The Misanthropic Shiba

Archive for May, 2009

Watching Shassi spiral down to the end of her life, this question is of more import to me than would otherwise be the case!  According to Norma Hornung’s initial research, it’s around 13-14 years.  You can help Norma gather more information about Shiba lifespan by going to this link, as she is asking for data related to Shibas who have died in order to gain a better understanding of how long our breed tends to live.

Tierce: Ow! Stupid cone!

Me: We can’t let you lick yourself.

Tierce: Owww… why is this happening to me? I never want to go to the vet’s again.

Me: You got neutered.

Tierce: What’s “noodered”?

Me: It’s where you remove the testicles.

Tierce: But why?

Me: So you can’t produce little Tierces with big allergy problems.

Tierce: But you don’t let me run loose anyway!

Me: Because it might help you with your aggression problem with bigger and stronger dogs who aren’t going to put up with your shit.

Tierce: Just because they won’t bow down before me, you say I have a problem.

Me: Uh, yeah. Moving right along. And there’s the high likelihood of prostate problems in the middle years.

Tierce: But it hurts!

Me: It will feel better in a few days.

Tierce: Owww!

Me: Try not to pay attention to it. Are you hungry?

Tierce: Hell, yeah! You STARVED me in preparation for this! Yeah, I’d love something.

Me: Have some kibble.

Tierce: Something not that.

Me: You like your kibble.

Tierce: Not nowowowow. Ow!

Me: Oh, honey, I’m so sorry you’re feeling bad.

Tierce: YOU’RE sorry. Oh, that’s rich.

Me: I am… we have some salmon in the cupboard. The $5 a can stuff…

Tierce: Well, I suppose I could choke down a few mouthfuls.

Me: … that was quick.

Tierce: Yeah, my hunger somehow came back to me.

Me: I put the painkiller the vet gave me on that, did you taste it? It might make you drowsy.

Tierce: It tasted like that rotten banana I was playing with one time when you got home from work.

Me: Uh, sure… feeling sleepy?

Tierce: Noooo…ow! OW! I WANNA LICK!

Me: Well you can’t.

Tierce: BUT IT HURTS AND YOU’RE MEAN.

Me: I’m not letting you lick it until it develops a sore or infection.

Tierce: Well, all I have to do is destroy this cone collar and I’m free! Free…

Me: Tierce?

Tierce: free…

Me: Maybe you should plan your freedom in your beanbag.

Tierce: Yeah… I’ll do that… Beanbags is great, yanno? Izz good… So flurfy and biteable… zzzZZZzzz…

Me: Yes, honey, they are. You go to sleep now.

I’m sitting here after my boyfriend has taken Tierce and his crate to the vet’s so that Tierce can be neutered. I’m kind of struggling with myself even now, after research on the Internet, discussions with his breeder and his “grand-breeder“.

Susan advised me to get the neutering done, to possibly ease off on the dominance aggression around other dogs and to prevent prostate problems in the future. Susan has been breeding and showing dogs for longer than I’ve been alive and has been breeding Shibas for decades, and she ought to know about spaying, neutering and male Shibas.

I believe that Tierce should never be bred, but in light of the fact that he’s not allowed to run hither and yon, neutering isn’t going to make a big difference. However, it would be nice to have a dog that doesn’t immediately try to take out the biggest dog he can find and it would be great to know that he is less likely to have prostate problems as he grows older.

However, I’m still nervous about the whole thing. I wonder whether I’m doing the best thing for Tierce healthwise, since there’s a lot of stuff about spaying and neutering that we don’t know in the long run. I’ve had dogs spayed and neutered before and they’ve lived long and happy lives. Shassi was spayed at 6 and is still chugging along at 15 1/2. I think this is just a bad case of anthropomorphization, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s a shriek inside me saying, “No! My baby!”

Check out I Am Shiba’s awesome and hilarious post about Shiba stuff. Beware! There are pictures of Shiba-themed items that you will WANT.

A while back, I posted about a survey on Loki and Jujube’s blog
. The survey is now complete and you can see the results here.

Even if you haven’t seen the survey, the results are interesting. I think the northern/pariah breeds have their own set of norms that are not reflected in the average dog, which can make evaluations like C-BARQ less useful when it comes to determining whether one’s dog is within normal behaviour. Surveys like this help us determine norms in our own breed, something that can aid both novice and experienced owners in their quest to understand the dog they have brought into their lives.

They garden!  They cook!  They do cool things!  But most importantly, they are all about Shibas!  Check out the Shibaguyz.

Tierce is not the only Shiba who uses Twitter (I keep chasing him off the laptop, I swear)… Jenna and Snickers have a list of Shibas and their people who Tweet!  Check it out

Rex is now Yoshi

…is now Yoshi – From the Humane Society of the Boulder Valley.

News item with new pics: Dog taped to fridge gets new name, new home

Remember that this isn’t over yet.  Abby Toll and Bryan Beck have yet to be called to answer for their part in Yoshi’s story.

This picture was taken by my BlackBerry camera at maximum zoom, accounting for the graininess.  I think it’s kind of decorative myself.

This is example of the “upending” that Tierce does occasionally.  He seems perfectly happy with this state of consciousness, but it seems strange, as he is such a dominant dog.  Maybe he’s just really comfortable with himself?  Who knows.

Shassi used to do this too, and we’re convinced she did it for the attention.  (That’s Puttee, our cat of several years ago.  Shassi was fine with the cats she was raised with, but woe betide the out-of-family cat who decided to take a walk on the balcony.)

Do your Shibas do this?  Do you have pictures?

Vote for a new name for Rex (minimum donation is $5 to the Humane Society of Boulder Valley)

We voted for Toshi and donated $10.  Will anyone match us?

Check out the Justice for Rex Facebook page – there are new pictures of Rex in his new home!