Friday review, Feb. 19

I'm not sure if trendy stars parading around their Puggles for all the paparazzi to shoot had anything to do with this guy's quick adoption but all I know is that I barely had time to take his photo and then, poof, he was gone.


Harley's ex-owner claims he's an English Mastiff but at six month old, he seems kind of small for an English Mastiff - not that he's a small dog, just perhaps not giant sized. He does however, have those big blubbery mastiff jowls that you kind of want to grab a hold of and flap up and down and make raspberry noises. Or maybe that's just me.

Harley

Since I had some extra time, I took some shots of a few cats. It's sad how many cats there are at the shelter although for adopters it does mean that there are some amazing choices. The first two are still up for adoption but I don't see the last one, the one-eyed kitten, on the TAS website so hopefully he's found a home.




For adoption information on these and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.

Giant #2

(A big shout out to Kew Beach Veterinary Hospital for doing the spay/gastro on Tyra)

I promised you another and here she is. Meet Tyra, English Mastiff extraordinaire. She's just back from her spay and gastropexy so she only got a short walk today but even on her short walk, she turned a lot of heads.


TAS did not want to risk a repeat of what happened to George happening to Tyra so they decided on doing the gastropexy which is an operation that tacks the stomache to the abdominal wall to help prevent bloat - bloat being one of the major causes of death, and a painful one, in giant breeds.


Not to be mercenary about this but whoever gets Tyra is going to be getting one helluva deal. I'm not sure how much brindle English Mastiffs are going for these days but a couple of thousand or more wouldn't be unrealistic. On top of that, add the giant breed spay cost and the gastropexy and we're looking at a few thousand dollars worth of dog.

And Tyra is one amazing dog. Of course she's spectacular to look at and she's also totally luvable and easy going. She does pull slightly on the leash but that's more just her weight walking along and will be easy to correct.


One look at her jowls and it's a pretty safe bet she'll be a slobber bus in warmer weather. I'm sure it's nothing a bath towel can't handle.


At first, I thought there was something wrong with the base of Tyra's tail but, nope, it's just naturally huge. She could probable break planks with that thing.

Look for both Tyra and the other giant, Rufus, on CP24's Animal House Calls this coming week, Tuesday at 5:15 and repeated throughout the week.

A little more about Tyra here.

For adoption information on Tyra and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.