Gaius has a photo shoot
The photoshoot went well enough. Sort of! We'd agreed to meet at the park so she could get some good, off-leash action shots. I figured a working dog ought to be shown in action, and Gaius has some terrific moves. I had him all white and fluffy, but Kira got stuck in traffic, and Gaius dug himself into a big dusty pit trying to unearth gophers. He didn't get the gopher, but he did acquire a lot of biscuit coloring.
When she arrived, I took him to the ravine so she could get some shots of him wading in the creek. Kira climbed down after him, and asked him to walk with her, which immediately aroused his suspicions. He ran back to me (the shoes I have to wear are not stable on rough ground). I gave her some hot dog pieces to lure him back down, but he wasn't buying. As much as he still gets sad and balky and mopey with me, he's not about to go with anyone else. Then we tried some interesting old stumps for a background, but he wouldn't stand still. Just kept nosing my hand for the bait. I tried trotting around and being stupid to get him to play, but he stayed at my heel, like a good boy. She finally got some sweet shots of him lying in the grass. Boring!
Kira was nervous about an upcoming shoot with another Kuvasz. I told her Steve would have control of his dog. We talked killer kuvasz for a while, and I said that I'd been able to teach both my boys to be gentlemen, to ignore hostile dogs, and to "off" when I say so. Gaius is getting very good at this. Plus, he will happily let half a dozen children hang on him and fuss with him. I do tell kids not to run around, or mess with his tail.
He got sad again the next week. Balking, moping, giving me a hard time about coming inside, holding back when I hugged him. Something must have triggered sad memories. I have no idea what. It's been 8 months, and sometimes he just breaks my heart. He's smiling today, though, after lots of reassurance and affection. Will he ever get over being passed around for all those months?
At age two, when I adopted him, he'd already been in six different homes. His original owners clearly loved him and gave him what he needed; he'd been beautifully trained and socialized, but they died tragically. By the time he came to me, he was distant, unresponsive, moody, and defiant. At one point he decided he was going to kill all the other dogs. Months and months of training and heart and effort later, he became an excellent canine citizen. And we learned to love each other. Two and a half years in, he was a happy, youthful, thoughtful,confident, loving boy.
Suddenly he weakened, and went down. The hospital diagnosed him with myasthenia gravis, a very unpredictable and hard to treat neurological disorder. All his doctors think a recent rabies vaccine may have caused it. The treatment was torture, and after a few days, it was clear that the only merciful thing to do was to let him go.
Somehow his fur keeps accumulating around the house.
Nancy in Oregon shares this loving memorial of Gaius with us.
