Featured Animal

Liesl
Akbash (short coat)

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Jasper landed in a small town shelter in rural Oklahoma, injured and able to stand up only with major effort. The shelter was already over-crowded and had no budget for the kind of veterinary care Jasper would need, so they were going to put him down. One of our Oklahoma rescue friends contacted us, and with her help, we pulled him from the shelter and took him to the vet for X-rays. Poor boy -- his pelvis was shattered, making orthopedic surgery a real challenge because some of the pieces of bone were not big enough to mend with plates and screws. The vet recommended that we give him a couple weeks of crate rest to see whether he might start to heal without surgery, then she wanted us to bring him back for another round of X-rays to check his progress. So we did. For the next 2 months, Jasper was confined to the crate, with only short trips outside to potty. Every few weeks, we took him in for X-rays, and his young body was doing a good job of putting itself back together. Finally, he was released from crate rest but allowed only limited play time for the first few weeks, to be sure he wouldn't re-injure himself.  We're still watchful, but Jasper runs and plays and doesn't seem to be slowed down at all.

After this experience, Jasper is obviously crate-trained. Other than having the exuberance of a puppy (which is not surprising considering all those weeks of confinement), he has pretty good manners in the house -- he hasn't tried to mark, but we do have to remind him there's no running inside. Jasper gets along well with other dogs and is happy to spend hours outside playing. Part of that is probably just because he's still so glad not to be confined to the crate, and part of it is probably his youth. As he matures, he will probably settle down and want to spend more time in the house.

Jasper seems to want to chase the feral cats that he sees on the other side of the fence, but when I took him to the barn to meet the more tame barn cats, he was curious, but not aggressive, and when he was face to face with a friendly cat, Jasper didn't try to chase her. So we think he could probably learn to live in peace with a dog-savvy cat.

By the way, we really have no idea which breeds might be in Jasper's DNA. He looks like he might be part Akbash -- his tail curls appropriately in spite of the fact that we could see a tail fracture on the X-ray.  The vet initially thought she might have to amputate the tail if the nerve was damaged, as it initially appeared to be. (He couldn't lift his tail at all in the beginning.)  His ears have black spots that look like a Dalmatian, and his energy level reminds us of a Dalmatian we adopted many years ago. He has one sky blue eye, and the other is brown with just a little blue spot, so that makes us wonder if there could be an Aussie or Husky somewhere in his family tree. As with any dog whose history is unknown, we are just guessing about possible breeds. A DNA kit might tell us more, but most dog DNA databases don't include Akbash, so such a test might yield only partial success.

Even if we don't know anything about his family tree, we ARE getting to know his personality.  We think Jasper would be happiest in a home with another dog and a fenced yard for lots of outdoor play. If you think he might be exactly the dog you need in your family, please complete the application on our website at www.bluebonnetrescue.org.