Another day, another dog adventure
This is part of a series, and if you haven’t seen the earlier installments you can find the links to them at the bottom of this article

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dirt road dog (Image by Krazy Uncle)

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Tuesday 19th

When I first published this series on my old site, I had a number of followers that were asking a lot of questions and we all had a rousing discussion about Karl. In my last installment I discussed how my local Humane Society was trying to get me to surrender Karl to them. I wasn’t having any of it. I’d worked too hard and too long with this dog to ever give him up, besides at this point we had a very strong bond. I loved the little guy, and Karl loved me.

All the while I was working with Karl, I was also contacting various agencies to find out my legal obligations to keeping Karl. Living on a border with two States also complicated the issue slightly. In the State with the closer and larger city, the one where I would be taking Karl for Veterinary assistance, wanted me legally to turn over Karl to a Shelter for 72 hours, and then if no one claimed him, I could bring him home. Contacting the State I actually resided in I was told that, “I’d done everything reasonably possible to contact the owners, and the dog was mine.” So, it was easy to choose which course of action I would take. But, of course life is never that easy.

Now, on to how great Karl is! Today being the second day of our physical contact, I wanted to see what I could do to clean Karl up. One thing I’d forgotten and commentor reminded me of, was that dogs sense when a person isn’t confident of their actions, as I’ve said before this is the first dog I’ve owned and cared for. So, I moved with confidence today and grabbed a small pair of blunt nose scissors to trim what burrs I could out of Karl’s coat. He was a champ and didn’t complain at all. I trimmed him for about an hour with these small scissors and I kept turning on and off the old beard trimmers I had just to get him used to the noise. Finally, I went for it and started trying to cut Karl’s hair with these trimmers… hmm… that’s not going to work, but I’m sure it is more of a function of the age of the trimmers than anything else. Oh, how did Karl react? Very calmly after a few skittish moments on his part. I worked the worn trimmers for a while before giving up… hmm… maybe the pet brush I bought would be better? I worked on Karl’s coat with the brush and small scissors for about four hours this afternoon, and he was so patient and happy for the help I was giving him. How easy is he to work with? He fell asleep with me brushing him more than once, and when he wanted to play? We played. We rolled all over the yard, him lying between my legs, and me brushing and trimming burrs. I wore thin latex gloves throughout the afternoon, and I kept finding brown deer ticks(?) buried in his coat.

A side of dirty dog with all the trimmings (Image by Krazy Uncle)

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I finally, decided to see what I could do with the ticks. I’d searched the net, and read that using small tweezers at the head of the tick, to pull straight out with no twisting was the best course of action. This is also the method the Veterinary office recommended. I grabbed an old pair of tweezers and gave it a try. The actual effort to pull the tick out was a bit more than I expected but the first one came out intact, and I dropped him in a container with Isopropyl Alcohol in the bottom. This kills the tick and preserves it for when Karl goes into the Vet tomorrow in case they need to test the tick for disease. I spent over an hour pulling ticks from Karl’s pelt and ears. Every once in a while I would see multiple ticks just crawling on his fur that were not embedded in his skin. These would also go into the container. In all I removed over twenty from Karl – he seems happier! oh yea! It is a little bit creepy finding ticks walking on my legs, and when I saw the ticks moving around like that I would move Karl, and I to a different part of the yard. I know some got away, but most likely Karl is going to come into contact with free range ticks no matter what I do. There are critters in these here parts! And, once I have Karl tick free I will be able to keep the ticks down with the Frontline™ ointment and vigilance. Karl looks a lot better, I didn’t get to his underside yet, time and a bit of skittishness is slowing down the process, but tomorrow is another day.

Trying to be proactive in light of our trip to the Vet, I decided to try to put on the collar I bought Karl. Literally, nothing could have been easier. Karl took me putting on the collar with no protest whatsoever. Wow, this dog is so easy to work with… I decided to try the leash I bought too. I’m beginning to think Karl is more used to this than I am. We didn’t go far, but again no problem whatsoever. So, at this point I’m thinking, “Well, geez Karl, let’s try getting you into the van too!” that went off easily. But, wait there’s more! I decided to take Karl for a short trip to see how he’d react, I do have to drive him to town tomorrow to see the vet. I closed up the doors and with the leash still attached to Karl, I started out for the gravel road in front of my house. Down the road we went and Karl was trembling pretty good, and panting in the air conditioned cool air. But, he hung in there like a trooper and we drove all the way to town.

I wanted some drive-thru and decided to pull up to a local mom-and-pop fast food joint. Once my window was down, and the girl opened her window to take my order Karl lunged across my lap. I’d planned ahead for this eventuality, and had the leash set so he couldn’t kiss the girl at the window. I have no doubt she would have received a big wet one from my little Lothario, plus the food smells were almost too much for Karl to bear! He sat draped across my lap for quite a while sniffing and watching the goings on in the restaurant. Then he went to the passenger window to watch the traffic from his window.

Once I received my food, Karl and I headed home. The back road to my house is up and old and narrow river gorge with steep basalt rock walls. The valley floor is flat and many houses dot the small farm fields and orchards up to where Karl and I turn to climb our road out of that valley.

Karl sat in the passenger seat and he saw horses and some sheep that we stopped to observe. Karl likes when we drive over the smooth pavement better than when we drive over the noisy gravel road, but in any case Karl’s trembling was less by the time we got home.

stare down (Image by Krazy Uncle)

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So, Karl is the best dog in the whole world, except maybe yours, but I’ll wrestle you for that title! Naw… I will say that with confidence on my part, even if I have to fake it, Karl responds amazingly. Oh, did I tell you, in all the time I’ve known Karl I have yet to hear what his bark sounds like? How cool is that?

Tomorrow’s agenda: a visit to the Vet and a bath – I think we have this covered.
Stay tuned!

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To see what you’ve missed so far here are the links to the previous installments.
The Stray Dog part 1: https://steemit.com/dogs/@krazyuncle/the-stray-dog
The Stray Dog part 2: https://steemit.com/dogs/@krazyuncle/the-stray-dog-part-2
The Stray Dog part 3: https://steemit.com/dogs/@krazyuncle/stray-dog-part-3
The Stray Dog part 4: https://steemit.com/dogs/@krazyuncle/the-stray-dog-part-4
The Stray Dog part 5: https://steemit.com/dogs/@krazyuncle/the-stray-dog-part-5