head on my knee to be petted. We are down to 6 or 7 now depending on how many fosters are here. We don't do multiple big dogs as I really can't separate a couple 100+ pounders very easy anymore. Thing is with dogs they can be drawing blood and then a couple hours later be playing together. The most trouble are when 2 small females get into it, females are not near as forgiving. They are called bitches for a reason. I agree 100% about other dogs helping the blind ones. There are alway at least a couple who do.

It always is good when you have a good alpha to help keep tings settled. We have been lucky in that department.

@grumpy All of mine are rescues as well. I have 22 dogs now. My Alpha was a 150 pound bull dog, but, strangely enough, I have a very senior Pug (maybe 15 pounds) who has taken over command from the bull dog. No clue why. He looks at her like "She is SCARY!" and does not challenge her. Strange because I have seen him kill 3 coyotes when all three tried to make him lunch but the 15 pound Pug is the TOP DOG.

I have to be really careful with her. Pugs do not do well in Texas unless they have a cool place to retreat (my house). My recently rescued French Bulldog (found him walking through the snow during our recent ice storm) is very similar.

Dogs. It does not get any better than that for me!

Posted by: @desertwanderer

I have a very senior Pug (maybe 15 pounds) who has taken over command from the bull dog.

love of course 😉

I am down to two dogs have had up to 5 at a time in my younger days. Just a dog fan and have not had large swatches of land to have more. Small terriers, lots of boxers, a lab, collies and weenier dogs make the list have one rescue currently out of my two. 

If I want a good cry (I just cried getting the screenshot) I look a footage of the most incredible dog who has ever lived. His name was Bosco boxer but we was a rescue of sorts Deaf and white so destining for the drowning pool. He rescued me and my family. That is my oldest many years ago when we lived in a tiny apartment in Houston. Playing house was a favorite activity as well as dog coloring and face cleaning. Seems like a life ago I'm very lucky to be who I am and to have had that dog in my life (died at 14)

@t-bone How often the rescued becomes the rescuer, at least with dogs. Boy do I get it!

The Bulldog below has been such for me! He was starving when I found him. He starves no more! He was chipped and when I reluctantly contacted his previous owner she said "No problem. We dumped him because he was so ugly." I just hung up.

 The one thing I still chuckle about is when someone refers to an errant husband as "A real dog." Not on his best day!

I love the pic of Bosco and your (then) little one!

Here are the current occupants of  the house

as you can see they live some stressful days:) 

This one I just said goodbye to not to long ago. He had some serious digestive disorder and was on serious immunosuppression (Frenchie) He was such a dick would always pee on top of where I would pee when out in the back yard.  He lost an eye doing god knows what about a year before he died was a true pirate at heart. His gas would wake the dead. His eye surgeon apologized to  me when I warned him and to take precautions. " I really wish I took you seriously" was all he could say with that hollow look of emptiness you get when you experience something so horrible

 here we are coming back from surgery, man I did not expected to be crying like a baby all day today

@t-bone God I love them all! You are indeed a lucky man!

it is surprising to me that dogs were not the ones to invent the couch

@t-bone They do know how to use it! That is my idea of a beautiful couch!

I've only had one dog I couldn't help. A pedigreed Jack Russel. I truly and completely hate and despise the original owners who had him. They spent money on him after they damaged him so it wasn't that they couldnt afford him.They caed him 20+ hours a day. after several yers of that he was beyond being around people or other dogs. civil. They spent money taking him to a dog psychiatrist in North Carolina. I had the report and findings on him when we were his last chance. I got him to play fetch with me for hours at a time and thought it was going well. We kept him separated from other people and the other dogs. He lost it when playing fetch with me for absolutely no reason and I ended up with 20 some stitches. we still kept him and still worked with him. He lost it several more times and never got better. The folks running the dog rescue saw him do it when some came to see how he was doing and saw him go after me again. this time it was even worse. They took him away when I was getting stitched up. I would never have let them take him but I was in the ER and my wife was at work. I wasn't ready to stop trying. he was nice till he would just go off. Never had a reason other than the first people who had him ruined him. The only time I couldn't figure out a dog. It still bothers me 15 years later.

We had another one, a Catahoula Leopard Dog, that attacked my wife, me, and 3 other dogs before I was able to throw in into a crate. We were walking down the hall in the house crowded in together and he just went off and attacked the alpha dog, and my wife. I stepped in and got him drug away and into a crate went to ER while my wife took other dogs to vet. The CATahoula I called the dog Warden to come and take. After 3 days the put him down and the rescue did an autopsy and found he had brain cancer and figured that was what led to that cause he never would fight, would always back down from dogs even half as big.

I have many more happy things with the dogs but those are really the only two bad events out of probably a thousand dogs we have owned and/or  fostered over time. My current alpha is curled up at my side is a 40 lb male terrier. 18 years old going deaf and has cataracts. He is a fair alpha. Best I ever had was a Burmese Mountain dog cross. He used to lay out on the hot tub cover during blizzards. He was one who would walk patrols around the fence every night, year after year. we always seem to have at least one dog that does this. He didn't have together physical with the other dogs but rarely to keep them all under control. This was when awe had 20 dogs with a herd of Jack Russels. You don't often see many Jack Russels in any one house as the don't get along well with other stubborn dogs, especially females together, but we were able to work them.

We don't need a security system with a dozen or so dogs all barking an snarling when someone dares to drive into their driveway and walk up to the door. when someone does come in there is always at least a couple who stay behind a stranger when they are here. After a few visits the dogs just bark when the known person drives in.

Right now the only young dogs we have are foster dogs, all ours are older than 12, up to 21. We have always had a ell fertilized yard 😎