Hi Folks
For those who didn’t know me, my name at the shelter was Aragon. The ladies knew what my first name was but decided to give me a new name to go with my fresh start.
Actually, I didn’t have a very nice start in life. As a puppy, I was tied to the back of a car and dragged along the road. Fortunately, a man stopped the driver, punched him on the nose and then took me to be put to sleep because both my front legs were broken along with other injuries. The Vet said that I could be saved and put me back together and the man who saved me found me a home with his Uncle.
I stayed with Uncle until I was 10 years old but then the Uncle decided that I was too old and took me to the Vets to be put to sleep again. The Vet refused and instead I ended up in the shelter.
It was quite scary being locked up all the time after having spent the best part of ten years at a home with someone. It was really smelly and I had no choice but to do my business in there which is a really bad thing. When I was let out of the pen, I pretended that I was good with cats but actually I quite like chasing them. Thankfully, I wasn’t at the shelter very long.
Rob and Karen saw me on the shelter’s Instagram, took pity on me and vowed they would find me a home. After a few days, Karen said to Rob “We’re not going to share him on all the German Shepherd websites, are we?” and they decided that three couldn’t me much more trouble than two, so they made a few enquiries and because they’d already adopted another German Shepherd, Lucas, it didn’t take much time for all the paperwork and I was on my way over to the UK.
I now have a third name, Remus, so even though I’m a mixed, mixed, mixed breed, that gives me some kind of aristocratic pedigree, doesn’t it? I’m called Remus because Remus was a twin to Romulus, (the founders of Rome) and Karen thinks I Iook like a twin to their other German Shepherd, Cara. In actual fact, according to a DNA test, I’m 57% German Shepherd and Rob and Karen say that’s close enough for them, so I’m now the third German Shepherd they have a the moment.
I have a few nick-names. One of them is “only child” because they think I lived on my own with no other dogs and that I don’t like to share. That’s not strictly true because I like to share Cara’s bed, Lucas’ toys etc. Another nick-name is “he who cannot be trusted” because my recall isn’t very good (whatever that is) but I do know that when we go to the local playing fields, I have to stay on a long tracking lead. It’s terribly unfair because the other two can roam free. I tend not to hang around with them though and do my own thing. They also call me their Steiff bear because I had a haematoma (a burst blood vessel, probably caused by a trauma) in my left ear which has left a bit of a lump, just like a button in my ear and makes my ear flop down. Another nick-name is “three bags”. I’ll let you use your imagination on that one!!
One of the things I like to do is to wee up Karen’s favourite shrub. When I’ve finished, I do a bit of a skip and a jump, just in case she’s watching! I’m currently in the process of landscaping their garden for them. I’m going for the “surface of the moon” look with lots of craters. Their cat, Tiberius, is really grateful because he doesn’t have to use his litter tray now. I think Rob and Karen are going to be really pleased with the end result.
I’ve stopped chasing Tiberius now and want to be his friend but he’s got a short memory and bears a grudge. That’s cats for you! Lucas is OK. At first he was a bit put out when I came but he soon got used to me and Cara looks after both of us, washing our faces and keeping us in check.
I have had a rough time the last few months. Every few weeks, I got a pain and I tried telling Rob and Karen but they couldn’t find where it was coming from. Mostly it comes at night time. It’s really scary. I try to climb on their laps (Rob says 30 kgs is too big to be a lap dog) and if they’re asleep, I sit on Rob’s chest. The Vet couldn’t find the pain so they took me to have an x-ray and ultrasound. He could see that I had an intestinal adhesion (again caused by a trauma or previous injury) and so I had an operation to repair it.
Karen said that it breaks her heart to think that I could have been in the shelter on my own at night time having this pain with no-one knowing it was happening and no-one there to comfort me. The x-ray also showed that I have spondylosis (just like Karen actually) and so I have pain-killers to keep me free from pain.I also have kidney disease which means that Karen home cooks for me. Fortunately, I like the taste of charcoal!
Even though some horrible things happened to me I still love people and lots of cuddles. I especially like burying my head in people’s laps so they can scratch my chest whether they want to or not. That’s the thing about us dogs, unlike cats, we *don’t* bear a grudge.
