Our Yorkshire terriers

01.11.18
Yesterday we had to put out little Nessy to sleep and we are still devastated.

We have had a very bad week. Last Saturday afternoon I had to phone the vet in Killarney about Nessy. She had not been eating for a few days (which had happened before but she normally started again after a few days) and when she ate, she was sick again later. She also had diarrhoea. I was told to get her some chicken and let her try that. She got some on Saturday night and this stayed in. On Sunday morning she ate a  bit more but this came all out again later. By that time she was very weak and had lost weight. On Monday morning we took her to Killarney. They put her on a drip and tried to make her eat. They are very good at that veterinary hospital with keeping us updated on her progress. 

Yesterday morning we were called and told that she still had not eaten enough and would we agree to have her anaesthetised to x-ray her and if necessary operate on her. Early afternoon we were told that the prognosis was not good. She had a tumour on her liver and partly on her kidney and this was pressing on her intestines. We were given a few options of what was possible but the chance of her surviving was minute and if we did nothing she would starve. We decided to have her put to sleep. Obviously we were both very upset. We went to the clinic, sat with her for a while and held and cuddled her. I am still very upset and so is Alan but I think we have done the best for her.

Last week she still loved to see the large collie and was running after him and kept ha ring a look at Alan working in the garden but on Monday morning she was very weak and could hardly stand on her legs. It all went so fast and it was so unexpected that we still have to remind ourselves that she is no longer with us.

At the moment Alan is busy making her little coffin and we will bury her in our garden this afternoon.




We were happy that we had her, even for only a short time. She certainly changed Tuppy's life, making her more courageous. Bye bye Nessie, we are missing you!


28.04.18
I have not written a lot about these two. We have had some problems with Nessy. She had to have a hysterectomy but is fine now. However, with Tuppy, we have more problems at the moment. For about the last 10 months she had skin problem.

It seems to be an allergy and its starts with a small blister like an eruption which turns into a sore. She has been on and off antibiotics ver the past half year and the last course stopped about a week ago and I have found more sores.

We have stopped giving her all treats, changed her food to food for sensitive skin, have a very special shampoo, etc. Yesterday we found further eruptions and today we went once again over the food she gets. The only thing she gets from us is some cheese (and I have to put her tablet into a bit of cheese) and a piece of carrot to replace her dental chewing stick and sometime a small piece of salad. We have now stopped the cheese and see how the reaction is.

One basket is good enough now, even when there are two!


13.08.16
I found Tuppy barking at me and alternatively looking at me and under the table. Bending down I saw that Nessy was lying in the basket. One large basket was not good enough. All baskets are Tuppy's and she does not share! So I had to find another one for Nessy. Tuppy had a good snuff at it and decided that Nessy could have that one.  Now they can both sleep under my sewing table!




27.07.16
Hiding a large bone!












27.04.16
Some more pictures of Tuppy and Nessy quickly taken out to do their business while the sun is shining between bouts of heavy snowfalls. I had to put Nessy one of Tuppy's jerseys on because she seemed to be a bit cold.








24.04.2016
It is funny to observe the two dogs. They are very good together and when I compare them, Tuppy is definitely the baby. I keep thinking that she might not even have been two when we got her two years ago. I have the suspicion that she may be 6 month younger than we were told at the time. She is still very playful. Nessy is definitely the older and wiser dog and all in all Tuppy accepts that.

When we first got Nessy, she did not want to eat and she was painfully thin, so we knew we had to feed her up. In the beginning I hand fed her and very quickly she started taking hard food, albeit small pieces, despite the fact that she has no teeth. I realised that she picked the bits up from the floor so I decided to put her food on the back of a chopping board and that works wonderfully! She frantically picks up even the bits that fall off the board. I still give her a bit more than she should have and she eats the lot. She has put on some weight and still needs a bit more.

I give Nessy her food first and Tuppy stands next to it waiting for bits to fall off and me to tell her 'no'. By that time Tuppy's food is also in her bowl and Nessy has realised that that is Tuppy's food and does not go near it.

Tuppy has always been a very fussy eater and at the moment she is going through a period of slimming again. She sniffs at her food and decides she will not eat it. However, she is fiercely protective of it. She hovers over it and when Nessy comes near it, she growls. When we're in the living room and Nessy goes to the kitchen when Tuppy's food is still on the floor, Tuppy runs after Nessy, growling, thinking Nessy is after her food! That is the time that I take it up and put it on the table so that Tuppy has no further reason to protect her food.

Tuppy also likes her dental chewing sticks which Nessy does not like. I think even if she still had teeth, she would not like them. Every afternoon Tuppy gets her dental chewing stick. She tells me when she wants it so there is no way I will forget to give it to her.

Eventually she will eat the stick but the main thing about this stick is that she hides it. Once she has hidden it, she wants me, or even more so Alan when he is around, to find the stick. She stand in front of us and barks and wants un to follow her. Normally it is quite visible and she stands in front of it daring us to pick it up barking and growling. If we do not react she puts it on the floor in front of us and can sit there for a long time, not moving and just staring at us. The moment we move, she attacks. I don't know if she would really bite but because of the noise she makes we do not want to try it out.

Anyway, now she also want to play this game with Nessy, but somehow they do not speak the same language. Nessy is not quite sure what Tuppy wants her to do, so it normally ends with a lot of barking and growing and normally Nessy ends up on top of Tuppy! At first we were frightened that Tuppy might bite Nessy and Nessy having no teeth would not be able to defend herself. However, we found out that Nessy can very well defend herself and Tuppy does not bite!

They also look very sweet when they are sunbathing side by side:


 Or inspect the garden in Zunzgen:


16.04.2016

We are now the proud owners of two Yorkshire terriers!

Nessy came to us last week from the Basler Tierheim. We had to walk her first three times, then take her home for a trial period. She is nearly nine years old and has no teeth at all. This does not seem to bother her, though, she even eats the biscuits but she needs feeding up a bit more. She was painfully thin to start with but I think she put some weight on since we have had her. She does not seem to like eating out of a bowl, so I hand fed her to start with but I have now seen that she is quite comfortable eating from a board. While she eats, I have to keep Tuppy away from her which is not very difficult. Tuppy just stands there and watches

Tuppy, at the moment, is going through a period of not wanting to eat' again, but I think she has put onsome weight, so that's fine. However, when Nessy comes near her bowl, she growls and barks just to warn Nessy not to eat her food, even if she herself does not want it herself.

It is quite funny to observe how they are slowly getting to know each other. Nessy is smaller than Tuppy but that is no problem for her. If Tuppy does something she does not like, she lets Tuppy know this in no uncertain terms. There have been a few small incidents but they were over in seconds. If anything, Nessy is the alpha dog and all in all Tuppy accepts that.

Also, Nessy is far more courageous than Tuppy, who is frightened of the funniest things. Now Nessy leads and Tuppy follows. There is a bit more barking going on than before. Tuppy only used to bark when she wanted something. Nessy barks when Alan comes in from the garden or the cellar and of course when Nessy barks and runs to the door, Tuppy has to do the same but stays back and watches what Nessy does, because she is not quite sure what she is barking for!




08.03.2016


Hm.....! I'm not quite sure. Too early in the morning


I will get off the white stuff.
Beautiful view towards the village but still snowing.
I'm going back!



Can I get through this door?
Or is this the right one?
Open the door, quick!





26.02.2016
Tuppy's little game is to put her chewing stick on the floor next to Alan and to challenge him to pick it up! She keeps staring at him and as soon as he moves she flies at him. She can sit there for ages and even if we have forgotten the game and Alan moves, she jumps at him, growling!

Maybe we should stop this game because she sounds really vicious and I'm not even sure whether she would really have a go at him and bite him. I can pick her up, at least most of the time.

Sometimes she hides the stick in a corner and hovers over it, growling. If we take no notice, she will come to us and starts barking, i.e. saying 'come and get it'!

This morning I picked her up and gave her to Alan and here is the result. The stick is really too large for her but she will not let go.



02/08/2014 09:29She weighs only 2.5 kg but she knows exactly what she wants and what she does not want. We have had her now for five months and we love her. She is about  two and a half years old but still has a lot to learn. The first two years of her life she lived with an elderly lady in Leeds and we suspect that, except from a walk around the block to do her business, she did not go outside a lot. OUR TUPPY! She loves being outside but is not much bothered with the garden. She wants to go there where all the nasty (interesting for her) smells are. When she tells me that she wants to go out she does that in no uncertain terms by running around the table, comming up to me, not wanting to sit down and when I do not react, start barking at me. When I get up and walk to the garden door, she sits down, looks at me and turns around to sit at the top of the stairs (our front door is downstairs) and waits for me to go down with her. Sometimes, when I am not quick enough, she goes down on her own and expects me to follow her. Once outside she never seems to be in a hurry to do something. It has to be at the right place, turns around a few times and lifts her leg. Yes, she is a girl but I have also seen her lifting her leg against a dustbin after sniffing it for quite a long time. Obviously her aim is not very good but she tries her best!She does not like getting up in the morning and after coming back from our morning walk she spends most of the time in her basked resting from a tiring night's sleep. However, at 12.15 she gets up and tells me it is time to prepare lunch. She does not get her food until later but you never know, there may be some titbits falling off the table. After our lunch Alan and I have a cup of tea in the living room and watch the news. As soon as I want to sit down, she tells me it is time for her to go out. It is no good trying to ignore her - she does not give up so I give in and take her out while my tea is getting cold.Sometime between 3 and 4 PM she tells me it is time for her food. When we got her she had no problem eating the biscuits. She gobbled them up in no time. Now, when I only put dry biscuits in her bowl, she has a look at it, picks one up and spits it out. I have tried it out but she rather goes without food for a few days then eating dry biscuits. Obviously she would not starve. In the end she does eat them but she does not enjoy them. So she has won and I always mix something else with her biscuits - some leftover bits of meat or whatever. It does not have to be much but the biscuits have to be mixed well and smell of whatever meat is mixed with it. Then she eats the lot!At 6 PM she tells me again that it is time for me to go to the kitchen and start the food preparation. I normally do. I prepare the food but may leave the cooking for another hour or so. After our meal when we go in the living room again to watch TV and have a cup of tea, the same thing happens as after lunch - as soon as I sit down she tells me she has to go out. And this is in summer when our garden doors are open most of the time!On normal evenings I watch TV sitting on a two seater sofa and Tuppy lies next to me. Sometimes, however, I feel like putting my feet up and the sofa is really large enough for the pair of us. No way! I might touch her or the cushion she is lying against and that's it. There is not enough space. She is really annoyed and shows it. She jumps off the sofa, runs a few times around the room, jumps into her basket, attacks the blanket in it and settles down for a while. Then she comes back to me, jumps on the sofa, realizes that it is still not large enough for the pair of us and the whole thing starts all over again!On normal evenings, Alan and I watch TV and go to bed between 10 and 11. On one particular evening Alan wanted to watch a special programme later in the evening but it did not interest me so I decided to do some more sewing. Tuppy did not ike that at all, that was the time we should have gone to bed! She followed me into my sewing room and started barking at me. I ignored it for a while and then told her off which made her really mad. She took off on a run, ran into the living room, jumped on Alan, who did not really wanted her at that particular time, jumped off him, ran to the place on the sofa where I normally sit and started attacking the quilt that covers the sofa. After a while she stopped, came into my sewing room and laid down in her basket uner the table. For about five minutes and then it started all over again! After the third time I decided to take her out and when we came back in she settled down until we went to bed.Yes, she runs rings around us, she gets real tantrums and we love and spoil her!

Tuppy
08/03/2014 11:14
When Aischa died she left a great gap in our life which we wanted to fill. Not to replace Aischa, which would not be possible because she was such a great little thing and gave us so much love and pleasure, but to fill the empty space she left behind. I suppose just like the empty nest syndrome when the children leave home.
I looked on the Internet and found a lot of puppies but because we will be leaving for France at the end of March we were very restricted in our choise. You cannot leave a young puppy overnight in a (still) strange car on the ferry and you cannot take any dogs into your cabin. We found out from Aischa and Krümmel that the kennels on the ferries are very stressful, even more so than being left in a car they knew. Also, because we are travelling a lot by car, I did not want a large Yorkshire terrier, not more than 3 kg when fully grown and it had to be a bitch. So when I found this ad about a 2 year old Yorkshire terrier bitch in Leeds, we called to find out why they had to get rid of the dog and were told by the son that it was his mother's dog. His mother was 85 years old and had been in and out of hospital since Christmas and he did not have the time to look after the dog.The next day we went to Leeds to have a look. As Leeds is about a 3.5 hrs drive from where we are in the Scottish borders we set off early in the morning. It turned out to be an even longer drive than anticipated. We were stopped by the police just before the english border and told that there had been an accident further on and that the road would be closed for at least another 2 hours. We had to make a detour which put more than an hour onto our trip but I did enjoy it and saw an area I had not seen before - the Kielder water. A huge lake in beautiful surrounding but with mostly secondary roads! With the help of my newly installed Tomtom on my iPad we reached the address in Leeds and saw the dog. A little beauty, very sweet tempered, still very playful, about the size of Aischa but a different colouring. There was no way that we would leave without this little treasure.
When we came home that evening and put her on the grass for a weewee I could foresee problems with long walks because her legs looked very short and I also thought that something had been done to her tail because I could not see it porperly. The next morning, however, she looked completely different and I realised that she was keeping her tail between her legs and crouches down when she is frightened.That morning we took her for a longish walk around some fields and there was no problem of her not following or not wanting to walk. She loved it! Only when a particular scent was too strong she was more interested in that than in us. She took to walking like a duck to water. I don’t think she got a lot of proper walks up to now but was used to being a lapdog. She has a beautiful coat more silvery than Aischa and Krümmel had.
We took her to the vet yesterday where she got a thorough health checkup, part of the injections she needs, a microchip, etc., all she needs for cross border travelling.She can jump higher than Aischa could and has no problems finding the best places for a nap in the house. She follows me all over. When I get up and think she is asleep she is already standing behind me. At the moment she is curled up behind my feet so that I have to be careful getting up.


02/03/2014 10:16
Aischa, our great, couragious little Yorkshire terrier left us on February 27.


I went to France for only a week and when I left on the Wednesday she still looked okay. However, thinking back her deterioration started already on the way from Ireland to Scotland and probably even before that. When we spent the night in a B&B before taking the ferry the next morning in Belfast, she did not want to eat. I thought this was because I only gave her the biscuits and not the home cooked food, which she normally had. She also started drinking more than she used to do.
As soon as we arrived in Scotland we took her to the vet because she had been coughing for quite a while. She got antibiotics and cortisone and stopped coughing very quickly. She still did not eat as she normally did but we put this down to the medication.
Coming back from our morning walk and while we had our breakfast we used to give her a few of her biscuits which she normally ate very quickly but did not want to have the two days before I left. However, she wanted her bits of banana, which she always got from Alan.
While I was in France, Alan told me that she was getting very weak and he would take her to see the vet. The next time I talked to him he told me that they had found out that she had kidney failure und had put her on a drip. When he picked her up on the Saturday she was much better but on the Sunday she was deteriorating again.
When I got back from Edinburgh airport on Wednesday late afternoon I was picked up from the bus stop by Sheila, our next-door neighbor. She told me that Aischa had become so weak that day that Alan had taken her to the vet to put her to sleep. There they told him that they would put her on a drip again so that I could say goodbye.
As the vet surgery is more or less next door to the bus stop I went there immediately. The surgery was already closed for the day but they let me in to see Aischa. As soon as she saw me, her front paw came up so that I could tickle her tommy and when I picked her up she clung on to me.
Alan had arranged to pick her up the next morning and talking to the vet he advised me to enjoy the next day with her and have her put to sleep late afternoon.
When we picked her up she was not too bad. Coming home and putting her on the grass for a wee, she started sniffing about and was interested in what was going on around her. Once inside and put into her bed, she jumped straight out again and went to the kitchen to have a drink and Alan gave her some food, which she all ate. She even started following me when I went into another room.
We took her into the garden later on for another wee, but she did not want to sniff around any longer. We carried her through the garden, showing her all her favourite places for a last time.  After that she was fading very quickly and at 3 PM, when the vet came she was very weak. Then it all went very quickly and I suppose we did the best for her but it was very difficult to let her go.
While I was in France, Alan had already made her little coffin and we buried her on Friday, in the rose garden in a beautiful sunny, privat little corner. She wore her little Crinch vest, which we bought for her in November. Sheila was with us and afterwards she invited us to her place for a celebration of Aischa’s life.
For non-pet owners all this may sound a bit over the top but she had been a part of our life for nearly 10 years and it was good to talk about Aischa and Krümmel, what they did, liked, their funny traits, etc. Afterwards we all felt better even though it still hurts thinking about her. Also, the flat feels very empty and I still keep looking down to see if Aischa is in front of my feet, especially in the kitchen where she was always hoovering the floor.

28/11/2013 11:03

... by a less than 3 kg heavy creature! But, of course, we do, at least, most of the time. However, I draw the line at going to bed at 9 PM!
When Aischa tells us at about 9 PM that she wants to go out for a wee, I take her outside so that she can do her business. And she does, at least when it is not raining. When it rains, I might have to send her back two to three times before she finally gives in and goes to do her wee. However, when we come back in she knows she will not go out anymore that day so she is ready for bed. Which means our bed but it also means that she expects us to go to bed as well as she will not stay there on her own. Of course, we cannot give in so in the end she settles down. However, it is the same every night. She keeps on trying.
In the morning, at least when we are in Scotland, we take her out for a walk at 8 AM. She does not like to get up. When we get up, she crawls under the duvet and when we are ready to go, we have to drag her out of her little hole. When we put her on the floor, she may or may not, want a little drink and then she will hop in her nearest basket (in Scotland we have two). Most of the time I have to carry her down the stairs because she will just be dragging her heels and try to postpone the whole procedure. When we get outside and I put her down she will wee and either try to run back to the door or just stand there and watch us. In the end, she knows she will have to follow.


We used to go straight into the field and this was fine as long as the grass was dry. However, after the frost and the rain we realized that for a small creature as she is, it may not be great to be dragged out of bed and then get your belly wet as soon as you are outside. Therefore, we decided to walk down the drive and then turn into the fields. By that time, she should be wide-awake. However, Aischa had a different idea. In the afternoon, we just walk her around the block so at the end of the drive we turn right but to go to the fields, we have to turn left. Aischa was not having this; she wanted us to go right. The first few days we had to carry her to the field before she accepted the fact that she had reached the point of no return. After a few weeks of going this way, she has now at last accepted the fact that this was the way.
On the way back she is normally pretty quick because she knows that she will get her reward when we come back home. Last year we found out that we had to change her food from home cooked meals to hard dog biscuits instead. She was not having it. She, who loves food, was not eating. In the end, she got her way. It is a compromise from our side. She will not eat the biscuits when I put them in her bowl. However, when we come back from our walk in the morning she gets a small handful of the biscuits and gobbles them up in no time because this is a treat! In the late afternoon, she gets her home cooked meal but less then she used to!
She was at Sheila’s when we went back to France for a week and she spoilt her rotten. She got used to Sheila’s new throw! I had to buy her one as well! When I sit on the sofa, she likes to sit on it as well and that used to be fine. Now, when I put her on the sofa she just sits there and looks at me as if she wants to say ‘Is that all? Where is my throw?’ As soon as I out the throw on the sofa, she gets hold of it and builds herself a little nest but goes barmy until she has it just the way she wants it!
There is something, however, that I have still not understood. She loves to come with us in the car and she is fine when we are driving at a speed of over 70 or 80 km/hour. As soon as we slow down, like driving in town or over narrow winding country roads, she starts moaning. Or, when we stop! I remember the time that we were looking for a hotel in France and our navigation system had taken us to a very rundown part of that particular town. We were trying to find our way on the map as well as trying to phone the hotel. She was moaning on and on and did not stop until we started driving again. At that moment, I could easily have wrung her neck.  


15/05/2013 10:32


Last Sunday we were invited in the village to a 40 years wedding anniversary. We had a great time, the food, the company, the music, the entertainment and obviously, the drinks were fantastic. The invitation was for 'as from 11.30 AM' and we were there about midday. We did not come home until about 7.00 PM and Alan decided to go for a long walk to get the alcohol out of his system which had slowly been building up as we had been out the previous evening as well to a function from his shooting club. As he is not used to having a mobile with him, I specifically told him to take it with him this time. He also decided to take Aischa, our little Yorkshire terrier, with him.
When it started to get dark, I was worried and phoned him, however without success. I tried several time and each time had the same result. I was getting frantic, thinking that something might have happened. In the end, I went out of the house hoping I could see him coming. I saw him coming around the corner and he was on his own! He told me that he had lost Aischa and was very upset, especially as we had just lost our other Yorkshire terrier Krümmel, albeit through old age.
We left the doors to the garden open in case Aischa would find her way back and left in the car. However, where Alan had been walking was cross-country over dirt tracks. My car is not built for tracks like that and the Landrover had been taken to the garage the previous week. The tracks were full of holes and by this time, it was dark. We stopped at places where we thought she might be and called her. We went up and down the tracks and were stuck a few times. In the end we gave up and drove back, hoping that she would have found her way back home on her own. And she had!
When we arrived back home she was trying to get into the front door and the gate to the drive was closed. I wondered about that and then I saw the girl next door. She was still shaking when she told me that she and her boyfriend had come around the corner when Aischa ran in front of the car. They only just missed her! She took her to the front door and rang the bell but nobody opened and all the lights were on!
It was than when I turned on Alan, who was still upset. He very seldom looks back when he takes the dog(s) for a walk. He just assumes she will follow him, which she normally does. However, sometimes she takes her time to sniff at things and is left behind. In addition, why did he not answer the phone when I called him? He had left it in the garage before he left. He put it down to get his coat on and forgot all about it. I just hope this has taught him a lesson but all the same I' pleased that all worked out okay in the end.


25/04/2013 15:36
We burried our oldest Yorkshire terrier Krümmel today. He died on Monday. He had been blind since last year, did not hear much and had lost already a lot of weight since December 2012. He refused food for about 5 days and even force feeding him made no difference. He would have been 16 years old in June.


Krümmel and Aischa
07/08/2012 17:31
It's not easy to photograph them. They don't want to stay still for long but don't they look cute in their smart new harnesses?









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