Khors Update

 Hey Everyone. 
We're two weeks short of 2 months of having Khors with us.  It's been ...easy.  

When we first agreed to bring another rescue in, I took a lot of my grief and used it to focus on getting this dog.   When we did finally bring him home, I didn't know what to do or feel about him. 
I had focused so much on getting him, I hadn't considered what to do or I would react once he's home. 

Khors though has made the process easy.  From moment one he's been a happy-silly puppy.  
Everything indicates he was someone's pet. First of all he had a collar on when he was rescued. Although he had been a stray for a little while, he was someone's dog. 
He's completely at ease with humans and other dogs. He was housetrained & he has basic manners.

The biggest issue was that he was a puppy with a lot of energy.  The first two weeks were rough as he was so full of energy & we were unable to let him expend it the way he needed to.   Between the extra energy & the newness of the situation, he & Peryn did have a few altercations.  
Peryn was very leery of him & kept his distance. 

It took about 5 days before Ziva realized she could play with him the way she wanted.  Lada is indifferent. 
Rich began walking him (& Ziva /Peryn) twice a day to help expend some of the energy.  It really wasn't helping, Khors is essentially a puppy.   Once he had his check-up & was given the OK to be "released" from the constraints of only playing in the basement, he was able to go to daycare-he blossomed big time. 

He LOVES daycare. He has a buddy he plays & runs around with. He loves the farm. He absolutely loves the pond-splashing in it.   Running around the pond at full speed.   He & Ziva will run around the farm for a bit.    

All this to say, now that he's got a regular outlet to his boundless energy, he's used to the routines, & he knows his place-- he is a WELCOME addition to the Pack & the family. 

He is a huge sweetheart. He loves his Momma & Papa.  He loves his siblings, especially Ziva.  Ziva absolutely loves her baby brother.  He's her playmate (ironically while typing this, they got into it).

He loves playing with Peryn & Lada with the herding ball. He loves chasing tennis balls from the blaster. He loves tug with me or Ziva. He loves toys, especially the squeaky ones.   He LOVES the toys I specifically get him.  He has a green Dodo that I gave him, that he's treasures. Today I added to it with a carrot.  He loves it very much.  

He still has a lot of energy, but he's more under control. He knows the boundaries (with the help of the invisible fence).  He's protective of the house. He patrols via the window & back door. 

Our biggest issue is the occasional "acting out" towards Peryn & today Ziva.   Peryn's fear of him is definitely gone. He's now taken it upon himself to tease him like he used to tease Volos. Taking Khors toys & standing above him to taunt him.

He doesn't have the quirkiness of Volos. You know, Volos & his obsession of collecting all the toys at the bottom of the stairs. Volos & his box obsession.  Volos was a character & his antics made everyone love watching his antics. 

Khors is a bit of a clown, but I haven't found his "voice" yet. 

So essentially, between not knowing his voice, his personality not being as quirky as Volos, & Momma's sadness, there won't be a lot of vids.    We're still working on figuring each out. 

But know he's settling in & he's a stereotypical dog.

		2

Pupdate: 16 Days In...

 Hard to believe two weeks have already gone by with him.   
It's been different. Interesting. A challenge.    

Let's start with our biggest issues:  

He's aggressive towards Peryn.   Not all the time, but it's been  enough where Peryn does not trust him & avoids him. 

It will definitely happen if food is involved & they are in close proximity.  The bigger issue is when he's gone after him during play time.    

We've begun working on that as much as we can.   It'll take time, but we do have that. 

He's run off twice now. Once with Rich & the other with me.   We're working on that as well. I'll discuss more in detail later. 

He's a counter surfer.  Worse than Ziva.  Ziva would surf the items on the edge & steal if it took minimal effort.  He will get on his hind legs & steal off the counter.

TOO ENERGETIC.  

Good things:
He's a sweetheart to humans in the house. He's on guard against those outside. He loves Ziva. He's a cuddler. He's housebroken. He's got his basic commands.   He LOVES to be brushed.

So the big developments :

He had his vet visit yesterday.   He is indeed a "puppy" as in over 1 but not 2.   His energy is definitely puppy related. We remember Ziva a year ago & she was very energetic.  She has calmed down quite a bit. 

He still has some health issues we're working with.   He has a yeast infection in his ear, near the end of treating his dermatitis, & he may have allergies.   Plus we learned today that he has intestinal worms.   So we have loads of meds for him. 

His incision healed nicely  & he was pretty much given the go ahead.    So yesterday he went to daycare. 

During the week leading up to this, he began getting the zoomies in the house. He also bolted out of the house & hasn't really gotten to let out his energy.  There was a game of chase in the basement the other day, so we knew daycare was going to be needed. 

Our hope is once he begins having a regular outlet for his energy, he may ease up on Peryn as well as not run off. 

They all went yesterday and as of almost 3PM on Saturday, they're all passed out.   They've been like this all morning.   Hopefully this will keep up once he gets in a regular schedule. 

We're probably going to eventually only send the Berner's to playcare.   Peryn does not like it. Yesterday he was pretty traumatized between the vet, rain & being forced to go to daycare.

Peryn at the vet

At the vet

Lada can go maybe once a week.  She's got her buds, she tries to interfere in her siblings play, but ultimately her & Peryn would be best to stay home.   

1 Week+ in

 We made it through a week. It's hard to believe it's only been a week. It feels a bit longer. 

Khors has adapted incredibly well. Pretty much from the first moment he has made himself at home. He's a very happy dog & adapts quite well to his surroundings.  

He likes his new siblings. He loves playing with them, running around with their herding ball.  He plays tug with Ziva. He's started getting the zoomies. Today he received his first toy & it went exactly how I expected.  He loves toys, the retriever rolls we give them, he loves the basement, he loves car rides and sticking his head out the window.   He loves hanging out at the front door or window, protecting the house. 

We already trust him when he goes off into another part of the house that he won't get into trouble.  The biggest issues we do have are that he tries to mount Ziva & Lada.  We're trying to break him from that & hope as the further we get away from his surgery, the hormone levels will drop and he will taper off with that. 
He gets riled up at the middle part of the day & will physically jump up or climb up & all over me. Like we end up wrestling. Sometimes it's because he wants to go out to the bathroom.  Other times, I have yet to figure out. 

He's been a joy overall.   We're still learning him & he's learning us. 

We do believe he is young.  Just over a year old young.  He's also very bony/skinny. We need to get some meat on his bones.  

We mailed out his DNA & health test today. Excited to see the results.

Day 6 continued onto Day 7

 10/12/2023

 Well yesterday was definitely a day of firsts. 
Also, I re-read my first few diary posts. You can tell I write as I go as I tended to repeat "he's a sweetheart". The truth is, he is. 

So yesterday the first surprise came when I went to play tug with Ziva. He had made some indication of tug the day before. We played a little bit, but not between him & Ziva. Just between him & I. 
Well, today they started playing tug.  
This made me happy as this is one of Ziva's favorite things.  He plays different than Volos, but it's obvious why as well. Volos stood his ground, didn't move much other than forward or backward.  He on the other hand moves all over with her.  It was a wonderful thing to see. 

After that, we moved onto another first: he played with the hanging rope.  We installed ( what's this we...it was all me). I installed a hanging rope like the one at the Farm, they tend to pull onto that rope. 
It's been occasionally played with by Peryn, Ziva, & Volos.  Not to much as of late. 

SO to see him yanking & shaking that made me happy.  Of course this is one of those times we went downstairs while my phone was not on me.  

The THIRD surprise came in the late afternoon, early evening.  The Friday (Sept15) before Volos got super sick, I had a bunch of toys delivered to the house. Since some toys were unavailable, the substitution were Lambchops. I had already ordered some, so we had a delivery of 3 lambchops.

The first was decapitated in a tug fest between Volos & Peryn. The other one has been slowly eviscerated by Lada. The third has been relatively unharmed & sitting on the coffee table. 
I took that one & squeaked the paw while showing it to Khors.  The Silly pup took it from my hands & proceeded to throw it around in the air.   He was so freaking cute.   

I LOVE to see his personality emerge.  While Volos' was gradual & significant each time he did let it emerge, Khors' personality really isn't so gradual.  It totally fits with everything we have seen about him since bringing him home. 

I don't know how much of this was the fact that he had a good home where he wasn't abused (like V). Or he just is like Athena, just a very happy loving pup.   However he was completely trusting from moment one. 
He got in the car with no issues. He drove pretty well. He calmed down pretty quickly overall. He's easy going with our dogs. He's gotten into a routine pretty quickly.  He's learning the boundaries.  He's just so loving & trusting.  He's already "on guard".   

He has a lot of things that remind us of either Galen or Volos.  It would make sense as Galen was part Collie & we believe he may be that.   Volos in that they're both Berners.   Although, the collie thing may not be true.      First off, if I haven't mentioned it, he's very very thin. You can feel his skeleton underneath. They say he's even gained wait compared to when they found him-- so know we have aways to go to get some meat on those bones.  Once he fills out, he may look mostly Berner. 

The shock of white on his back neck. One of the delivery guys who has delivered here before--recognized Volos wasn't here.    We talked about Khors & he indicated his Bernese had the same white collar.  SO it may be a Berner thing.   
A lot of the times that I look at him I see his resemblance to Volos. I know it's not Volos, but he looks so much like him at different angles. 

He has Athena's happy go lucky personality. She was a joy when we adopted her. In spite of all that happened to her, she was just joyful. He's exactly like that.

Oct 13

To continue about yesterday, a new thing he's started is he's VERY physical with me. He was climbing all over me, grabbing my arm, almost wrestling with me.   He's done it again today. 

This morning he & Ziva played tug, initiated by Z.  He's also starting to physically touch the ball when playing with Peryn & Lada.  

This morning I had an eye appointment, so I had to leave the boys alone.  I was able to leave the house with no issues. I cam back about an hour and a half later & they were happy to see me. House was still standing.   No issues found.   

I can't leave as my eyes were dilated at the appointment & still are 7 hrs later.  I can't take them for a drive.  SO Peryn is sleeping & Khors (I had to correct that from Volos) is staring out the window. 

Maybe later this evening I can do that. 

Day 4.....Day 6

October 9 2023 

Just like Duchess, he was someone's pet.   He was trained & he knows the rules.  He's a very sweet boy, so I don't know why they'd let him go /not look for him.      He's a lover.  

Right now the cons are: 

He's still got "Horney toad" hormones flowing through him. He keeps attempting to mount Ziva. She's shutting him down.  This will happen for approximately 6 weeks while the hormone levels drop.

He's not exactly "in" with the pack yet. That will come with time. Although his playing with them will hopefully help things along. 

He's not learned the yard yet.  We need to get him both used to where he can & can't go AND learn the INV fence.   

Otherwise he's a sweet boy.  Picking up the mantle of bringing "energy" to the group.

Day 6  10/11/23

Oh, wear to begin... 
First, must be his non-Berner side...he's a barker.  He sees someone, he barks. He hears something he's unfamiliar with (the shredder, Clancy (robot vac), he barks.    The ball the cattle dogs play with, he barks. 

It takes some getting used to ignoring.    But he's actively on patrol quite a lot. 

He has a lot of Volos like qualities. 

He does the nose punch to my arm when I'm working.
He loves running to play in the basement. 
He makes these little moans & huffs that sound like him. 
He's a little lover. 

Peryn & his relationship is VERY much like Peryn's & Volos' was in the beginning. They've already gotten into it once.  

He's obsessed with Ziva. She stops him, but it doesn't seem to get through to him. I need to start carrying around a spray bottle.

He is not shy about climbing on furniture.    He's not shy about jumping into my lap when I call him. And I do mean jump. 

I was a little hesitant regarding him. Not sure how I should feel the first few days. However, I'm going to say, I adore him. He's a sweetheart. 

He also LOVES getting brushed.  Volos did too, but Khors is king of loving getting brushed.  Turns him into a pile of mush

Alright, I was just interrupted there about a half hour ago.   
Went to the basement at lunch time & something different happened.   
Ziva went to play tug with me & Khors took the rope!  We had actual play!!! So Ziva who loves tug more than anything once again has a tug partner.  
He plays much differently than Volos did, but this is a good thing.  

Day 2 & Day 3

 10/7//23   Slept like the dead.   Didn't move a muscle as he slept on Rich's side of the bed. 

 However, this morning as Rich was taking him outside for a bathroom break, the new harness unbuckled. What happened next is a 15-20 chase fest.   The only reason Rich caught him is that Khors went into a dead end area.    

All this happened while i was chilling out in bed.  By the time I realized what had happened & was on my way out the door, they had returned.   

He's glued to Rich's side mostly. I'm ok with that right now. 

I know he's not my Volos.  I don't love him like that yet.    We're all still new.   
However, he's a character.   Distraction he will be.

10/8/23

Didn't post this earlier, so this is a combined post.

So far he sleeps great.  He LOVES Rich.   Dude is attached to him big time.  Makes me sad because I had that. 

He's obsessed with Ziva.  She's shutting him down when he's "inappropriate", but I foresee them playing together. 
He loves to run around with the cattle dogs as they herd their ball. He barks at it, he seems to think it's something "dangerous".  

He's really a sweet boy who is learning the ropes.   Today he got 2 walks.  A walk with Ziva & Daddy. Then with Peryn & Daddy. 

I'll share a few more photos with you..

Day 1

Day 1, October 6 2023

 Well, it's definitely been interesting. 

He would not lie down for more than a few minutes at a time.  He paced, ate, drank, went on 2 walks with Rich, went with me to the pet store to get him a new harness, & went outside a gazillion times. 

As soon as the others came home, he was all about them. He's very intrigued with Ziva. She's not necessarily a "fan" but not necessarily "not a fan" .   He's too much for her right now.    

We did make it downstairs at one point.  He's very interested in it. I think give it a few days & there may be progress.   

This evening he keeps lying down (first on the couch, then on the dog bed, then on the couch) but he has yet to really relax.  

We're hoping tonight when we're all in the bedroom, he'll finally relax. 

He was someone's dog as he knows some commands. Sit & Paw. Not sure what else he knows as he's been too high strung to really listen.   He knows walk. He has ZERO issues climbing on the couch or any other furniture. So he was definitely someone's pet.  

Khors

 Sept 30 2023.
Not sure when I'll actually get to post this.     
So here's the story/rationale.   

I miss Volos. Lord I miss him. I want him back, but I can't get him back.   
The pack misses him.  He was the energy of this pack.   They're not the same with out him. They play/act differently, they're needier, whinier...      We all miss him. '

Even though it's been a week & a half, the plan is to adopt a Berner soon.   There is one, a young male, which is ideally what Rich wanted. I wanted a female, but he says we need a balanced pack. 

Stumbled upon ....Well I was looking, but I stumbled upon a Berner being held while they look for his owners.  He's young & somewhat local.  

  
I contacted the dog warden where he is being held.  They are currently treating him for a skin condition, which is very reminiscent of Athena.  They told me he would not be available for adoption until Friday Oct 6 2023.

Rich already had taken off prior to this & I put in to have off. So Friday morning, first thing in the am we plan to drive to adopt this boy. 

10/4/2023

So as of right now:

1. As long as the vet clears him today or tomorrow, he'll be up for adoption.

2. Apparently there are a # of people interested, so we need to make sure we get there early.

3. If more than one person shows up for him at the same time, he goes into "silent auction".  

4. I am freaking out.  I want a new berner so badly.  I want to rescue, but it's such a "thing" to be able to get approved .

5. I've put in applications for a few more dogs.    I'm trying to avoid the puppy route, but we need a new member soon! 

10/6/23

it is 4:22 AM. Last night we got a bunch of things ready to go:  transponder for the car, leash & collar, donations for the dog warden, blank check for payment, leashes for the rest of the dogs, clothes ready... 
Went to bed. Woke up at ~3am to use the bathroom.  Trouble falling back asleep. Headache... took one of my headache meds... dozed until 4.  I've given up. I set my alarm for 5am (normal time).   
SO here I am online, 

So Rich finally went thru the VA for disability. He's been rated 30%.   Since this was all "his" doing, when he finally got that 30%, he was paid from the time he submitted his claim until he approval.  He has not gotten a new computer since ...the old house.   I told him he could use the $ that didn't pay off the basement flooding repairs(this was before Volos got ill) to get himself a pc.  
Of course right after it was purchased, things went to crap & Volos ..you know the rest.  
ALL this to say....we had recently learned he gets additional money for having a "dependent" aka ME.  So we submitted the paperwork last weekend.  Since his claim was already approved, it was a quick turn-around for the dependent claim.  
We just received the backpay for me.  Now the original intent was any extra $ would go to payoff the rest of the CC (vet bill).   But thing is, we're using this $ for Khors. 
Should others have the same mindset & show up early making there be an auction, we have wiggle room.   We've discussed this.  So we shall see. 

Oh & in case I hadn't mentioned it, he was cleared & is available today. 

I also found another Berner at a shelter & put in an application for him the other day. Have not heard anything. However, I really want today's boy.  

His pics remind me of Volos  & I want to nurse him back to health. 

In addition to this guy & the other ("Bruno") , I have an application for a girl that is not quite available yet.  Back ups so to speak.  

I'm doing everything I can to avoid going for a puppy/through a breeder that I know has a few pups available.  I LOVE puppies & a puppy would bring such joy...I don't want to go through that again if I can avoid it. 

So as we speak it's 4:37am. I'm going to wrap this up to go take a shower. Our plan is to arrive at 8:30am (shelter opens at 9am).  We need to exercise the demons...errr the dogs.....

10/6/2023

Left just around 7,to grab breakfast.
While waiting for our food, I select the address for GPS.
The screen shows the place opens at 8am.
Panic ensues I planned to arrive by 8:30am.

Haul butt. Arrived at 8:04am.
Walk in to find out, dogs aren't adoptable until 9am🤦🏻‍♀️

Currently sitting in the car, in front of the kennel runs.

I would trade this moment just to have Volos back....
With this possible adoption the dogs get a distraction, I get a distraction/project, & we open up room for another dog to be saved...

   
If you're reading this....

Meet Khors