The Boskop Dogs

As mentioned in a previous blog we currently have 3 dogs residing with us at Boskop, which is also a dog retirement/rehabilitation centre. So let me start with 10 year old Tyger (see below), who is enjoying her retirement after many years as one of our livestock guarding dog programme's breeding females. Giving birth to 0ver 50 puppies has taken its toll on Tyger's body and she no longer has the energy she once had but she still enjoys a good roll in the grass, especially when its raining. She is a great big love bug and laps up any attention given to her.

Next we have Timone who has had a troubled life. Unfortunately Timone was very poorly treated by the farmer he was donated to as a puppy. He was extremely underfed and beaten. He was therefore taken away from the farmer when CCF staff checked on him. Timone's bad start in life still affects him as he always appears nervous when approached and has strange behaviours including spinning around in a circle numerous times before sitting down. He also has poorly formed legs due to his malnourisment. However, Timone now gets lots of loving attention here at Boskop and when he gets to know and trust you he can be very affectionate.

Finaly we have Boskop's newest resident, Spots, a great big 1 year old who still acts very much like a puppy! Spots was donated to CCF by the SPOTS foundation in the Netherlands, hence his name. Spots was intended to be our new breeding male, unfortunately though Spots has had nothing but health problems since arriving and its now thought that his immune system doesn't work properly (we are still waiting on some test results). Regardless of the test results it appears Spots will remain at Boskop where he is very happy, he loves playing with Tyger but has learnt to stay away from Timone who finds Spots' juvenile behaviour a little bit tiresome at times! Spots has LOTS of energy and is constantly seeking attention and when he doesn't get it he finds other things to do to entertain himself such as finding and chewing various objects he finds around the house, both myself and Kate have had pairs of flip flops destroyed by Spots who has a particular fondeness for them. Spots had great fun last week when he was being chased by three of us all around Boskop after sneaking in the house and running away with one of my brand new flip flops! Fortunatley we managed to catch him and no damage was done, but with Spots around you always have to be on your toes!

So those are the current Boskop dogs, another reason why living at Boskop is so great!