Kasha, why did this dog come into our lives?

Another sad story!

A few years ago there was a rash of car-jacking and I became somewhat worried about my safety.

I decided it was time to get a good size dog for security!

Sorry I don't believe in guns.

My thought was that since I was often alone, or had to travel long distances to visit my husband, or when coming south, two small Yorkies offered little protection.

I felt that having three dogs in the car, might offer a deterrent.

I began to read about different breeds, and decided on a Chow-Chow!

I then did my homework on finding breeder of this type dog, and found what I thought was a good breeder.

I bought a small black female puppy, who I promptly named "Ling Ling"!

She looked like the beautiful panda that was given by the Chinese to the USA.

Minus the white spots, of course.

I loved her from the start, though my two Yorkies wanted no part of her, and never did.

From the beginning I noticed that she was not very sociable.
But she was so young, 9 weeks old so I felt she just needed time.

Another thing I thought was strange was that she would never look into my eyes.

She did not want to play, did not like to be held, did not listen to any command, did not want anyone near her food, or water dish.
She was different than any other dog I ever had!

When fall came, and it was time to head south Ling Ling was still a problem, but I knew of a good dog training program available where we were going to live.

I still was not too worried. You might call it uneasy.

Once settled, I promptly made an appointment to meet the trainer.

She seemed a bit concerned, but felt that with training, and the chance to meet many other dogs of all sizes perhaps she would "come around"!

Classes would begin the first week of January.

In the mean-time I was to continue with the "sit", "stay", and "down" lessons.

Ling Ling was now getting big. She was now 4 months old.

It was now time to buy her a new collar and leash.

On one of my shopping expeditions, I found just the right one.

A beautiful "hot pink" nylon set.
When I came home I tried it on her, and yes it was just perfect.

In the house I never leave a collar on my dogs, to prevent irritation around their necks, or worse an accident.

But since this was new, I left it on for her to get use to it.

My big mistake!

A short time later I happen to pass her as she was having a drink or a bite to eat, when I noticed the collar was still around her neck, so I decided to remove it.

As I put my hand around her neck to undo the buckle, she lunged for my hand, and sank her teeth right through my index finger.

This was not a good sign!

I scolded her, and said words like, "No, Ling Ling, bad dog."

What else can you do to a young puppy?

Finally classes began and my hopes soared.

From the start she did not like people or dogs near her.
But hope burns eternal, things would work out.

To both the trainer and my surprise she did follow the lessons, and "graduated".

Upon our return to Canada, she had grown to quite a size, now weighing all of 60 pounds.

It had become impossible to groom her. She had many times inflicted large scratches on my arms and hands when I had cleaned her ears, cut her toe nails, or brushed her.

She did NOT want that type of attention.

Finally Mike began to worry to such a degree, that he suggested we take her in for professional grooming.

So, we tried. We took her in to a highly recommended shop to meet the groomer.
The gentleman talked to her, but she did not want to look at him.

He asked a couple of the ladies that worked there to talk to her, to see if she would respond to them.
The answer was no!

Finally her told us that it might be better if we took her to the vet to have her groomed, because he could not take chances with this particular dog.

He recommended a vet office that did this type of work.

We called and made an appointment.

When the vet called us in she began to talked to Ling Ling, who promptly tried to hide behind my legs.

The vet tried coaxing her to no avail.
Then the vet began asking us many questions about her.

The answers we gave were not, unfortunately all glowing reports.

The vet then noticed the heavy scratches on my hands and arms, and asked if these had been made by Ling Ling?

I hated to admit that yes these had been caused when trying to brush her coat.

Finally after much talking back and forth, the vet made it quite clear to us that Ling Ling would ALWAYS be a menace to us and others.

We were stunned for the moment. Mike was totally disbelieving. This could not be possible.
But deep in our minds, and hearts, we knew this to be true!

The vet advised us to put her down.

What a heartbreak, we loved Ling Ling, though we did not like her behavior.

Mike left the examining room in tears, I remain to question the vet on more points.

None of her answers pleased me, but I knew that what she said was true.

Ling Ling had never been socialized as a puppy.

Later we found out that this particular breeder "raised" his puppies to be aggressive.
He used sensory deprivation to booster their meanest.

His philosophy was to treat them mean, and make "good guard dogs" out of them!

Yes, I did have Ling Ling put to sleep, and it broke my heart.
I had heard and seen the results of a large dog mauling a small child, and I knew my pain now would be nothing to the pain a small child would endure if I kept Ling Ling, and God forbided she did what the vet for-warned us about.

Losing a pet through accidents, illness, or old age is terrible. But having to have your pet put down is gut wrenching!

Kasha.

She came into our lives, and made the sun shine again.

We were truly devastated by the loss of Ling Ling.
It was recommended that we find a new dog.

What an insult we felt, for people to even think another dog could replace Ling Ling!

After a dark period in our lives I noticed that Mike had begun to read the "Pet for Sale" columns in the newspaper.

Then he began to talk about us just looking for another dog.

Finally the day came that I agreed to get a book from the library and check out different breeds.

I was in no hurry to get a dog!

One book in particular showed both the puppy with the adult version of the breed, and Mike seemed to really like the "Keeshond"!

Well I had no idea where you could get a Keeshond, nor was I interested in finding out.

Things stayed that way for a few days, when the subject came up again.

This time I told Mike that I knew of no breeder, nor even a pet store who had any of this breed.

Well I guess Mike heard a faint hope of acceptance in my voice, because he quickly added that "HE" knew where we could see some.

So we called, the number from this old newspaper ad Mike had saved, and yes, we were told they just happened to have a 13 week old female.

So off we went to see this little puppy.
A three hour drive from our home.

When we got there we were pleasantly surprised to see this was a breeder, with the most beautiful, well kept, kennel.

She also ran a beautiful pet store with all the goodies you could want to buy for your pet up front of her kennel.

I must admit I was impressed. Then she took us where her puppies where kept. She allowed me to go in and visit with them.

I had barely made my way in when a fluffy beige ball of fur came running towards me.(I hope you will not think this is foolish, but as I write this I find myself writing it through a veil of tears).

I was afraid to ask which one was the little female they had for sale. Could it be this sweet little puppy?

I am certain that somehow , God had kept this little puppy just for us .

Yes this was the puppy!

Today we have had Kasha for nearly four years. She is just the same sweet (big) dog now as she was the day she came running to me.

She is loyal, easy going, obedient, tolerant, and best of all very loving.

She loves to play, her "chewies", long walks with her dad. She could spend days in the car if you wanted her to.

We go nowhere without her. She tolerates nail clippings, her ears cleaned, brushing, hugs, and yes kisses.

She won our hearts right there on the spot. In return she has found two very loving parents.

Alas she is overweight, and not even the vet knows why, she weighs 63 pounds. But to everyone who sees her she is beautiful.

I thank God for such a blessing.

Ling Ling was buried in our backyard. Before we laid her to rest I brushed her fur, and put on her "hot pink" collar and leash. I also placed all her toys alongside of her.

I also prayed that somehow she would finally be at peace.