Rufinacious update: Rufus out in public
monkeypooshoes lists a bunch of amazing things that you can't believe exist to appeal to dogowners (and dogs). For most of this, esp. the java, my reaction is WTF?!!!! Why feed your dog a mock-version of something that could kill them? That's like if we ate candy that looked like scorpions. Oh, we do. (Well, some of us do.) But I am interested in the pedigree thing, I hafta admit. Esp since now I have 2 dogs of mysterious origins.
Yesterday I took Rufus to the vet for the first time. I have had him for a month now, and he did go to the vet in West Virginia with his foster people, but I like to get a second opinion fairly soon and all when I get a new dog. Also, I was unsure whether the wax in his ears was at an OK level (it is). Took him to Wolchinsky of Rocky Gorge, Laurel MD. Wolchinsky said he thinks Rufus is "part Great Dane, part hound, maybe other things; well, maybe a total of six things" and that Rufus is about 1 year old. That's a little younger than the WV vets thought. Dr. W said his heart and lungs sound really good, and his legs and joints seem very healthy--great things to hear in any case, but esp. with a larger dog. The age judgment was made because of Rufus's incredibly white teeth and his "immaturity." R was not thrilled to be in the vet's office. He was happy to see every person he met and wanted to play with every animal he saw. His barks and howls reverberated throughout the clinic. He did not want to get on the scale to be weighed (about 87 lbs). He did NOT like to have his temperature taken, thank you! (i.e., up the butt.) He yelped in pain and leapt when they used a needle to insert a microchip between his shoulder blades. The vet tech was very sweet even though I think her jaw might have been on the receiving end of a painful bonk from Rufus's hard head (I have been there before myself, and it can hurt), and the good Dr. just chuckled and remarked how R's appearance and coloring were unique and "kinda cool!"
I was exhausted by the end of the visit, but I still took Rufus by Petco to get some supplies. He was good in the store, letting people pet him, not trying to jump on anyone. A young woman who worked there who studies animal science at U Maryland and her co-worker told me they have a game where they try to guess breeds of dogs that come in. She looked at R for a sec and said, "Great Dane and some kinda hound." I said, "Damn, she's good." She then encouraged me to let Rufus look at the ferrets in the ferret cage. I had been hesitant to let him do this, because I thought it would freak the ferrets out, but she said nothing freaks ferrets out. True enough, they came to check Rufus out, and he was quiet while looking at them.