Christmas is so much fun!

This is my first Christmas. I didn't know what to expect...

...but this has been fun, fun, fun, all the way.

People who know me, but I've yet got to meet, have sent me presents!

These last couple of days have been fantastic. When's the next Christmas due?

I'm 5 (months)

Today is a very important day for me - I'm 5, months that is.

 And what a 5 months it has been!

I had no idea life would be like this. I just hope everything goes well from now and I don't cause mum and dad such anxiety over my health! 

Dad took these photos as I was posing at one of my favourite spots around the house. It is sheltered from the wind and is a perfect suntrap - ideal for resting at this time of the year. I hope to spend a lot of time there.

Another day, another walk

Every day I go out for a walk with mum and dad. Now we are at Torre del Compte I've been on a different walk each day.

I've been up the camino. This is the longest walk I've ever been on, nearly 2½ km, there and back. Dad told me that we will go on this walk hundreds of times in the next few years and I'm not even 5 months old yet.

Also I've been around the village - there are so many interesting things to see and smells to be savoured. It's a great life!

2 Christmas presents arrive for me

Everyone is talking about Christmas which is just over 2 weeks away and evidently one of the main features is receiving presents.

2 of my presents arrived yesterday. Mum and dad have bought me 2 coats which I love as they keep me nice and warm as it can be a bit chilly especially in the mornings.

I prefer the orange one which fits well and is very comfortable. The suede/sheepskin one has a bit much going on but I shall get used to it.

The only problem is that they fit well at the moment but I am growing very quickly. At least I shall get plenty of wear out of them in the next couple of months.

A bit under the weather

I've been a bit off colour these last few days and my mum and dad have been very worried about me but I'm alright now.

I started feeling poorly last Sunday and I went off my food. Monday I didn't eat either and I felt listless. On Tuesday morning mum and dad took me to the vets where I have been for the last 2 nights until mum and dad brought me home this morning. I feel better now but the last 2 days being stuck in a small cage weren't very pleasant - just as well I wasn't feeling too good!

At first mum thought I had poisoned myself as I have to taste all the plants in the garden. She looked up every plant on the internet and found that around half of the plants in the garden were poisonous. However, the vet took a sample of my blood, tested it and reported back that I had not been poisoned on this occasion. My dad thought that I had swallowed a piece from the garden irrigation system which I have destroyed over the last few weeks. He doesn't seem to mind though as at this time of year he has disconnected it. Various nozzles are scattered around and he thought that one of these may be on it's way down to my stomach and causing a blockage. Nothing was to be seen on the x-rays to verify this although I believe that plastic is difficult to identify.

According to the vet, I was suffering the effect of the 3rd vaccination which I had been given on Monday 27th of November. This had given me a bout of gastroenteritis. I hope she was right as I don't fancy going through all that again. Now my aim is to put weight on rather than lose it. Let's see how it goes.

I meet the world!

Last Mondays visit to the vet went very well. A microchip was injected into my neck and I was given the 3rd puppy injection.

Yesterday afternoon we came down to Vinaròs to our house by the sea. This afternoon was a breakthrough  as I had my first walk outside. You cannot imagine what this was like for me - it's fantastic out there with all the smells and different people, some with their dogs - incredible. I certainly can't wait for the next excursion into the new world!

In the photo above you can see me wearing my harness. Dad has been trying this on me at various times during the last couple of weeks. I couldn't really see the point as I certainly didn't need a harness and lead to walk around the garden. But now it all makes sense as dad had adjusted the harness and it was a really comfortable fit. I certainly wouldn't run off but there are so many interesting things out there which have to be investigated.

An update

It is now over 2 weeks since my heart operation and I have never felt better. 

I have a good appetite; my dad still feeds me minced pork with special biscuits because he knows how much I like the mince, and I am filling out, becoming stronger and putting on weight. Right now I'm around 17 kg.

Monday is going to be a big day for me as we are going to the vets where I will be given my 3rd injection. After that, I will be able to go outside for walks. I'm really looking forward to that.

At the moment my dad makes sure that I get plenty of exercise by throwing my squeaky ball for me to run after and bring back to him. This morning he took this video of me doing just that. Every time he plays the video and I hear the squeaky ball I start looking for it!

Strange things do happen

It's one week since my operation and I am healing well. The dressing and bandage didn't last long as I got rid of them after the first day. I ate the actual dressing and my dad removed the blue bandage which had moved down my body and rather resembled a skirt.

Above is a photo my dad took to show my scar a couple days after my operation. My mum had a very serious operation on her spine in June and our scars are the same length. I am sure mine will heal as well as hers.

But then suddenly, for no reason that I can explain, the top half of my scar opened up yesterday afternoon and mum and dad had to take my to the vets so I could be stapled back together again. I kept the dressing and bandage on overnight but removed them this morning. I hope this doesn't slow the healing process too much. At least my fur is sprouting!

The start of my new life!

It's Thursday, 9th November and we set off in the car for a very long drive, 212 kms, to Ejea de los Caballeros, which takes just over 2½ hours.

The photo above was taken by my dad just after I came out of surgery - I didn't know anything about it.

The reason we have to go there is because that is where a specialist vet, Luis, operates and he and his partner José are going to perform a miracle on my heart.

Hey, that's my heart they are poking about with!

I stayed at the vets overnight and Luis sent the following 2 short videos to my mum and dad to let them know how I was recovering.

As you can see, I was up and walking around in no time.

On the Friday morning, mum and dad came to collect me and bring me home.

Since then I have made a steady recovery and it has certainly made a vast difference to my life. Now, I don't get out of breath and I have boundless energy. What a difference a day makes!

Expectations, expectations

When mum and dad brought me to my new home they thought I was going to take over where their previous Doberman, Hona, had left off. They quickly came to realise that not all of us Dobermans are the same.

For example, they put a kennel, casita in Spanish, inside the front porch at the front door and dad tried to tempt me to go into it because that was where Hona had stayed. I suppose being a Doberman she liked to keep an eye on everything that was happening at the front of the house and if anyone cycled or jogged past she would be able to see them off. She was however, as I am, very fond of people but one difference is that I don't need to be seeing everyone as they go past the house and I don't mind bikes or joggers.

I chose where I wanted to be, at the back of the house. It is sheltered, as is the front entrance, but it is sunnier and warmer. Once again, as soon as mum and dad realised this, they moved my casita down to the back door and I have recently started using it with it's top on, before I was very reluctant to go into it and would only use it when the top had been removed.

Something else that Hona didn't like and that was other animals of any description and she would chase other dogs probably with the intention of playing with them but they often didn't realise this or didn't like her form of playing. When I went to the vets the other day it was the first time my dad has ever sat inside the waiting area. Normally he would have to stay in the car with Hona or outside the waiting area and would have to restrain Hona as other animals entered or left until it was their turn to see the vet. The other day at the vets I found other dogs interesting and I wanted to find our about their smell and generally be friendly towards them.

At the moment, and I put this down to my lack of energy, my dad plays with me by throwing a ball for me to return to him to get a treat.  With Hona he would throw it as far as he could and she would run after it then bring it back to get her reward. With me he throws it up the sloping driveway and when it rolls back to us I pick it up and give it to dad to get my treat. It saves a lot of running around which at the moment I'm not up to.

I'm also a rather fussy eater. Dad has tried to get me to eat those special "scientific diet" crunchy biscuits but I'm not keen on them although they are supposed to be very good for my growth. He even bought some other very special "grain free" biscuits at the vets, full of goodness, but I don't like those either. My favourite food is minced beef or pork from the supermarket and I can eat almost 1 kg of that per day! At least I'm still growing and one day I will be a full size Doberman, at the moment I'm still a Doberboy!

A little bit about me.

Although I haven't seen my pedigree written down yet, I am told my father is Koktobel de Grande Vinko, who is the son of Oksamit de Grande Vinko with an outstanding pedigree. My father's pedigree can be seen at:

http://ingrus.net/dober/en/details.php?id=13051

My mother is called Gimena and a wonderful mother she was giving us all the care and attention she could.

Margaret and Colin, came to check out my mother and her surroundings 2 weeks before I was born.

My mother is the dobe to the right in the photo above, the other is her sister, Pandora lying on Colin's feet, who was to give birth in 4 weeks time being pregnant by my father, although my mother was the better of the two.

And so we were born on 17th July. José, the breeder, sent photos to Margaret and Colin.

I'm probably in that photo somewhere.

Here's the bit I find strange. Originally Margaret and Colin said they wanted a female. When we were born 2 of us were black and 4 of us were brown so one of my brown sisters was assigned to them. Her name was Sasha. 

This was the name Margaret and Colin had chosen. They stated that they did not want the ears cut but agreed to have the tail docked so Sasha was the only one in the litter not to have her ears operated on. Margaret and Colin even visited us and saw Sasha 12 days after we had been born.

As you can see from the photo above, Sasha almost had her eyes open. 

José sent photos of us regularly to Margaret and Colin...

...and he sent short video clips...

...so they could see how we were progressing.

Then, the day before Margaret and Colin were due to collect Sasha, she escaped from our box and ate all of our mother's food. She became very ill and had to be taken to the local veterinary surgery where she had an operation on her intestines.

A couple of days later, while Sasha was still in the hospital, Margaret and Colin arrived and chose me instead. I'm a male, they initially wanted a female, and I've got my ears clipped which they chose not to have done. But, they chose me and I am here now.

Exploring the house

Here's a selection of photos of me taken from when I first came to this house in mid September up to a more recent one taken at the end of October.

In the photo above I had just had my ears operated on and when mum and dad got me my ears were still healing and looked a bit rough. You can also see the remains of the glue used by the vet to keep my ears stuck to the top of my head.

All of these photos are in chronological order so you can see how I have grown in the last 6 weeks.

When I first arrived I was 5.3 kg, now I weigh over 11 kg!

There's plenty of this house to explore and I am gradually finding my way around.

There are lots of places to pose for the camera.

My dad never misses a chance to take a photo of me.

For the photo above my dad placed me on top of the coffee table he had been working on for the last few months. I'm not allowed to be up there at any other time.

Just this last week my ears have started to stand up all by themselves or at least one of them has. Normally they have to be "posted" and taped up for a while but I don't fancy that.

A scan to confirm my little problem

We turned up at the vets for my appointment with the specialist with his little machine. Although being on the diuretic pills for the last 10 days hadn't really caused a problem, for some reason I couldn't stop peeing everywhere while I was being examined!

The specialist was very good because he quickly diagnosed me by looking at his screen which was just a maze of blurry images of my heart. I've got PDA - you can find out about it by clicking HERE.

Basically, there's a tube connecting the aorta to the pulmonary artery which sort of by-passed my heart when I was in my mother's womb but when I was born, it should have closed automatically - mine didn't. 

I have an appointment for the operation on Thursday 9th November. If it goes well, as it should, I will be up and running around in no time with more energy than my mum or dad will be able to cope with!

I'm on 3 different tablets at the moment, at least the diuretic, Seguril, has been reduced. One of the others is Cardisure, used in the treatment of heart failure to prevent my heart from giving out before the operation. The third one is Sildenafil, used in my case to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension but generally known as Viagra for treating erectile dysfunction but I haven't got round to needing it for that just yet. 

Now, I just have to keep going for one more week.

Meeting new friends

Apart from getting to know my mum and dad I have met lots of people and animals in the last few weeks.

Just last week 2 friends from England, Fiona and Justin, came to stay and I enjoyed playing with them.

I've got a lot to live up to but I'm working on it. Before I appeared on the scene my mum and dad had another Doberman, a female called Hona. Dad even has a photograph of her on one of his t-shirts!

Two friends I'm not so sure about yet are these two in the photos below. They live in the same house as mum and dad. Jasper, the cat at the left is fine and I enjoy chasing him...

...but the other one, Amber, who is quite an old cat, around 15 human years, isn't very friendly so I keep my distance from her.

There is so much to find out about, sometimes it is quite exhausting just trying to keep up.

The photo above and the 2 below were taken when I was 10½ weeks old when I met...

...some more friends at our other house in Vinaròs.

I have found that the best way to get to know people is to get a feel or taste of them in my mouth.

Unfortunately, as my teeth are new and rather sharp people don't seem to like this approach. My dad says he can't wait for me to start chewing on animal bones as that will take the edge off them!

And then it all went wrong...

Life was so good, I was having so much fun and mum and dad were always wanting to play with me even though at times I didn't have all the energy I needed, even a walk around the garden was more than sufficient but I put this down to the fact that I was a very young puppy and so did mum and dad who were very understanding.

And then it all went wrong.

On the night of Sunday 15 October I found it harder and harder to breath, I couldn't put my head down or if I did I felt as though I was drowning. Sure enough, mum and dad took me to the veterinary surgery first thing on Monday morning and the wonderful people there quickly diagnosed what I needed - oxygen! I was also given a diuretic injection which caused me to pee virtually non-stop.

My problem was that I had liquid on my lungs but at last I could put my head down. I spent the remainder of the day recovering and I felt fine later in the afternoon so mum and dad came back and took me home. I had been prescribed diuretic pills so that the water would not accumulate as I would get rid of it by peeing more. 

I was to return to the vets for a scan by a specialist on Friday 27th October.

How I was given my name

When I was first brought home with Margaret and Colin I don't think they knew what to call me. 

Colin, my new dad, had prepared a special name plate for my sister who they had expected to be collecting from the breeder but as she had had an operation and was in hospital they had changed their minds about her and chosen me instead.

The next 2 photos were taken on the day I went to live with my new mum and dad.

Dad spent quite a bit of time looking at names for puppies on the internet. A neighbour suggested "Broc" as a good Spanish name and it was due to this that I was given the name "Rocky" which I really like.

At one point it was suggested that I should be called "Brexit" but I'm glad mum and dad didn't settle for that! A further suggestion was "Rocky-Brexit" which is quite appropriate as it sums up what seems to be actually happening in the current negotiations.