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Albannach
JUSCOT Duke Of Argyle - Argyle
JUSCOT Knight of Snowdoun - Monteith
Argyle and Monteith are offsprings from our first litter from Skye. They both had a very different destiny. Whilst Argyle was the "pick of the litter" and was destined for the show ring, Monteith had a less easy path in life.
This was also the first time we had male Scotties in our house, along with two girls and we experienced a whole new dynamics within the clan. Judy once told us "she will bite his head off" and soon got an idea of what she meant. No dramas, just a display that the boy thinks he is the boss when in reality the girls are.
"Argyle and Monteith, you are definitively the clowns who brought some delightful fun into the family each in your own way., little spider-monkey and my boubou" - Christine
THE BEGINNINGS
There were 8 puppies in the litter. Seven weighed between 230 and 260 grams, one was 215 grams; that was Monteith. Whilst the other puppies fed and grew normally, we noticed that the little one was losing weight and struggled feeding. It looked like he couldn't latch on properly, so we fed him a bottle every 2 hours. Although he started putting out a bit of weight, he was definitively not thriving like the others. We took him to the vets 4 times, and it is only at the 4th visit that they found that he had a cleft in the soft palate at the back of his throat. We carried on our bottle and syringe feeding for another two months until he was old enough to have surgery at three months old. This was successful and with time he could feed himself.
Argyle, on the other hand, had a normal growing phase. From a very young age he was constantly trying to be the boss, something he hasn't lost since.
FROM 6 to 12 MONTHS
The "boys" gradually gained independence and developed their own little characters. Argyle needed to always be centre-stage; Isla became his best mate and she taught him the good and not so good, as in digging up the carcass of a dead chicken or fish, or visiting a bushy area on the property and coming back covered in weeds and full of mud. The bond between these two lasts to this day.
After his surgery, Monteith grew normally and caught up in height and weight with his litter-mate. He also developed weird behaviours such as standing up on his hind legs and leaping forward with the front legs, which earned him the nickname of spider-monkey. He became also increasingly head-shy (aka he didn't want to be touched on the head), developed behaviour not dissimilar from autism (yes, it exists in dogs too), seemed to have visual troubles and finally, at the age of 9 months had his first seizure. After a month of extensive testing the diagnosis came as "blind in one eye, almost blind in the other, and epilepsy".
Many people would perhaps have put him down at this stage. We decided to fight on as long as he has quality of life. As of today, he is 2.5 years old, runs around at high speed without crashing, has a seizure 2-5 times per month but is otherwise fine in his own weird world. Paul is his best mate and the only human he goes to for a cuddle time.
Seizures in dogs are terrifying for us humans. They thrash their head violently for 30 to 60 seconds, this then subsides and for roughly 30 to 45 minutes they are in an awake but non-conscious state. It then stops suddenly, and they resume their live as if nothing happened whilst you are still pretty shaken.
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