TRIBUTE TO THOR

I have a picture in my studio of Thor sharing a coffee break with me. It is in one of those wood message frames that starts off "A good dog brings so much to a family..." That best describes Thor.

Thor came to us from the Baldwin Park Shelter on June 6, 1998. He was one of four dogs that came into Rescue on the same day from different parts of Southern California. He filled up the crate in the back of the van and when I talked to him he turned away and laid down with an air of depression hanging over him. Once home I put him in the "guest" pen with fresh water and bedding. He really didn't seem to care where he was. He looked like a bag of bones, but his coat was a glowing deep red.

I returned to the house to get a piece of barbecued chicken breast--my usual treat for a dog new to us. At first he paid no attention to me other than to respond to my "sit" command. That all changed after the first taste of chicken. The look of surprise on his face was almost comical. By the third bite Thor was smiling from ear to ear. He had made his first connection to me. Once finished I called him over to me kneeling down so he would not be frightened. He walked right up to me and put his huge head against my chest leaning into me and giving what I have come to refer to as Thor hugs. And, to this day, that is our favorite time together--Thor hugs.

Thor weighed 160# when he arrived at our house. He also came down with kennel cough the first night with us--par for a shelter dog. Since he was about 40# underweight, I started him off slowly with several small meals accompanied by cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs and yogurt. He loved it all. By nightfall I had come to suspect that Thor might be another dog with PRA. My suspicions were confirmed two weeks later when he had his CERF exam. By that time another rescue named Bella had joined us. She was as small as Thor was big, fawn to his apricot, and refused to stay in the adjoining pen. I think she had fallen in love with Thor and would dig into his pen to be with him. After returning her to her own pen twice, I gave up and left them together. She too had PRA.

I had guessed Thor to be around 6 years old. The eye doctor put him between 7 and 8, with advanced PRA and bilateral equatorial cataracts as well. He thought he was almost blind, and probably would soon have no vision left at all. Bella was much better off at 2-3 years.

Each day that Thor was with us gave me a greater appreciation of his wonderful temperament. I was retiring from Rescue in a couple of weeks and really wanted to get the dogs placed that were in my backyard. Bella found a home quickly with a family that had adopted from us the year before. But it seemed that Thor's age and eyes were working against his placement. The better we came to know him the more we realized how much he reminded us of the dogs that we had lost to illness recently. We used to refer to him as our Clancy in Velvet's coat with a bit of Sara thrown in.

We had only one family that considered adopting Thor--she really didn't mind his age and potential blindness--but watching him drink and drool made her decide against getting a Mastiff at all. I was secretly glad because I had fallen in love with the big galoot by then.

So as my last official act as State Rescue Coordinator I adopted Thor. Or at least I tried to adopt Thor--it took a couple of tries to figure out how to be the adopting family instead of the Coordinator. Our biggest worry was would Keeper, our 18 month intact male, accept him. I'm not sure why we worried--Keeper prefers being with his idol Thor more than the girls. They became best friends, sleeping together at night. Thor went to obedience training not too long after adopting him, and like all my dogs, he earned a CGC Certificate. He also placed first in his obedience class graduation trial. Not bad for an old guy.

Thor has been with us for three years now. He is 205# and a wonderful addition to our clan. He is a toy hog, loves to ride in any vehicle and still gives those great hugs. His face is a bit grayer these days and I suspect he is really closer to 10 than 9. He continues to remind us of Clancy in attitude--mellow and silly all rolled into one, and he has become my protector much like Velvet used to be. He carries his chew bones just like Sara used to, so maybe this boy came to us for a reason. He can be stubborn and ignore the "come" command when he has better things to do--like pick apples off the trees in the orchard. And he smiles at me with each meal. I don't think he really believes that the next one will arrive on time. He loves coming in the house and has always had perfect manners--well except for raiding the trash, something that I think is left over from all his days on the road.

I don't know where Thor came from originally. Since he turned out to be heartworm positive, it's possible he wasn't from the Southern California area where we found him. I am grateful that he has chosen to share his life with us. We are certainly richer for it.

Caroline Tobin

Thor's Mom