Coda (kins)

Coda is a Husky. He is the nephew of Bear, my first Husky, the son of Bear's sister Maya, and Rusky is the Father. Sadly, Rusky was stolen from his home some time ago and has never been found - a heart breaking story of the dog theft here in Namibia.

Coda belonged to a wonderful friend, who sadly wasn't able to keep him with her in Windhoek, and he stayed in Marienthal with her family. Coda developed Demodex mange when he was quite young, and it sadly never cleared up, so he would go through phases of almost recovering and looking good again and then it would break out and he would scratch himself to pieces again. 

Here are some photos of when I found him in Marienthal, whilst visiting with him. He had been on his own for a while with no one to dip him, and the Demodex had flared up again. He was full of sores, scratching himself until he bled, and some wounds had gotten infected and were oozing pus.  As you can see, the poor thing was a mess and very depressed. He was sore, irritated and itching, bleeding and infected. It was poisoning his system and causing him to be very depressed and miserable all round. He had almost no fur left on his face and front legs, and open 

wounds where he had scratched and chewed himself raw. He wouldn't come to me and had very little interest in humans at all, as I think he was being driven mad by the pain and itching. I spoke seriously to his owner, and said that she must make the decision to either put him down or give him to me, but either way he couldn't keep on living in the state he was in, as she wasn't able to look after him and keep him with her. Together, we made the decision to let me take him and bring him to Windhoek with me. 

The trip back to Windhoek was hysterical - four people, luggage and a dog squashed in a Polo doing 160 down the highway whilst I prayed for my life! And everyone else's of course, but they seemed used to it. I am not used to either small cars or going that fast! :-) And so Coda was the first dog that we took on. We got him back to Windhoek, and he tried to eat Nala as one of the first things that he did! Horrified, he got a big hiding and cowered away from us like he was beaten which made us feel terrible, but had to be done as my cats are my children too.

So we were left alone. Coda had no issues with Bear or Kita and generally ignored them, although they were madly interested in him and wouldn't leave HIM alone. I made an appointment with the vet and took him over almost immediately as they had an opening - this was before we knew that he had Demodex. Dr Beggs looked at him, did a skin scraping, and said it was the Demodex. What a relief - not contagious to my dogs, treatable and he would soon be healthy! We had to dip with Ectodex once a week, and put him on a three week course of antibiotics and cortisone and de-

wormed him. Off we went home, happier and thinking that our solution wasn't that far off really. This was on the 30th of August 2013. 

Then, we went to bed with bated breath and hoped for the best - that he wouldn't eat a cat and that everyone would survive the night and there would be no issues. At first he cried for ages, and then slept next to my bed. We washed him that first Saturday morning with normal shampoo, just to clean him up as he was filthy and full of muck and blood. Dr Beggs wanted to give the 

antibiotics and cortisone to start working before we started dipping with the Ectodex, as its quite strong. So the bath was first, and we waited for the meds to start working, as he bit and scratched himself constantly until he bled. I was almost in tears watching him constantly go crazy from the itching and pain. He adopted my couch as his bed, and got blood all over it constantly as his wounds leaked everywhere. He was a mess.

We fell into a routine - I didn't leave him alone as he chased cats when he could, and we watched him closely. He cried every night for the first week when we went to bed. During the day he was fine and there was no crying, but at night he chunked like a baby for his friends in Marienthal. It was heart-breaking, but luckily after a week it stopped and he settled into his new home.

Walking him was another story - rather a funny one. As I walked Kita and Bear every morning at around 5:30 to 6am, I had to carry on doing so. The first morning, he was on his couch and ignored me, so I skipped off without him quite 

happily. I wanted  him to settle in properly and develop some trust in me before taking him out to be walked in the bush as his previous Mum said he would run away as fast as he possibly could and he could not be trusted off lead. I have never walked my dogs on lead, so I was rather dreading this while story. On the second morning, he had clearly wised up and I found him waiting at the gate of the house - I had no choice, so out came the lead and collar and off we went, praying for the best. He howled in excitement the entire 7 kilometers to where we walked - over-joyed at being out of the house.

Well, it was a nightmare. He pulled, I pulled back. He fought me, I fought back. He took off running and hit the end of the lead so hard that it ripped my shoulder out and into my neck, and I had an instant blinding headache and pins and needles down my arm into my fingers for two days. On another day he jumped out the car window and on reflex I grabbed the rope - he smacked into the side of the car and I rope burnt my entire hand. Every day was hell - the pulling, hurting me, fighting me. I would get angry and upset, and he would get worse. I would lose it and give him a smack - he would cower like an abused pup and I would cry in heart break at the fact that I had even gotten annoyed enough to smack the poor kiddo. This went on and on - and we almost developed a routine - I would walk him on a long rope with the end around my waist, looped around itself and the slack in my hand, so when he started running I could anchor myself and his weight wouldn't instead hit into my hips instead of my arms and neck (I broke my neck when I was sixteen so it's a problem!) and so the fight would go. 

He ran away when we opened the gate and would have to be chased through the streets, whilst we prayed no one would catch him, steal him, or that he would be hit by a car. He stole food off the counters, chased cats, ignored me totally, and then the real tragedy happened: we came home after being out for an hour to find blood all over the couch. He had bitten Nala in the face - my tiny, gentle cat that was terrified of everything in the world. It took us ages to find her and then to get her off the roof where she had been hiding. Off to the vet we went - luckily they think that he jaw was just fractured and they stitched her face up. She ate soft food and hid in the bedroom for weeks - it took months for her jaw to heal and hid on the roof permanently - my heart broke for her.

We decided to give Coda to a new home as I couldn't cope with the pain that Nala was going through and didn't want to subject her to a life of terror and hiding when she had been my first baby ever in Namibia. We put up notices everywhere, but now even five months later, I have had one call from someone that originally thought I had pit bulls for sale, so I assume he was in the dog-fighting circles, and would never give a dog to a person like that, no matter how distraught I was. There was one other lady that called and wanted him to breed with her dog, but as I don't agree with breeding Huskies when no one knows how to look after them, I said no. He's also been neutered, so that fixed that problem.

I gave up on the walking after he bit Nala. I couldn't cope with being hurt every day, and after he bit my baby I didn't see him in the same golden glow that I had before - I was devastated that I had done that to my little kitty. I let him out the car and watched him disappear - my theory was that if he runs, so be it. If he gets hit by a car on the main road or shot by a farmer, that's just the way it was going to have to be. I couldn't cope any more and that was that. 

He ran like he had never run before - a bat out of hell tearing through the bush and gone in a split second. I walked Bear and Kita and prayed for the best. We got back to the car, and sat and waited. Bear went wandering again, and Kita stayed with me. Eventually, half an hour later he came back, panting and foaming, and jumped in the bakkie with a big happy smile. We went home. The next day, the same thing. He ran until he was so exhausted he was quivering and he panted for the next three hours on the tiled floor. He ran himself almost to death every day - he would disappear and I would sit in the car waiting

and praying he would survive. There were days 

when he would disappear for so long I thought I would never see him again - and I would get surprisingly upset about it after all the drama he had caused in my life.

That's enough for today - more tomorrow about the first Dog Bless You rescue!