Before and After

  
April 10, 2008                                   Aug 31, 2008

On September 10th it will be 5 months since I rescued my big boy Kona from Michigan. I had just lost my 3(ish) year rescued Rottweiler "Rion" to an aggressive cancer called Histiosarcoma on the 7th of April of this year. I was talked into looking at another sad case when I contacted the Rottweiler rescue to notify them about my sudden loss of Rion.

I trekked to Michigan and took in this 113 lb beast named Otis. Otis had be running free through the streets of Michigan and had been picked up by the SPCA. They tried all their might to bring out the aggression in him to make the decision easier to euthanize him. Instead he had none and thus they tried to place him into a home. Time came and went and no one would adopt this beast. He limped terribly and was very shy due to an obvious history of abuse. To this day if you stomp your foot he drops and cowers. Otis's time was about to run out as he was next in line to be gassed. Luckily Rottweiler Rescue of Michigan snatched him up before that could happen. https://www.msu.edu/~silvar/rottweiler.htm.

So Otis (then renamed to Kona) came to Canada. He was fat, lazy, and had a severe limp in his front left foot that the Vets had stated would never heal as its a stretched ligament that was never treated. His back end was weak, he could barely make it around the block without lying down, and was in general in poor health,

Along came me and Rugby and boot camp......

I have been walking, free running, and just recently swimming with Kona. He is up in weight to 119 lbs but is solid and in shape. He can pretty much our run Rugby, he swims like a Labrador, and lives for his long daily walks. His coat is shiny and smooth (the ghetto coat i call it is 90% gone), he is bright, his limp is gone, and he is full of energy and overall just a happy dog. His obedience is still coming along as he sometimes flashbacks to his free running days in Michigan; Its a funny sight me running full speed after him to pull him back into reality- man he can run now!

Above are pictures of my sweet meat head Kona. I think it says all how far he has come in 5 months with exercise, great diet, and a whole whack of love!