AIKO IS IN "HEAT"!

If you remember, the smallest dog that we have is Aiko. She is a shih tzu/pug mixed dog and though she looks like a puppy, she is now more than a year-old.

Four days ago, I noticed some blood droplets on the floor while I was cleaning. I thought it was either Yuki ( our female pit) or Sasha (our female labrador retriever) having a menstrual period. But when I checked, it's Aiko.

So the past two days, my son, Jason and I scouted around for a possible mate. Due to her size, we can only hope for a pure or mixed pug or shih tzu. There are a lot of pure pugs or shih tzus offering stud services, but because of their papers, they are reluctant to have their pure-blooded pets mate our Aiko. Though it is rather difficult, we finally found someone with a pure pug who is kind enough to offer his stud. And so, a week from now, we will be bringing Aiko to their place for their "mating" session.

I do hope she will be healthy enough to give us a litter. Yuki wasn't so fortunate, she lost her two pups in a premature delivery. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Heroic Pit Bull: Dog Finds Help For Injured Neighbor

Today, I'm sharing this story about a heroic pit bull, with the aim to tell my readers that this breed has been misjudged unfairly. Pits are really good pets, and they make good house guards.

Move over Lassie. A pit bull terrier has shown Auburn's Jim Roach that heroic dog deeds don't just happen in the movies or on TV.

Roach fell from a 12-foot-high ladder while picking peaches last month on his rural Mount Vernon Road property. Dazed and unable to move because of his injuries, he soon found renter Jeanne Davis' two-year-old pit bull Gabby hovering over him and
barking.

"I was unconscious pretty much," Roach said Tuesday. "I remember a dog licking the side of my face and standing by me and barking and barking and barking."

But nobody came. That's when Gabby did the heroically unexpected and went for help.

About 100 yards away and not able to see or hear Roach, Davis heard Gabby furiously barking and thought perhaps someone had entered the property. But Roach's dog, also nearby, wasn't barking.

Soon after she first noticed the barking, Gabby emerged.

"She's barking and then she looks at me and runs back," Davis said. "It's kind of like something Lassie would do."

So Davis followed Gabby. She found her landlord injured and moaning in pain near the pruning ladder.

"I walked over to where he was and Gabby stopped barking," Davis said.

With Roach immobilized on the ground, a California Highway Patrol helicopter was dispatched to transport the seriously injured college instructor to Roseville Medical Center's trauma unit for emergency treatment.

Roach, a College of San Mateo instructor, said doctors diagnosed multiple injuries from the fall, including a fractured clavicle, four broken ribs, two cracked vertebrae, and bleeding on the brain.

A towel wrapped around his head, Jason Williams-style, probably saved his life when his head hit the ground, Roach said.

Roach said he spent a week in hospital. One of the first visitors after discharge was Gabby. He said the two now seem to have formed a strong bond as a result of the rescue.

A psychology instructor, Roach said that the incident is a good example of the more endearing side of pit bulls that doesn't receive media attention.

"I've never felt they've been given a fair shake," he said. "They're just a terrier."

Davis said Gabby was abused before she adopted her. She's been training the dog to become less apprehensive around people.

"A lot of people said to put her down, that she's going to do something bad," Davis said. "I'm so proud of my dog."

(By Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer)

From Dogs at Risk USA web site