Newbie

[emsanders]

Hi all,

New member here. I already posted in the "Is my dog a DS" thread, but wanted to do a proper introduction and give a bit more info on myself, my pups and other pets.

I'm a stay at home graphic artist with three fluffy supervisors. We have a 9 year old purebred Pomeranian (Riley), a 5 year old bully/gsd mix (Echo), and a 7 month old possible DS mix (sky). We also have six Boa Constrictors and a Mexican Black Kingsnake. (Mimosa, Corona, Mojito, Pixel, Digit, Atari and Absinthe).

Sky is the reason I found this forum and our journey with her so far has been very rewarding. I explained a little about her in my first post, but figured I'd go more in depth here. I have always loved high drive dogs. My career goal was to become a police canine handler. I did my internship with the canine unit and loved every second of it. I ended up working in corrections, then security, but after a lot of relocations for my fiance's job, I took up my hobby as a digital artist as my full time job. It's a choice I don't regret, but I still want to get into protection sports and am always talking to my fiance about high drive dogs like GSDs, DS, and Mals. Enter Sky -

I was browsing Craigslist and saw this sad little "GSD mix rescue" that was being fostered. After a bit of pleading with my fiance (and lots of eye rolling lol) we went to go see her. She was clearly some type of shepherd, and was just so skinny and covered in scabs. She had a god awful high pitched whine and my fiance said 'not happening', so we thanked them for their time meeting us, and we left. We were about half way home when he changed his mind. We picked her up the next day. She was wormy, needed some high quality food, and was very weak in her back end to the point where she couldn't jump on the couch, go up the stairs or get in the car on her own. We contacted the vet that had originally taken her in and confirmed her spay with them (she is tatooed as well), that she was vaccinated, and microchipped. We got the chip registered with us and that was that, she was ours. No adoption fees, no hassle, just a beautiful pup needing some love.

The last three months have been a constant struggle of helping her gain weight through her growth spurts, manage her activity so she could gain strength without overdoing it, and ensuring she was parasite free. Just in the last week she's hit another growth spurt and she's looking far more mature, her ears are standing without support and her posture has greatly improved. I've been posting her progress a lot of FB, and throughout the experience I've had a lot of people suggest what breed she is, but the first, foremost and most adamant is always Dutch Shepherd mix. Her personality suits (though she's on the more mellow end, she is definitely a 'maligator' when it comes to play - snap, snap, snap) and her intelligence is through the roof. With everyone's input, I'm really beginning to suspect GSD DS mix. We really couldn't have gotten any luckier with this rescue and I can't wait to see how she progresses.

Pics are of Riley, Echo and Sky before and after photos.

[ladyjubilee]

What kind of Boas? I'm partial to Reticulated pythons but don't have one. I'm not familiar with Mexican Black King snakes, though.

[emsanders]

What kind of Boas? I'm partial to Reticulated pythons but don't have one. I'm not familiar with Mexican Black King snakes, though.

I looooove retics, but I live inside city limits, so cannot own one. I am determined to get one once we have a house.

I currently have:
2017 Female Boa Imperator - Hypo Blood (Mimosa)
2015 Female Boa Imperator - Hog Island (Corona)
2017 Male Boa Imperator - Hog Island (Mojito)
2018 Female Boa Constrictor Constrictor - Parson's Guyana (Atari)
2019 Male and Female Boa Constrictor Longicauda (Digit and Pixel)

Mexican Black Kingsnakes are colubrids. They are US/Mexico native and get about as big as other native Kings/Corns/Milksnakes.

I recently did a major downsize of my collection (basically sold all my Imperators), but here's my Instagram, which has tons of pics of my current and previous snakes. With any amount of luck, I'll have a litter of pure hog islands born this spring. https://www.instagram.com/earthboundexotics/

[ladyjubilee]

They are beautiful

[Dutchringgirl]

The rest of your crew is so adorable. I really dont think she has any GSD in her. Where is her tattoo? Ear or the spay tattoo?

[emsanders]

The rest of your crew is so adorable. I really dont think she has any GSD in her. Where is her tattoo? Ear or the spay tattoo?

Spay tattoo, it's on her inner thigh. They must have done it really young because the vet paperwork for microchipping and final vaccines was from April, with an estimated birthdate of Dec 20th (so she's 8 ish months old, not 7) and she was already spayed on that paperwork. Between that and the malnourishment, I can see why the poor girl's back end is developing slow.