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It's a Wild, wild life!

Updated: Jan 23, 2021


dog, lizard
The huntress Pinta with her latest quarry

I would prefer that Pinta and Soozi were satisfied with playing catch with a ball rather than the lizards living in the lemongrass bushes. However, it is their nature to track and kill. The Ticos call this breed, "Cazador," translation, hunter. Pinta, Soozi and their brother, the late Salty were bred from a female who resembles a beagle and a male who looked like an oversized foxhound that he purchased from an indigenous man up in the mountains. Pinta and Soozi lived the first year of their lives outside, sometimes tied to their corrugated tin roofed dog house and sometimes roaming the neighborhood. In the 6 months that "The Girls" have lived with us, they have become quite accustomed to a different standard of living. We bring their custom-made dog beds into the living room at night. Though lately, they prefer to sleep in the two laundry baskets that sit on the bedroom floor. If a dog goes MIA, we may find them snuggled up against the pillows on our bed.


Between the two, Pinta is the instigator of trouble. She will pick up a scent and her natural instinct to track blots out any sense of danger or recognition of our commands to "Venga" (Come.) Just yesterday, we had an up close and personal confrontation with a relatively large, very angry anteater. After dawn, (yes, can you believe it, I get up at dawn!?!) I was walking the dogs. Pinta had slipped the collar and I had Soozi on the leash. Pinta went dashing up into the nearby cow pasture and over the crest of a hill. Soozi and I could hear her barking and barking. Whatever message Pinta was communicating, Soozi went nuts and pulled her head out of her collar to run after her. I wasn’t sure that I should go in the pasture. I didn’t see any cows but I didn’t want to encounter an aggressive bull especially since I presumed the dogs were harassing the cows. The barking was so emphatic that I decided to go after them. I delicately opened the barb-wire stick gate and stepped into the pasture. I scrambled up the hill and came over the crest to see Pinta and Soozi further down the opposite slope, feinting and dodging something in the deep grass. Fortunately, I was wearing my rubber boots because my other concern was the possibility of snakes. As I came nearer, I could hear a deep hissing and saw an anteater up on its hind legs with its two front paws with long claws attempting to swat the dogs. I was furious at the dogs because anteaters with their one long middle claw on each paw can do some real harm. Of course, the dogs were in a frenzy and barely acknowledged me. I yelled, “No” at them several times as they approached the animal and used the end of the leash to swat them away from the poor creature. After a few minutes, they started to pay attention to me and I was able to grab each of them and get them back on the leashes. Looking back at the anteater, I saw it shivering in stress, hissing and still on hind legs. I dragged the dogs away to leave it to recover. If you want to see what a fighting anteater looks like, here is a link to a website with photos. Though the one that the dogs cornered had its arms above its head. https://felipedelbosque.wordpress.com/2017/07/10/tamandua-threatening-to-kill/


The dogs were grounded for the rest of the day. They spent most of it sleeping in their beds on the Terrace and giving me pathetic looks as if to say,

“What did we do to deserve this sort of treatment?” There was a huge rain last night and I feel that it washed away the anteater’s scent. When we walked by the cow pasture this morning, the dogs barely took notice.


Fortunately, yesterday's incident had a better outcome than Pinta's injury a few months ago. It was early in the morning, I had let Pinta and Soozi out on their own. M and I were lying in bed listening to Pinta baying in the forest, then the baying changed in tone to short yelps and I froze in fear. The same pattern of vocalizations on the morning that Salty was attacked. I went downstairs to get the Girls' breakfast. Soozi was on the terrace and a few minutes later Pinta walked slowing up the stairs. I was relieved to see her and from my angle she looked alright. I set her bowl down in front and she looked at it listlessly then walked away. I knew that meant trouble. As she lay down a saw that she had gashes on the side of her muzzle. M and I suspected a snake bite but it could have been just a swipe from some animal like an anteater. She was panting very heavily and her eyes were glazed.


M did a quick look on the internet about what to do in the case of snakebite. The first video he found, the narrator said, "Your most important tool to have in case of snake bite are these." He held up his car keys and continued, "Get in the car and drive to the vet." We decided to take his advice, loaded both dogs into the car and drove to Paso Canoas in hopes of finding a vet. Did I mention that it was Sunday morning?


Most vets have a treatment room in a feed store. Fortunately, "Rodeo No. 2" feed store was open that Sunday morning. Of course, the vet was not there and the woman who was running the store was hesitant to call one of the mobile vets until we brought Pinta in for her to look. It had been about an hour drive from our house to the store. Looking at Pinta's swollen face and neck, we were fairly certain that it was a snake bite.


Pinta with snake bite

The blood that was seeping from the wound had turned from red to black. It was another hour and a half before the vet arrived. He took one look at her and pulled out a couple of vials. Fortunately, there anti-venom available for injection. Though we didn't know what type of snake had bitten her, the anti-venom worked. He gave us 2 more vials with antibiotics for injection later.


We brought her home and set her on her dog bed hoping for recovery. Our neighbor, Lilo said that if a dog survives the first 24 hours then it will recover. Later that evening Pinta struggled to her feet and we carried her downstairs to pee in the gravel. Then she lapped up some goat whey. We were feeling confident that she would be OK.


dog snake bite
Pinta looking like she had gone 13 rounds in a prizefight

After 2 days, Pinta was up and walking around. The severe swelling persisted for almost a week and her neck was swollen for another 2 weeks. I started calling her "Mitch McConnell." Then the skin around the puncture wounds became necrotic. A large flap of skin turned


black and it appeared that the edges of the wound were being eaten away with the necrosis. I looked online (Thank goodness for Wifi and the internet) for necrosis and dog snake bite to discover that in the case of rattle snake bites, the necrosis can expand and eat into healthy flesh. I also read that some vets use cold laser on the areas affected with good results. Luckily, we have a cold laser. M did a couple of treatments over 2 days. The necrosis abated and the huge flap of dead skin fell off. It left a very large hole of exposed flesh that was so deep, it was almost transparent where we could see Pinta's teeth. Happily, our little Diva (she knows that she is beautiful and believes that the rules don't apply to her) has totally recovered with just a shadow of a scar on her nose.


Even with these difficult experiences, we will continue to allow them to roam the forest and pray that they will stay out of trouble. Since Salty's attack and Pinta's snakebite occurred in the early morning, my small attempt at controlling circumstance is to walk the dogs on leash during that time of day. Hence my post-dawn rambles (rain or shine) with the Girls.

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