Mark of the beast

Any dog who has undergone treatment for heartworms wears "the mark."  It's the two spots on their back that they shave down to the skin for the injections.  Booty's marks are smaller than many I've seen, but big or small, it's a shaved patch that will take some time to grow back in.  Fortunately, bearing the mark indicates that the beast has been exorcised, or at least the process is underway.  Booty is crated in my office and is on restricted activity for a month. 

He spent Monday night at the vet's office and I picked him up on Tuesday afternoon.  He's sore because the injections go deep and are quite painful.  He was feeling bad enough that he didn't want to eat Tuesday evening, but by Wednesday morning he was back to eating.  He's getting canned food mixed with dry for now, mostly because he's taking five pills (two doxycycline, two cephalexin, and one carprofen, the latter being for pain).


Booty is unneutered and he will lift his leg on anything that stands still (including the vet when we went in for the initial visit).  But he hasn't done so in the house and he's a perfect gentlemen in his crate, at least for now.  He knows that the middle crate is his and he goes directly to it when he comes inside.  I still need to leash him to get him out of the crate to go outside but at least he puts himself up when he comes back into the house. 

He's not bothered by the other household dogs and they don't seem to mind him, even though he's still an intact male.

I had to cut his old collar off of him today but he was quite calm and cooperative through the process.  He got a good brushing of his neck after I got the old one removed and then got a nice new collar with new tags evidencing his new life as a VGSR dog.

Someone asked earlier what he is.  He's a German Shepherd Dog, or at least he appears to be, but he's a bi-color, which gives him a somewhat atypical look for the breed.  He weighed in at 80 pounds, which surprised me a bit.  He's not that tall, but he's got a pretty solid build. 

From everything I've seen so far, he's a good dog.