A Very Crossbred Labrador Called Anana
About a year ago a black Cross bred
Labrador female, we call Sock, on account of her single white left front
paw. Started coming around, She soon became our little Jack Russell
Bisto's best friend until he suddenly died in August after my wife had
given him a DE-worming tablet which she had bought at a well known
veterinary supplier...
Sock Arrives At Our Home
About two weeks before he died, Sock had suddenly started coming around at
the dead of night and was making an eery baying noise, this happened like
clock
work, after which, she would just dash off somewhere until daybreak
when she would return for her meal.Like a thorough gentleman, he would
allow her to eat every last morsel of leftover scraps of food which my
wife left out for her every morning, next to a bowl of fresh water.He
simply looked on, tail wagging in anticipation of their brief daily romp
around the yard before she would run off somewhere, only to re appear
in the middle of the night again and to repeat the baying. This
continued until the exact morning he died, when She simply disappeared.
Apart from eating the meals my wife had left for her, she was extremely
skittish almost wild, and would not allow any human contact.
We
wanted to take her in and have her looked over by our Vet, but just
couldn't ever get close enough to her. One day, about two weeks later,
she suddenly re-appeared, a whole pack of male suitors in tow. I
instantly
realized, that she must have been in heat.and therefore
needed to be spayed as soon as her litter was weaned. She then
disappeared again, this time for much longer than the time before.
Another
stray, a beautiful kitten we call Ginger was making short work of the
bowl of food left outside every morning for Sock, who hadn't come around
for quite a while. Ginger is also very timid, and prefers to sleep in
our attic, which she effortlessly enters every night from somewhere
outside. Our Alpha male Black cat Jet misses his best buddy Bisto a lot,
he had also mysteriously disappeared for several days after Bisto's
death. He is back now and was extremely emaciated when he returned. He
also prefers to sleep out most nights now and returns in the wee hours
for a snack and a cat nap, where as in the past, he would curl up
nightly, right alongside his best buddy in the whole world, Bisto, at
the bottom end of our bed.
The Two Troll Ladies
Our other recent boarder, the character from my article
"A tail of two Kitties",
a white Persian aristocat named Sir Thomas, is somehow still not
getting on with Jet, and their frequent confrontations and antics,
regularly has us in stitches Jet would arch his back into a large U
shape and with a deep throaty growl, he would start bouncing up and down
all around Sir Thomas who in turn, would start hissing and spluttering
like a
Pitt Special aeroplane with a stalling engine. Every time
Jet gets too close for comfort, he would get up on his hind legs and
would start his famous hissing and spitting, shadow boxing routine.
Eight weeks ago My wife, started preparing our breakfast, now that sure sounds corny,
implying that we have some really loooong waits for our breakfast, anyhow, she suddenly heard a strange
banshee like, sound coming from one of our outside buildings. She
called our daughter Aurora to go with her to see what the howling was
all about. On their arrival, there was Sock,looking up at them, tail,
madly wagging, as on the ground directly in front of her, were eight
puppies all pitch black accepting for one tiny brindle colored pup which
was forlornly hanging around without a teat to suck on and making no
secret of it's dismay, by yelping at us. She was obviously the runt of
the litter.
There was no way that we would be able to and I dare say, willing to care for
and
feed nine dogs. A cold, anxious sweat was rapidly starting to break out
on my family's foreheads. They were debating their next move when two
ladies from a private animal shelter just happened to arrive at our
front gate, at that precise moment. They wanted to know if we had seen a
dog matching Sock's description in the area. Seeing that we already
had, had one doggie euthanasia to many this year when Bisto was put
down, regrettably, this is what the animal shelters do here around
Christmas time, when there are literally 1000's of animals left
abandoned by their selfish owners, who simply take off on a holiday
trip,leaving their pets to fend for themselves, so my daughter asked in a
guarded kind of way, just what they intended doing with Sock and her
puppies, if by some remote chance we were to have come across her,
roaming the area. One of them spoke up and said that the dog had been
living in their private care center for about four months and that she
was originally a stray which had been found wondering around near their
care center, she had been wandering dangerously close to the freeway.
They
had taken her in and had given her a bath and it was while she was
being bathed, that they noticed that she was pregnant. They had taken
her to the vet for her shots and happened to find out that she would be
having her puppies any day now, which was why they were so worried for
her safety. They had gone to the Vet supply shop to buy some things for
the impending birth when they had accidentally left the back gate open
behind them, after parking their car. After a quick exchange of glances
between my wife and daughter.
My wife wanted to know what would become of Sock and her puppies after they were born. Noticing that
something was a miss, they assured us that they had actually started up their animal care center to save the
dogs. from being put down. They had a waiting list of about twenty good
homes for Sock and her puppies, should there be several of them, and
that some of them were going to possibly be trained as guide dogs for
the blind.
A Strange Coincidence
If by some diabolical chance these two ladies were a pair of Trolls,
disguised as humans, they were sure putting up a very convincing act of
concern, so my daughter said: "Well, you had better follow me then." and
started walking to where Sock was busy nursing her babies. The "Troll
ladies" were genuinely happy at seeing the dogs, but you can never tell
for certain these days. They could probably see the frowns on my wife
and daughter's faces and invited them to go along to satisfy their
curiosity about the dogs' safety. My wife assured them that it
would not be necessary to check up on them.
The
women then left their phone numbers, and just before leaving one of
them asked my wife if she would like one of the puppies. We all felt
that it was too soon after Bisto's death to consider getting another dog
and my wife was explaining this to her, when the little brindle runt
started walking, gangly legged, directly towards her, it
looked so funny as it wobbled along on those spindly legs, while purposefully aiming straight for my wife's feet.
This
was exactly how Bisto our late Jack Russell had come came into our
lives. We were also earnestly explaining to my friends, his owners at
the time, how extremely hard it would be to take in a dog just then, at
which point the tiniest puppy of the litter, a white Jack Russell with a
single brown ear, got out of the basket
he had been sharing with
his sleeping brothers and sisters and headed straight for my wife's
feet, where he positioned himself right on top of her foot and fell fast
asleep. Here, for the second time she was being adopted or selected by a
dog, They decided to take the dog which turned out to be a bitch,
probably metaphorically as well, as we were to find out a BITE later on
when she was brought back home after being weaned. Most of her genes
seem to have come from her mother Sock the cross Labrador as well as a
male Golden Labrador Retriever who was frequently noticed, around Sock
as she was being chaperoned around during the mating.
I am also
quite certain that she has part Lion and also had some Tiger in her
bloodline as she seems to chew her way through almost anything that
moves, Off course the most conveniently available targets are my wife's
ankles and calves. She seems quite impervious to whacks from a rolled up
newspaper. Then at times, she is the calmest best behaved puppy in the
world. Off course at these times, you end up with a huge conscience and
cannot understand how you could ever have had some of the malicious
thoughts you had just a moment earlier, as she absolutely demolishes
even precious artifacts and family heirlooms. As a result of this, I
decided to really
get to the bottom of this breed's nature and
characteristics. It was at this juncture in Anana's life, when several
other amazing facts have come to light and I will share these just as
soon as I have absorbed all the fascinating, vital information. One
thing I am quite certain of at this time is the fact that Labradors are a
highly intelligent dog breed and in position number 3 on the
intelligence scale.
Anana Mysteriously Linked To The Inuit.
Labrador dogs were originally bred on the Island of Labrador.
The distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland
and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province,
separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle.
It is the largest and northernmost geographical region in Atlantic
Canada. Labrador occupies the eastern part of the Labrador Peninsula, in
an area slightly larger than the US state of Colorado. It is bordered
to the west and the south by the Canadian province of Quebec. Labrador
also shares a small land border with the Canadian territory of Nunavut
on Killiniq Island.
Though Labrador's area is over twice that
of the island of Newfoundland, only 6% of the province's population
actually live there. The aboriginal peoples of Labrador include the
Northern Inuit of Nunatsiavut and the Southern Inuit-Métis of
Nunatukavut (NunatuKavut). The non-aboriginal population in Labrador
did not permanently settle in Labrador until the natural resource
developments of the 1940s and 1950s. Before the 1950s, very few
non-aboriginal people lived in Labrador year round. The few European
immigrants who worked seasonally for foreign merchants and brought their
families were known as Settlers. At the time of adopting this cross
Labrador Retriever, I, off course had no idea of any Inuit connection
with Labrador Retriever dogs but I was approached by my wife to help
them come up with a more dignified sounding name than "Peanut" which was
what the "Troll" ladies had called her while in their care. I suggested
the name "Anana". As it was a hauntingly beautiful name at the time
since I had only just published a wikinut article about an imaginary
whale, the last 100 year old Northern Right whale, which was making her
last journey to the "Whale Falling place" an imaginary place in those
waters of the North Atlantic where she was about to take her death dive
after watching Ublarpassik the Inuit name for the Sunrise, one last time
before dying. The name
"Anana" is
an Inuit name for beautiful one, on account of the beautiful white
callosity on top of her head. Anana the dog also has a distinctive white
marking under her chin.
Inexoribly Linked
Strangely, at the time of my research had not revealed anything about an Inuit
link
with the Labrador dogs, and it was only tonight at 11:30 pm. January
2012, that I discovered just how appropriate the choice of her name had
been. I uncovered this astonishing information,while searching for the
Labrador dog's origin.The Newfoundland dog (known then as the
Greater Newfoundland)
is likely a result of the native St. John's Dog breeding with mastiffs
brought to the island by the generations of Portuguese fishermen who had
been fishing offshore since the 16th century. The smaller short-coated
St. John's Dog (also known then as the Lesser Newfoundland) was used for
retrieval and pulling in nets from the water. These smaller dogs were
the forebears of the Labrador Retriever. The white chest, feet, chin,
and muzzle - known as tuxedo markings characteristic of the
St. John's Dog
often appear in modern Lab mixes, and will occasionally manifest in
Labradors as a small white spot on the chest (known as a medallion) or
stray white hairs on the feet or muzzle.
The St.John's area of Newfoundland was settled mainly by the English and Irish.
Local fishermen originally used the
St. John's dog to
assist in carrying ropes between boats, towing dories, and helping to
retrieve fishnets in the icy northern waters.The Labrador's loyalty and
hard working behavior were valuable assets for fishermen.
SOURCE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LabradorWrite about your favorite pets, right here at
wikinut.com