Kyle Hepp

April 28, 2010

Seba’s post in Spanish, my English translation/some of my own post, below:

Anoche cuando me fui a acostar a dormir, me levante de la pieza del computador, agarre mi plumon y el cojin de Machasa.

Le prepare la cama al Machasa y me acoste a dormir. Mas menos a los 30 segundos me di cuenta que el pobre Machasa no tenia como acostarse, era demasiado grande para el cojin que solia usar como cama. Por un lado le colgaba el poto, por otro lado la cabeza y las patas delanteras.

Entonces, lo invite a subirse a la cama. Puta que esta grande el quiltro este. Recien va para los 4 meses y ya pesa 14.5. Completamente diferente a cuando lo encontramos que pesaba menos que 1kg.

En fin, para bien o para mal me encarine con este quiltro, el mismo que no para de robarme las zapatillas para ir a comerselas al patio. Ese que cuando quiere mear, mea donde sea, incluso caminando xD.A veces lo miro y tiene cara como de perro tonto, perro bueno. Pero cuando esta haciendo alguna maldad definitivamente pierde su cara de tonton.

Bueno, aparte de pesar mas de 13kg, tambien esta super alto, tanto asi que alcanza las manillas de todas las puertas de la casa y las abre como si nada. Si lo queremos dejar en el pasillo o el patio, a los 10 segundos abre la puerta y entra. Anoche lo dejamos castigado en el patio, se quedo un rato y despues crei escuchar la puerta de la pieza, que se habia ido a acostar por que se aburrio de su castigo.

Con Papi se lleva genial. Hoy los estuve mirando jugar un rato, corriendo por todo el patio sin parar. Por un lado me alegro que Papi tenga un companero para jugar aca en la casa. Aparte esto le produjo un cierto cambio en su personalidad, esta como mas guagualona, mas regalona.

El otro dia le mandamos a hacer una jaula para empezar con su crate training. Y justo esa noche salimos asi que le dije a mi mama que le echara un par de frazadas y lo dejara en el pasillo hasta que volvieramos. Volvimos a eso de las 2AM y vimos que su jaulita tenia unas frazadas y harta ropa. Yo pense: “Que lindo que mi mama le puso ropita y frazadas para que no pasara frio” Despues mirando mas en detalle me di cuenta que la ropa dentro de la jaula se la habia visto a mi mama el dia anterior. Cuento corto, Machasa saco la cabeza por los cuadraditos de la reja y saco toda la ropa del closet del pasillo y la metio en su jaula (para estar mas calentito supongo).

En fin, se que quizas recojer a Machasa no fue quizas la mejor desicion, o la mas planeada, pero no me arrepiento, no podria haberlo dejado morir ahi en la calle como estaba. Ahora es un perro sano y feliz, y de verdad estoy contento de tenerlo aca en la casa.

Pd: lo mas terrible de todo es que machasa se caga como si estuviera muerto. O sea, muerto hace meses. es la peor wea que he olido en mi vida.

My Beloved Mutt

Last I got up from the computer room, grabbed my blanket and the pillow Machasa sleeps on, and went to go to bed.

I got Machasa’s bed ready for him and laid down. About 30 seconds later, I realized that poor Machasa had no way to lay down — he was too big for the pillow he used to use as a bed. On one end his butt was hanging off, on the other end his head was hanging off and his legs were hanging off the front.

So I invited him to get into bed with me. Holy crap, this mutt has gotten big! He’s only 4 months old and he already weights 14.5 kilos. He’s totally different than when we found him and he weighed less than 1 kilo.

In the end, for better or worse, I’ve gotten attached to this mutt — the same little guy who constantly steals my shoes to go chew on them in the yard. That little guy, who when he wants to go pee, he pees wherever he wants, even while walking Sometimes I look at him and think he has the face of a silly dog, a good dog. But when he’s doing something devilish he definitely loses his silly face.

And aside from the fact that he already weighs more than 13 kilos, he’s also really tall, so much so that he can now reach the doorhandles of all the doors in the house and opens them as if it were nothing. If we want to leave him in the hallway or in the yard, he waits 10 seconds and then opens the door and comes in. Last night he was punished so we put him outside. He waited a little while and then I thought I heard the door to the other room open. He had gone to lay down because he got bored of his punishment.

He gets along great with Papi. Today I was watching them play for a while. The were running all over the yard, they never stopped! On one hand, I’m happy that Papi has a buddy to play with here in the house and beyond that, having another dog around has also changed her personality — she acts like more of a cuddly baby.

The other day we had a cage made for Machasa to start his crate training. That night we had to go out so I asked my Mom to put a couple of blankets in his cage for him and leave him in the hallway until we got back with his cage. We come home at 2am and we saw that his cage was chock full of blankets and clothes. I thought, “How nice that my mom put so much clothing and blankets in his cage so that he didn’t get cold!” Then after looking closer, I realized that inside the cage was all the clothes my mom had worn that day. Long story short, Machasa poked his head out from his cage, grabbed all the clothes that he could reach and pulled them into his cage with him (I would guess to make it warmer).

In the end, I know that maybe taking Machasa in wasn’t the best decision, the best planned decision, but I don’t regret it. I couldn’t have let him die on the street. Now he’s a healthy happy dog, and I’m glad to have him here in the house.

PS. The worst is that his farts smell like they’re coming from the insides of a dead dog — dead and rotting for months. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever smelled in my life.

My take on Machasa:

I didn’t want to keep him. And it’s true — his farts smell like ass. But we didn’t find a home for him, plus, Seba loves him. So I’ve decided to embrace being a big dog owner. Because he’s going to be HUGE. The vet lied to us! Actually for a while, it looked like the vet was right. In the beginning we were really worried because he was barely growing at all. We fed him and fed him and fed him and he didn’t bigger. The vet said he was so malnourished that he probably wouldn’t grow very much, he’d never get to the size he should’ve been if he were fed properly from birth, and all we could hope for were that his bones and organs formed properly so that he wouldn’t have severe health problems. Then about a month in, all of sudden he start growing. And growing. And hasn’t stopped since. He was growing at about .4 kilos a day. Do the math. That’s a lot. Now he’s slowed down a bit, but there’s no chance he’s going to be a small-medium sized dog like the vet said! We’re already buying him Large/Giant Breed Smart Puppy Iams food. Yes, our dogs are cuico, they eat better than we do.

And Machasa is impossible not to love. He tries SO hard to be good. It actually hurts my heart sometimes because I can tell he’s scared he’s going to get abandoned again and wants to make sure he doesn’t mess up in order to make sure we’ll keep him. Of course we will, no matter what, but unfortunately we can’t tell him that because Seba’s dog-communication invention device isn’t ready for production yet

Anyway, I thought we’d put up a few pictures so you can see the comparison, the Before (before he started eating$80 dollar dog food) and the After (with his shiny new hair. You’d be shocked at the difference good dog food makes!).

Poor bubby, he used to be so sad all the time.

I can’t believe he used to be barely bigger than a flip flop!

And here he is today:

So you can see a direct side by side comparison of he and Papi’s heads:

He is MASSIVE! Or at least his head is. Remember that Papito isn’t even the size of my computer screen (although, to be fair, my computer screen is ginormous. But, still, she’s not even close). In about a week I’d guess, Machasa will be officially twice as large as she is.