Published: Saturday, February 05, 2011, 7:45 AM Updated: Saturday, February 05, 2011, 7:54 AM
BLAIRSTOWN — there are dog people, and people who are not dog people.
Dog people do things that non-dog people will never understand. like spend $25,000 for medicine and blood transfusions to save a pet’s life. But even a dog person like Jean Boggie winced when she told the story.
“That was my new car, right there. Oh, well!”
She said this as she looked out her kitchen window at a pack of seven Leonbergers playing in the snow.
Another Leonberger nuzzled up to her feet, and another just hanging out in the kitchen, chomping a chewing toy. that dog, Flip, has only three legs. the fourth was strangled off by an umbilical cord when Flip was born to Kallie, the matriarch of Boggie’s show-dog family. the defect didn’t stop Flip from winning “best mask and face” at a recent Leonberger club show.
Flip’s condition is not where Boggie spent the $25,000. It went to emergency care for Flip’s sister, Glitz, and an Italian-import named Gigi, and Ryker, the big male leader of her pack, and Druskha a Russian import, who was just a pup when the four show dogs were poisoned.
All survived, and Glitz and Gigi’s story will make feel-good national news when they compete at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog show at Madison Square Garden in 9 days.
They will be among the first of their breeds to ever make it to the big show. Westminster added Leonbergers this year, even thought the breed is older than the 135-year-old show. It’s a social climb for Leonbergers, but there is nothing effete about the dogs. They’re big, strong German mountain dogs, bred from Landseer Newfoundlands and early Saint Bernards with a little Great Pyrenees thrown in.
“The girls can weigh as much 120-pounds. the boys get as big as 180.” Boggie said.
And they are working dogs. Alpine rescuers. Livestock herders and protectors. Man’s, and sheep’s, best friend.
“They love people,” Boggie said, as she stood outside among her pack at their hilltop home in Blairstown. She had to shout over a chorus of gruff barks, as a thousand pounds of dogs tightly surrounded and sniffed up a visitor. “They are unbelievably gentle with children, or sick people. They sense vulnerability.”
Thank God for that, thought the visitor, who, incidentally, is not a dog person.
Boggie’s dogs got sick in February, 2009. the vomiting and messy bowels were symptoms Boggie had seen before when her first pack leader, a mixed Lab named Perceval died a few years earlier.
“Percy was a wonderful pet. he was so smart, and he kept everybody in line. he was my enforcer,” she said. When Perceval got sick, Boggie discovered strange meat near her property line. “Someone threw it over the fence.”
The veterinarian told her Perceval had been poisoned.
“He thought it was some kind of rat poison. the poor thing just bled out,” she said.
In the episode two years ago, Boggie noticed manure piles dumped on her property in the same location. A few days later, her dogs were sick, and their hemoglobin levels plummeted.
“Normal levels for these dogs is about 40,” she said. “Ryker and Gigi were below 16 and Glitz and Druskha were down around 8. Gigi and Ryker each got two plasma transfusions. Glitz and Druskha Kruska needed four full blood transfusions. It’s a miracle they survived.”
Ryker and Gigi returned to good health. Glitz’ went on to deliver a litter of 10 pups, her fourth.
“But poor Drushka never fully developed,” Boggie said.
After Glitz had her litter, Boggie put “the girls” on an abbreviated show circuit. Gigi earned enough points to become a Grand Champion; Glitz, already a champion, won a show despite being nearly bald.
“They lose their hair when they lactate. But she has a remarkable topline,” which, Boggie said, is the human equivalent to “retaining her girlish figure.”
Glitz is the second generation of Boggie’s best dogs. Glitz’s mother, Kallie, won a Leonberger Club of America championship nearly a decade ago, and also one in obedience. But Glitz and Gigi are the stars these days: they did a cameo on News 12’s “The Pet Stop” last week to promote Westminster.
Back in the house, Boggie took a family photo album off a shelf that included books like “Control of Canine Genetic Disease” and “See Spot Live Longer.”
“See, here is Kallie, and Darius,” she said. Darius was the giant Leonberger bred to Kallie. in photos, they are cuddling shoulder to shoulder, like bride and groom. “And here is her first litter.”
In the pictures of her litters, there a few dozen, squirming puppies, Boggie starts naming dogs she has sold and has kept, and championships they have won.
“And there’s Glitz, right there,” she said, pointing to a puppy that, to a non-dog person, look like all others.
“Do you ever confuse them?” she was asked.
“Never,” Boggie said. Then she gave her visitor a look that asked, do you ever confuse your children? It was a look even people who aren’t dog people could understand.