The wrong skunk-11

Animal Anecdote 11.

One day I’ll write an anecdote about pet names but about Tink for now I’ll let you guess why the Jewett family named their pet skunk, Tink. The frantic phone call informed me that their beloved Tink had wandered off and had not returned. Could we bring our Bloodhounds to their house and track Tink for them? No, you see Bloodhounds are permitted to trail humans only. No, we couldn’t make an exception. However I can lend you a box trap and you can bait it with sardines so if Tink returns you may trap him.

Ads were placed in local papers. The local schools were all alerted and of course the police and animal control officers in two towns. The trap was set and being a metal one would be heard if sprung. That first night they caught the neighbor’s cat at 3 AM and the three children as well as the parents all rushed out to sadly find the cat.

Two nights later raise the flag. Set off fireworks the family rushed out to find success. There was Tink safe and sound in the trap. To be sure he would not stray away right in front of them they took the trap into their house and right there in their living room midst the happiness of all released Tink, Holy Ghost! That’s not Tink but an imposter. Next the wonderment of weather this imposter had been deodorized as Tink had. Well, fetch the card tables and use them to corral the villain to go toward the screened porch and out of the house.

Either that skunk did not subscribe to common curtsey or there was something about the Jewetts or the environment but there on that sultry hot summers midnight it let blast with everything it had to offer. The odor in that house made it a total disaster. Everyone ran out of the house to get a little fresh air and when they tried to convince the Motel owner why they all had to have accommodations for the night the Motel owner said, “Not in my motel are you going to shed that stench.” Somewhere in Woodbridge, Connecticut there may still be a wild descented skunk named Tink.

Next, A lobotomy anybody?

Bloodhounds for ACriminal-9

Animal Anecdotes 9.

At one point in my younger days my father had interested himself in studying and training Bloodhounds. Before the days of the auto Bloodhounds were used regularly in some areas to fight crime as with family feuds in Arkansas and elsewhere. At one time we had what may have been the largest kennel of Bloodhounds anywhere in our White Isle Kennels of over 100 of them. I was a good age to do my part in the training about which I’ll write for another Anecdote one day.

My father was well known from writing about and using them to locate lost people. Knowing their availability when an escaped criminal was seen the police wondered if the bloodhounds could locate him. The State Commissioner of Police of Connecticut no less phoned my father for help. Dad told him he had to refuse since he had a wife and two children but the Commissioner persisted and with a small army came to our house to help conduct Dad and two hounds to the scene where the criminal had last been seen. The small convoy of police left with Dad and the dogs with sirens blaring. You may be assured his 10 year old son was impressed.

About the case, the criminal had been in custody for murder and had escaped the police. In a car trying to recapture him, he was seen walking by two police on a country road.

With a gunny sack over a stick while walking, seeing the police stop ahead of him he brought out the stick that was really a Winchester 30-30 caliber rifle and shot twice at the police who had bent over exiting their car so the bullets missed.

It was in the early days of his trailing with dogs and my Dad had always used a double couple for the two dogs and believe me, one Bloodhound on a fresh track is difficult to manage so from early on he and the dogs were out of sight of the police who were armed with shotguns and rifles for any emergency. When those wonderful gentle hounds get close to the person being trailed they exhibit a change of attitude the handler becomes cognizant of and my father held the dogs back to await the police. There were no police within shouting distance and Dad switched the leashes from the dogs’ harnesses to their collars that marked the end of the trail for both handler and dogs.

The criminal had been caught by leaving burglar tools on a bus and when he checked the bus lost and found department a plain clothes policeman watching caught him. He told of having seen the dogs coming and he had the sights of his gun on one dog but didn’t fire because he feared the second dog would get him.

Next will be a lesson in how to find homes for unwanted kittens.

Jonny Harvard-8

Animal Anecdote 8.

Three High School boys came to my Clinic without an appointment but with a request for bartering. Each boy was dirty with good clean dirt and sweaty with good clean sweat. They had spent the past 3 hours digging out a fox den. Opening the corrugated box and there they were, 5 of them. In exchange for one of them would I give them advice? It had always been my policy to give the schools free advice and I gladly included these nursing red foxes. At the time I had an orphan beagle puppy in a homemade incubator in my house and this fox was the same age, about 10 days. They made a perfect pair snuggling together for a week. Of course my wife did most of the bottle feeding. This mutually compatible arrangement seemed to be an idyllic situation when one day I heard the Beagle crying as if in pain. I rushed to the rescue thinking it had somehow caught a leg in the incubator but there was the toothless fox growling and biting the Beagle as if trying to dispatch it.

The answer was that here were two mammals that as adults were deadly enemies but it took time and development before the instinct developed in the fox. Both were raised and eventually became guests in outside cages but never again friends. The children named the fox, Jonny Harvard. He was an interesting pet even though a bit of shyness was always present. I inoculated him for dog distemper and for rabies and put a collar on him so we could snap a leash to take him for a walk.

One day seven year old son Chuck, home from a day at school stopped by and opened Jonny’s cage to leash him and Jonny decided to walk himself and trotted off in the woods. I am sure Jonny could cope for himself better than most forms of wildlife with his favorite food of mice. We never did see Jonny Harvard again.

One late night winter storm I thought I had seen Jonny again when in the storm a car drove into our drive honking a horn. I donned a coat and rushed to the door and there before me was a man clutching a red fox close to his chest and with the face of the fox close to his face. Before a word was said I said, ”First gently lower that foxes head down and away from your face.”He did that as he explained that he saw the fox by the side of the road seemingly lost or perhaps it had been hit by a car so he stopped, got out and picked up the fax and thought of me to take it to.

My first thought was of the usually fatal disease, Rabies. With that disease there are perhaps only a few hours before the infected creature becomes violent that it becomes overly affectionate. I had a cage in our house and quickly placed the fox safely in the cage.

There is another wildlife disease that humans get from time to time and that is called Listeriosis. With the infection of listeria the patient also loses fear and that was the eventual diagnosis by the University of Connecticut pathologists. With listeria the disease becomes most active with changes of temperature as such changes cause the exponential growth. Unlike rabies, listeria is spread by ingesting the bacteria.

Next time a man hunt with Bloodhounds.

How many Puppies?-7

Animal Anecdote 7.

A word about the Davis Tucks, the owners of the Silvermine Kennels were as trustworthy as can be with their reputation of breeding and showing the finest of the finest English Setters in our country. I start this anecdote about the owners because there may be those who wonder about the validity of my observation. They presented a beautiful 3 year old Champion English Setter bitch with a problem. She had not been in heat for breeding for over a year. I tried many published treatments and nothing had worked. Finally I suggested an exploratory operation and if nothing else could be done I would spay her and she could become someones pet. The surgery was agreed on.

The surgery answered the cause of her problem but never had I seen or heard of the situation. The uterus of dogs is “Y” shaped in which the puppies develop and this female had an infection called pyometra meaning pus in the uterus, not unusual in dogs but in this case only one horn of the uterus was involved. That horn was full of pus as if she were pregnant in that one horn only. I tied off the infected horn and removed it and the ovary on that side and she was discharged the following day. Her recovery was uneventful and in 2 weeks by phone I was told she was in full heat. I suggested they wait for the next heat but she was bred anyway and to one of the Silvermine Champions. At 18 days she was presented for an evaluation and I was able to palpate pregnancy. The Tucks then told me that friends in England wanted to purchase her.

Were ethics involved? The English knew all about the case and still offered considerable sum for this young American Champion. I gave the necessary health certificate and she was to leave by plane in a few days. All went well and she was confined for 6 months by English law in quarantine where she had 12 normal puppies. Half a uterus and 12 puppies? All did well but the question arose, if she had had a whole uterus would she have had 24 puppies? Who knows but here is an interesting question for research to answer. What determines the number of offspring any mammal has?

Next time about a Jonny Harvard and another.

Smiles-6

Animal anecdote 6.

Don’t you like to give credit where credit is due? I do and I believe it was Dr. Harmon Leonard of Cheshire, Connecticut who tells of a client with a new puppy he had given a rough outline of care before bringing the patient in for the first time. “And when you come in bring a stool.” The client responded with, “How tall a stool, Dr.?”

Another short anecdote that may have happened to most veterinarians was in answer to the sensible question, “Has she been in heat?” comes the reply, “Why yes, doctor, she sleeps behind the stove.” No comment.

One of my favorites was such because it concerned my six year old beautiful daughter, child number three of four who is now approaching middle age was asked by friend John Gamsby. It was at a time when I had written a long since out of print book called, “This is the Beagle” and I had a kennel of Beagles with several studs. My friend asked if she knew the whereabouts of her father. Katie said, “He’s out in the garage breeding a bitch.”

Another anecdote involving a child concerns a young bitch that I determined as being pregnant. The father of a little girl with him claimed in uncertain terms that pregnancy was utterly impossible. The pet had never been out of the sight of one of the family ever. The little girl with her head about as tall as the height of my examining table spoke up with, “But daddy remember when she was gone over night?”

It is a strange truism that a person and it seems to be a trait of the male of the species if involved with an activity that led to a pet problem will lie rather than being incriminated in the cause of the problem. We veterinarians take that into consideration in searching for answers to a pet problem.

Next, what determines the number of puppies in a litter?