rgGreen4, thanks...I want to get their tales docked and had no idea of the right time to do this and your post has helped.

Gracias!

I don know how "karma " interacts or how fate organises its blows to fall, but all ican say is that I return here with an account of the utmost woe! So bad has been this past week that I can hardly believe that the last few days have really happened...it has as yet failed to sink in!

First, for the people who could not condone my action at breeding Doby and Espiritu let me say you will never know how wrong and ill informed your judgement of me and my pets has been but that is no matter. I wish only that i had found Doby earlier and bred him and Espiritu 6 months ago around Christmas when she was earlier in season.

I live in the Canary islands on a little island called lanzarote. I took Doby from a lady who could only have him in a one bedroom apartment and who had to live with legislation which meant she could only exercise him on a lead and that he could only be seen in public....muzzled.

I brought him to Lanzarote where each day he would go up the hills here with my beloved Espiritu, run crazily, unhindered and unbothered by any other human presence. His condition and his temprement totally changed in the few months that I had him (since May this year) from a hyper active tethered dog, to a hyperactive free dog! I posted videos of his earlier romps on You tube...here he can be seen with Espiritu enjoying what had become his new life  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npLNUXPYH6E  . I took him from a young girl in tenerife called Victoria. Here is a pasted copy of the letter I sent her before it had been translated into Spanish (as she does not speak English):-

Dearest Victoria, (Wednesday)

I am writing this in order to convey accurately to you the events of this week leading to our loss of  Doby Wan and Espiritus pups.

On Monday this week, I took both dogs up the hills for their usual 90 mins walk. The day was extremely hot but not unlike other days that we had encountered this summer. When we returned to the car, both dogs were hot and refused water (this was unusual to me).  15 minutes later we were home and when I tried to get them from the car, Doby could not stand or walk. Espiritu walked into the house but was very shaky on her legs.

I thought the only explanation for their weakness at that time, must have been heat exhaustion so I bathed both of them in the bath and cooled them. Both stopped panting and though Espiritu was partially mobile, Doby, though  alert, still could not stand or walk. I then consulted a vetenarian book about heat exhaustion which explained that the dogs would suffer from diarrhea and bloody vomiting. These symptoms then set in very quickly, wit Espiritu first and Doby shortly afterwards though no blood was present  in their vomit and diarrhea. I then got an electric fan and for an hour I tried to keep them cool while they continued to both vomit and suffer from diarrhea. After an hour Espiritu seem to worsen , though  Doby remained the same. I decided to take them to the vets at that stage reluctantly as it was now afternoon and very hot and I feared that the car journey would worsen the effect. If I had a thermometer at home, I could have confirmed heat exhaustion  was  not the cause of their condition, but I had no such apparatus and again I was confused because both dogs were cold to the touch and not hot! I got them to the vets and carried both into the vets explaining very embarrassedly to the vet that both dogs had heat exhaustion. The vet checked their rectum temperature and told me that the dogs were not suffering from heat exhaustion and told me that the likely cause of their collapse was because of something they had ingested. Doby  had begun suffering seizures during the car journey (again a symptom of heat exhaustion)… . After she had examined both dogs she concluded that a toxic substance had been imbibed and after explaining the manner of their exercising to them she suspected poisoning!

Doby was given 2 antidotes to common poisons and medicine to stop him convulsing… but died  in my arms within an hour of being at the vets and Espiritu was immediately caged and put on a drip. She could not be medicated due to her pregnancy.

I left the vetenarians at 7pm Monday night leaving Espiritu in their care and Doby Wan on a blanket in their surgery! I left in a considerably  low and emotionally poor state due to the loss of Doby Wan and my now expected loss of Espiritu!

On Tuesday morning feeling in very low spirits, I returned to the vets expecting to have to remove and bury both dogs but Espiritu, amazingly was still alive. The vet told me that an ultra sound had revealed that she was now carrying at least 2 dead pups and would (if she survived ), have had to have surgery to remove the dead fetuses from her womb. However, by 3pm her body gave up on preserving her pups and she miscarried from 3pm Tuesday to 10 am today, 13 pups in total that were 30 days (approx) developed! She also required 260€ worth of special injections to ensure that all her pups and maternal materials were expelled from her womb. On Tuesday, while she lay fighting for her life, I buried Doby in the morning and returned to sit with Espiritu all day at the vets.

Today at 4pm, she started to drink water again and showed incredible signs of recovery. At 7pm the vet told me that I could take her home overnight but that she must be returned to the vets, tomorrow, Thursday to be put back on a drip and further evaluated for damage to her major organs. This is the up to date situation!

Please understand that while I am overjoyed at the current survival of Espiritu, I am devastated to lose Doby and their puppies that would have been incredible dogs.  That in the few months that I had him, he had become as close a friend as an male Doberman I have ever had in the past and that I shed many tears over his loss as I am again doing so now as I write this to you.

As to his place in my home, I am an odd man who sleeps on the floor with both dogs. Doby amazingly would sleep on my feet while Espiritu would just take over my sleeping area in whatever manner she chose. I would awake in the morning and hug both of these dogs and stroke them as it was a joy to wake to their playful antics and the deep joy they gave me each and every day.

The loss impacts Espiritu to a she lies here now wondering where he has gone and why she cannot play with him once again. I deeply mourn this loss and would do anything to have him and his pups back in our life once more. Please forgive me for losing him but please sympathize with the deep hurt I feel at this great loss. These dogs fill deep voids in my psyche where people, possessions and sentiment do not. When one of them passes from me I feel that my own life force diminishes with their passing but I suffer these things because their lives and their cheeky guile brings me so much pleasure and zest for living. Espiritu and I will never forget him and will always awake expecting him still to be there beside us each morning instead of the deep pain which we both now feel. My best wishes and thanks to you for allowing him into our lives, lives which he so nearly immeasurably enriched with the presence of 13 more of these wonderful beings.

......................................................................................................................

The above is the letter I sent to the former owner of Doby Wan Riocca..... and my regrets are as follows:-

1) Not finding Doby earlier and mating him with Espiritu last December/Jan

2) Not being sufficiently aware enough to know that someone had targerted my dogs for this end as the walks that they cover do not impinge on farmland or homesteads. Someone who had seen me and presumably my pregnant Doberman (I believe) targeted them for this despicable act. It was also a route that Espiritu and i had traversed many times over an eight month period and prior to Dobys arrival.... a route that I had felt was safe and of no danger to her or Doby.

Espiritu, currently is extremly sick but making good progress. She has just begun to feed again (through a syringe) and though she still expels dark blood, she is beginning to show signs that may lead to her eventual and hopeful...full recovery. Though she has sustained liver damage, I remain hopeful (given the vets prognosis) that her liver will recover and that in a year or so, she may once again be mated. So forgive me in advance, as i fully intend (should she survive her current ordeal)... to find her a handsome buck..... and mate her once again. I wont even give a shit... if she has a hundred pups and i have to keep them all...we will manage....somehow!

Robert Riocca.

Talisan, thanks for our kind comments and wishes. Hopefully one day you will visit Lanzarote as it is a stark contrast to most of the countries people decide to dwell. It rarely rains here and so the terrain is not far removed from that of a desert! Mushrooms rarely grow here and much of the vegetation is either cactus or euphorbias in origin. The dogs rarely would even show interest in the plants apart from Doby who used to chase lizards int o the bushes and brush and then continue to scare the life out of them.

There are some 2 to 3 fig trees that we pass on our walk and these can be damaged by ants. I had noticed not long before, that some of the ground we would tread was badly infested with ants... so it is possible that someone sprayed these trees with a powerful insectiscide and the dogs maybe licked or chewed some of the large fig leaves that these trees have when in bloom! Sometimes the dogs would find shade under these trees along our way, though I never ever noticed them trying to eat or lick the leaves before.

The only other alternative, is that somebody laced some food with the insecticide and placed it along the narrower routes of our journey. The breed is not very well liked by most Spanish as they are regarded in the same context as a great white shark, ie the minute you see one you think you are going to be eaten alive! Parts of the island are well known for poisoning, but in my area there is little or no history of such events other than in local villages. I never would walk my dogs locally apart from the door of my house to the car...... but many saw that she was pregnant and it could have been deliberate or I hope more so... an accident.

Either way, its been a shock as I thought the life i was able to give to these prcious beings ie wide open expanses and long tiring exercise (for me and them), was as heavenly a concept as I could ever imagine for myself and for them ..... now its made me reconsider this and in future i will have to be very cautious about where I take them.

Rob