The Saga of the little dog and other Follies

Spritzer's new home VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After nearly 17 years together Camillo and I finally decided to adopt. Meet Spritzer, soon to be big and ferocious guard dog and companion. He is 5 months old and I suspect has not had much human contact or attention. We adopted Spritzer from the veterinary clinic in Muri. He is purported to be a pure German Shepherd but his two brothers, that we had to leave at the Vet’s, had some pretty unusual shepherd markings. We had to pay R$300.00 which was for his shots-to-date, and a general medical check-up and whatever - they did bath him for us which was a god-send. Of course, the costs don’t stop there, a dog house and paint (which is VERY expensive in Brazil) R$280.00, several bags of reward biscuits and a bag of food (only the best available for our dog!) R$75.00, a couple of toys, food and water dish, some wood to fill in a gate to the garage which it took him about 6 hours to figure out how to jump through, and name tag (s) & etching of name on the tag, collar and leash, R$150.00 (probably closer to 200.00 but I am being nice). Tomorrow, two men will come to put a higher iron gate by the drive and a net up on a retainer wall…. because last night at midnight he cried from OUTSIDE the gate to come in. We can’t figure out how he got out so we are ‘improving’ our new fence for his protections (so he can protect us later). Camillo isn’t telling me how much this will be …. he likes the dog and we will “put it behind us”

He has been with us for 5 days and is still rolling the white of his eyes if we try to touch him, jumping at loud sounds, and generally ignoring us – his companions - unless we have a reward biscuits in our hand. We are told this is normal for a 5 month old that has lost his family. He will follow us if he thinks we are not looking and we take this as an improvement in attitude.

We will lavish him with love as soon as he will let us.