Sheba gets a new home

 I finally met a person who was genuinely interested in one of the pups. He came by the house to meet the entire pack at 6pm., decided on one of the girls, and then I followed him to his house a few miles away to see how they would react on their turf.

I let the dogs out in his yard. There was some initial nipping at his two male dogs, but both Sahne and Sheba were more interested in his chickens that are kept in three small pens on his two-acre lot. Gretchen was a little nervous about this entire episode, but she, too, is gaining confidence. She may end up being the best behaved of the bunch as an adult as she walked beautifully on leash this morning while walking solo with me for two miles.

While no money was exchanged, both he and I decided to use the weekend as a trial. If things work out with Sheba and her new. Pack, we will meet again and make it official.

I hope it works out. Sheba has turned into an aggressive alpha female, attacking Gretchen every day. Gretchen lately has learned to fight back rather than Yelp loudly in pain and cower under our back yard juniper tree. My lack of any bond with Sheba, even after the July roadtrip, is making this separation easy.

Walking the Loop in Tucson

 I haven't walked any new section of Tucson's 54-mile Huckleberry Loop since this spring.  Today I opted to add a few miles.  I haven't walked any of the path since March 10th.  Hansel was my canine companion.

Today was also the Beer Festival at the Borderlands Brewing in Tucson.  I had bought my tickets online on August 1st and Steve and I split the cost.  We didn't find out until later that that was harder than planned.

The morning was reserved for a walk along the Loop, starting at the Brandi Felton Memorial Park off Dodge Avenue and walking east to just before Craycroft.  The mile marker signs stated this was a 2.7-mile section, but it was more like 3.14 by the time we parked on the far west side of the park and got to the pavement.  It was 80F with a 76% humidity when we began walking at 11:17am.

The Rillito River was rushing with brown silt.  The dogs were anxious to cool off in it.  To keep their paws from burning, we opted to walk on the softer horse trail that parallels the pavement.  This gave us more shade and kept the dogs safe from the many cyclists today.  This also gave Hansel plenty of opportunity to want to chase after gophers and lizards that taunted him.

I felt the humidity quickly.  My red polyester shirt felt sticky against my body.  My jeans felt too thick for the weather.  Hansel panted a lot.  I let him dip into the rushing water at the half-way mark to cool him off. 

This is a pretty section of the Loop.  We stayed on the north side of the river.  Elegant homes on bluffs towered near us.  We saw horses in nearby fields, but no horses or horse shit on the trail.

It took us 1:45 hours to walk the 3.14 mile section.  We rested in the shade of the Craycroft parking lot.  This will be the same lot I'll park in to continue with my next section along the Pantano Wash, whenever the weather cools down again.  The loop turns south on Craycroft.  I have now finished the Rillito River section east of the Tucson mall.

We got to Borderlands at 4:20pm.  The festival didn't start until 5pm so we waited inside.  When I picked up my chits, I discovered that only I was allowed in the outdoor garden.  Steve wasn't allowed to join me (something about liquor laws?) even though he's well above legal drinking age.  He stayed inside.  Whenever I picked up a 3-ounce sample, I gave it to him to drink.  Combined we didn't even use up all the chits.

The festival was disappointing.  Most of the beer was IPA or sour beers.  My favorite varieties were the two Mexican breweries, Malvida from Sonora and Buqui Bichi from Hermosillo.  Mostly young people gathered closely together (I'm thinking covid surge!)  Hansel handled the noise very well and got kudos from everyone, but I stayed with Steve inside.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5793730581

Loop Miles completed: 17 (12 for Steve)

***

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AZ covid cases 962K (+3418)

AZ covid deaths 18,462 (+18)

Fritz and Wolfie got neutered

Today is my last day of summer break. Kids return to the classroom tomorrow. I've been getting ready with lessons and administrative stuff since Friday. We had meetings for most of the morning and it worked out well for me to get both boys neutered today. I dropped them off at 8am and picked them back up at 2pm.  Susan was my backup in case I couldn't pick them up, but I called her at 1:30pm to let her know she wasn't needed this time.

I didn't find out until pickup time that Fritz was a problem patient. He had to be tranquilized with a stronger anesthetic than Wolfie for a $30 surcharge  I knew both dogs were scared to go in the backroom and an additional vet tech was needed to pull them back, but one vet tech told me Fritz got aggressive with them and almost bit two of the workers. "This was not fear, this was aggression!" said Annette, another vet tech there. She added that it is too late to get him socialized, and that he will be a liability going forward.

I met Annette about ten years ago, when she was a vet tech at the Bisbee Cochise Animal Hospital under Dr. Barnette, and then later as a shelter volunteer in Huachuca City. She was gruff then and still is today, but her words stung. I knew Fritz is dog aggressive, but I've never seen him human aggressive.

"The next time you bring in an aggressive dog, you need to let the office know" said Chasity, the first vet tech.

"I didn't know Fritz would get aggressive" I said.  He'd only been at a vet once before, and that was for his rabies and other annual vaccines, right in this very same office.

"You brought Fritz in at Jem's feed a few months ago and he was aggressive then" said Annette.

Now I was getting annoyed.  "No, that was not Fritz, that was Hansel, Fritz' dad!" I said.  I guess Hansel and Fritz look too much alike.

So now I have added worries. Sheba and Sahne are getting aggressive with other dogs and are even attacking Gretchen, who runs into the bedroom to seek shelter with Kevin or me. She has multiple scabs on her body from them. I need to find them both new homes before this behavior gets out of hand.

Wolfie seems to be the only mellow dog in this batch.

I know Hansel and Gretel were dog aggressive from 5-9 months of age. I took Gretel to dog obedience and that helped her, and Hansel calmed down on his own, so I feel there is hope. 

With school starting up again, I won't have much time to devote to individual training.