Dixie The Puller

Dixie has been full of energy this week and I am trying to spend as much quality time with her before the big day. Hope to get out this weekend and do a little hiking at her favorite spot at the lake.

Here is a video of her and Raja on a snow day earlier this year.

Dixie is now around 8 years old, at least we think that is about her age since we really weren’t sure how old she was when we adopted her. Anyway this year she started to develop a lump on her left leg just above her wrist or whatever it is called on dogs. It wasn’t bothering her so we ignored it for a few months. As the lump grew very fast and in only a few months it was egg sized, we decided it was time to get it checked out. We were hoping for a quick diagnosis and have it removed. The first vet said no problem but would require a skin flap procedure and before even thinking about that we need to see if it was cancerous and if so had it spread. So we went to vet two to get a biopsy done. It came back positive for cancer so we went to a cancer specialist to see what our options were. They thought that maybe they could remove it but first we need to see if it spread, so ultrasounds were done and blood-work was taken. Fortunately it seemed to localized to the leg but again surgery to remove it would be very intensive and the risk that it would return would be pretty high, and chemo would be required after. On to vet three who was closer to us and also was a cancer specialist. He was very blunt and said amputation would be his recommendation. We felt most comfortable with this vet and being that he was only a few miles from our house made him much easier to work with. So we now are scheduled for the operation on Dec 22nd 2014. Here is Dixie with lump on left leg.

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This is how Dixie came to us.

We have had at least one dog in our household pretty much all of my life. We raised a Sibe – coyote?? mix, an all white blue- eyed girl named River, for close to 17 years now, and the thought of not having a dog around when she was ready to go was something I didn’t want to deal with. So I started looking on petfinder.com for our next companion. Since River was a mixed Sibe we decided that a Sibe was what we wanted, and thought we understood the breed. I researched and frequently checked petfinder for several months until one showed up that was close enough to home that we could go check her out.  We went to the shelter and saw Dixie for the first time. She was much larger than we thought ~ 50lbs and I worried that my wife may not be able to handle her. She had lots of energy but seemed somewhat trained and understood sit and did ok on the leash. She was so beautiful and connected with Kimberly right away and we just couldn’t see her go back into the kennel, so we brought her home.

She met River and River accepted her into her house..  Dixie is very vocal compared to River and stole our hearts as she entered our lives. The first weekend was the big test as we were going camping at the coast. With all the gear in the Jeep we expected Dixie to stay in the back and enjoy the ride like River always did.  That was a mistake! Kimberly was going to pick me up at work on our way to the coast, when she arrived she was in tears. I had no idea what had happened, but she did not think Dixie was going to work out. I have now learned with Dixie it isn’t about training her, it is about training us on how to coexist with her. She would not stay in the back and wanted to be in Kim’s lap while she was driving. Not only that but she was yipeing and howling the whole 30 minute drive to where I work. Once I leashed her in the back she finally settled down for the 2 hour drive to the coast. Once we arrived to the campsite I took Dixie out and was not paying attention and the leash slipped out of my hand. She looked once at me like “ Really, you think I’m going to just sit here, See ya later dude” and she was off. I thought, great, two days and I already lost her. Fortunately the leash was a long one and after running through every campsite I glimpsed her heading for the coast, someone saw my dilemma and stepped on the leash and was able to stop her.

At this point Kim told me she was my dog and really wasn’t sure she wanted a dog that had to be on a leash at all times.  Back at home all was fine, Dixie was content in the house and I had dog doors so she could go out to back yard when she  needed to. I installed an invisible fence to reinforce the brick and wood fence that we have in the back yard. This has actually been very effective. She has escaped several times through the garage door as we pull the car in. We have met more neighbors this way.

Since Dixie loves to run I decided to invest in a skijoring kit with harness and lines.. I decided to walk her to the park as she pulled a sled with a 20ft rope leading her, once at the park, she was coming to my calls, so I thought, I don’t need the rope. She still had the sled and harness on so I thought if she took off I could easily catch her. Ya right, again that look and “See ya Later Dude” She was off, dragging the sled down the street I could just see my neighbors laughing at me as I was chasing her. Again a nice neighbor was able to stop her.  Next it was the carpet cleaner who let her out the front door, fortunately he felt guilty and was able to find her down the street.  I was able to take her up in the mountains with the family a couple of times and she took to skijoring like well she was bred for it. The snow wasn’t so good for awhile so I have been bikejoring with her now. She just loves it. Once we understood that she just needs to run and make sure she gets at least 2 walks a day and a visit to the dog park at least once a week she has been such a delight in our lives. We have gone close to a month without an escape and I have now been able to let her off the leash at the end of our walks and she walks beside me and always looks up at me for approval before she runs to the front door and waits to get into her new loving home.