MUNGO EATS Latin America

What is it they say about the cobbler’s childrens shoes? Or about the mechanic’s car…or the vet’s dog? 

I neutered Sargon yesterday.  There were no plans to breed this crazy dog, and it was well past time.  Oh, I should warn any one that does not want to read about a dog’s "naughty bits", that this is precisely the topic of this post.  If you are squeamish about the subject…walk away now.

As I was saying, it was definitely time to neuter this hound.  I love male dogs.  All my dogs have been males and all my future dogs will likely be males.  I have no reason for this preference, it’s just what I like.  However, regardless of how much I enjoy owning male dogs, I REALLY only enjoy neutered male dogs.  I find testicles on a dog, terribly unappealing.  ESPECIALLY on a short coated breed like a ridgeback.  I am not a fan of the way they swing back and forth when they run, glinting in the sun.  Sargon was starting to look quite well endowed, and everyday this was becoming more and more unattractive, in my eyes.  Even Sean asked me when "those things were coming off" because he was somewhat disgusted by them. 

Off we went to the clinic and let me tell you, Sargon was determined to make this "unusual".  Sargon is my fourth ridgeback and he is the first one which required a full dose of drugs.  The other three ridgebacks were all anesthetized with no more than half the amount of drugs of a "regular" dog their size. 

Once I finally got the dog anesthetized, surgery was uneventful and went as planned.  His recovery from anesthetic was NOT uneventful though.  Sargon woke up terribly rough.  He howled and thrashed and generally had a very stormy recovery.  So stormy in fact that we had to give him MORE drugs. 

At the end of the day, I took him home.  He ran to the house and was very excited to see Mungo and the rest of the family.  Unfortunately, dogs are supposed to be kept quiet after surgery.  Because of his antics, he started swelling.  Here is the graphic part folks.  What NORMALLY happens after a dog is neutered is that the scrotum just sits there like an empty sac (which it is after the testicles are removed).  Over time, the body "resorbs" this sac, and you end up with flat skin where there used to be a pouch.  However, if you are too crazy, the body will send blood and serum to this "empty space" (the body hates dead space), in an effort to fill it up.  This is exactly what happened to the hound.  Also, the body will continue to fill this dead space until it is FULL, which if you are talking about a stretch sac of skin, full is actually at least 2 or 3 times what it was before. 

So now folks, Sargon looks even more disgustingly well endowed.  Actually, grotesquely so.  He is walking around with a scrotum the size of a grapefruit swinging between his legs.   The children are disgusted with this and will not look at him (at least not from the back end).  He will be fine, we just have to wait for all the swelling to go down and then he will be a normal little neutered hound.

The only good thing about all this, is that the hound seems oblivious to what is going on.  He is walking around like nothing happened.  He is not trying to lick at his incision, or his gigantic package.  In his little head, he is probably thinking, "my, I am even more impressive!" 

So strange little Sargon continues to bring excitement to this world.  I hope he enjoys wearing pants for the next week.  They keep him from bothering with his incision and they hide that disgusting grapefruit as well. 

As we get ready to start the ski season again, Biathlon Alberta had their Annual Awards Lunch.  We received a few emails letting us know about the event, but it wasn’t until we received an email telling us that Sean would receive an award, that we made plans to attend. 

For most of the season last year, Sean raced in the category of Air Rifle 1.  In this race category, competitors shoot at larger targets, using air rifles of course.  He did quite well in the category.  So well, in fact, that he was “invited” (strongly encouraged) to move up to Air Rifle 2, part way through the season.  In this category, the competitors shoot at smaller targets.  In any case, he still did well enough in Air Rifle 1 to achieve the most points in that category (accumulated over the year).  Biathlon Alberta posts points on their website, so we knew that Sean finished on top.  We therefore were not surprised when his name was called to receive his trophy.

What we were not expecting, was what happened next.  After the camera was put away, and attention drifted away from the MC, we heard the name “Sean McLean” called again.  This time, the award was the “Perfect Shot” award.  As near as we can tell, this award was presented to the competitor that shot the greatest number of clean rounds.  A clean round means you hit all five targets on a single visit to the range.  So Sean shooting produced the greatest number of clean rounds in the year for Air Rifles.  For this you win this HUMUNGOUS trophy!!

Quite a good year!  Congratulations Sean, let’s see if you can do it again this year!!