A boy and his dog

Gustav is the dog, by the way. A Kensington kid born 2 November 2021.

If nothing else, I am easily annoyed. ANYONE who knows me will happily share that with you about me. I am especially annoyed with folks who descend into the social apps available but in which I have no interest. TikTok - forgive any typos, please! - X - Insta, or Instagram - this latest one that I need to learn: WhatsAp. I can barely maintain the loving relationships I have; nevermind self entertain myself ad infinitum and electronically!

NOW, it’s time to eat crow, as I want to broadcast information about a situation to as many people as I can and I’m told to use ‘social media’. A young woman/wife/mother in Atlanta who recently acquired a Kensington male as their family’s companion said it best to me: ‘With social media, having as many eyes on it as possible is the goal’. And that is why I am writing and publishing this post. Good grief; substack builds in a request for money, with every new post! So, now? It’s my turn . . .

Many people have thanked me for the joy I’ve brought into their lives, because of Kensington and the Tibetan Terriers I lovingly breed, raise and with whom I live. Sometimes, I call myself a ‘joy broker’. Seriously, though, the potential for reward and loss exists in every relationship a human has in life. Relationships with other humans are far different but often equally enjoyable as the relationships we have with our dogs. This story is about a boy and his dog.

In 2021, the second year of COVID, a young couple from Quebec made contact with me, as they were expecting the arrival of their first child and wanted that child to have a loving companion dog - and they wanted me to breed and raise a Tibetan Terrier puppy for their family and for their child, specifically.

The COVID period was a little crazy for me, as I was still breeding and raising puppies - but there were so many people who wanted puppies from me. It was stressful and my application clipboards were five and six litters deep. And that meant that I had demand for two years! Marie-Eve and her husband, Maxime, reached out to me. They were clear about what they wanted and I was able to produce in November 2021 and deliver in early Spring 2022. Bravo! They got the handsome black and white male puppy who they named Gustav and away they went. Their boy child was a baby and his name is Arthur.

Marie-Eve and I talked about how and what to feed their Kensington kid; raw vs processed; salmon vs chicken vs lamb kibble - and I experienced how serious, fun and passionate she and Maxime were about doing the best for their son, their family and their dog.

Last week, I learned from a Facebook post on Wagging Tales at Kensington that Gustav had presented with a serious condition that had internal fluid leaking into his body cavity; it couldn’t be stopped and had to be drained regularly, so as to keep him breathing comfortably. Gustav isn’t even 3 1/2. And his older human brother who is helping to keep him alive and comfortable is 4.

In the last few days, we’ve learned that the condition is called chylothorax. It is operable, it is very expensive, it isn’t either genetic or cancerous - rather, it is just a fluke thing and very few veterinary surgeons have experience performing the corrective surgery. But Marie-Eve and Maxime found the only one in Quebec (with the help of their wellness vet) and that particular surgeon is going to perform the surgery on Gustav on April 8th: next Tuesday.

Gustav’s humans have a plan to keep him home and in good spirits, calm and very carefully exercised. His humans are monitoring him 24/7 and Arthur’s helping. They tell me that Gustav’s appetite is back and he wants to play with Arthur. These are very happy thoughts and very much unlike what we were thinking, during the last few days. His humans have to keep Gustav calm, though, because he has drains that must stay clean and stay where they are supposed to stay! And those drains are being used three times during every day to remove the fluid from around his organs.

For everyone out there who has or wants or knows a Kensington Tibetan Terrier, I am asking you to share any surplus money you might have with this very nice young TT family. Marie-Eve set up a GoFundMe thing but I don’t like the ‘tip’ they add on top. So, I asked her to set up a PayPal version for her Kensington friends. The PayPal version easily converts Canadian dollars to US dollars. I found the exchange rate to be a little scary good, when I donated. Whatever, that $300 Canadian turned into something like $221 USD.

If you appreciate the joy my efforts have provided you or if you are one of those who can and likes to donate to folks with special circumstances, I ask you to consider sharing your surplus with these folks in the form of a donation by credit card on the PayPal site. Here is the link:

https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/9dtiZeympY

This is not a hoax. I am not an influencer. I’m not looking for lots of likes but if you know how to share this post, please do!

I am hoping that we can raise a significant amount of money toward the $12,000 to $15,000 that the operation is estimated to cost for our Kensington friends. I’m going to post a few photos below. Thank you for reading this far and really, I’m sorry to be asking for money. But I’m doing it anyway, because I don’t have that big a number to give on my own!

And in case you are wondering . . . Tashi is a brother from another litter (same exact breeding: Julius x Piccolo), Buddy and Sienna are two of Gustav’s littermates - Yogi is his grandfather - Whittaker is Gustav’s great grandfather (and that makes Michael, GRCHG RinChen’s Blazing Black Icon his great great grandfather!!)- Piccolo is his mother - Annabel of Indiannabel Bones fame is his auntie and Rumpole is his sister from another litter.

Please donate, if you can! It would make me very happy.

Yours truly,

WB.