[Mika]

Hi everyone!

My name is Mariëtte and I've just joined the Forum.

I adopted a female Siberian Husky, named "Mika" from an Animal Shelter on 9 April 2010, after our Boerboel female, "Sandy" passed away at the age of 5 years.

Mika is such a beautiful temperamented dog. She has striking blue eyes and the most awesome personality! She has settled in so well and especially enjoys the interaction with her new family - me, DH and our toddler.

We take her for walks every night after work - she absolutely loves it! We stay next to a velt, so she really has the best of both worlds.

[CorkyMax]

Originally Posted by Mika

Hi everyone!

My name is Mariëtte and I've just joined the Forum.

I adopted a female Siberian Husky, named "Mika" from an Animal Shelter on 9 April 2010, after our Boerboel female, "Sandy" passed away at the age of 5 years.

Mika is such a beautiful temperamented dog. She has striking blue eyes and the most awesome personality! She has settled in so well and especially enjoys the interaction with her new family - me, DH and our toddler.

We take her for walks every night after work - she absolutely loves it! We stay next to a velt, so she really has the best of both worlds.

I like that name--Mika. My married daughter just named her dog--Mya--which sounds pretty close.

I am always being a 'mother hen' and worrying about the welfare of dogs so hope you won't be offended when I have to give a warning/question of sorts
here---You said you are from SA---Is that a hot climate like South America or South Africa? You prob. already know this but I just want to make sure! Will quote from a breeds book I have: Siberian Huskies need a fair amount of exercise, but don't overdo it in warm weather. Because of their heavy coats, these dogs are unsuited to life in hot climates and should not be excessively exercised in warm weather. Kind of a hard thing to deal with because they need a fair amount of exercise too! Glad you are at least walking her at night --hopefully when it is cooler. Do you cool her down with a hosing of cool water ?

Sorry to hear of your loss of your Boerboel but glad you rescued your Mika.
About the Boerboel--I had never heard of that breed before so I looked it up on the net---Very big dog. Do they have a short life expectancy? The info I looked up on this breed left that part of the info blank. For anyone else that has never heard of this breed: African Boerboel Information and Pictures, Boerboels

JUst got the clue! As this is an African breed--I bet that SA--where you are from-- is South Africa and not South America!

Anyway hope you like this forum!

[Mika]

Hi there!

Yip, I'm from South Africa. Fortunately the part of the country I live in the weather is not as warm as other parts of SA.

And yes, we do exercise her when it's cooler weather. She also has a pond where she can play and cool down.

As far as I know, Boerboel dogs have a much longer life expectancy. Our beloved dog passed away from a suspected puff-adder (venomous snake) bite. We live in a natural area, with lots of natural bush and its inhabitants.

Looking forward to chat on the Forum!

[CorkyMax]

Originally Posted by Mika

Hi there!

Yip, I'm from South Africa. Fortunately the part of the country I live in the weather is not as warm as other parts of SA.

And yes, we do exercise her when it's cooler weather. She also has a pond where she can play and cool down.

As far as I know, Boerboel dogs have a much longer life expectancy. Our beloved dog passed away from a suspected puff-adder (venomous snake) bite. We live in a natural area, with lots of natural bush and its inhabitants.

Looking forward to chat on the Forum!

Sorry to hear of the snake bite---Do you have poisonous snakes close by to your immediate living area? See many!? I so am afraid of snakes! I just looked up in another site to check that life expectancy out and found that it is 10-12 years for that breed. I knew that large dogs can have a shorter life span sometimes but didn't think the 5 yrs. was long enough and didn't want to ask you how your dog died, Sorry!

I am so glad that Mika has a pool to cool off in. I hope she can stay away from the snakes!

Hope you will have some pics to show of Mika. Would like to see the Boerboel pics too if you have some. You can see my 2 dogs on my profile page in my album if you like. Talk to you later.

[Mika]

Originally Posted by Corky/Max

Sorry to hear of the snake bite---Do you have poisonous snakes close by to your immediate living area? See many!? I so am afraid of snakes! I just looked up in another site to check that life expectancy out and found that it is 10-12 years for that breed. I knew that large dogs can have a shorter life span sometimes but didn't think the 5 yrs. was long enough and didn't want to ask you how your dog died, Sorry!

I am so glad that Mika has a pool to cool off in. I hope she can stay away from the snakes!

Hope you will have some pics to show of Mika. Would like to see the Boerboel pics too if you have some. You can see my 2 dogs on my profile page in my album if you like. Talk to you later.

Yip, we have come across venomous snakes in our garden. We live in a natural area, which is surrounded by lots of bush. Found Puff-adders, Boomslang and Cape Cobras in our garden. My DH works for Nature Conservation and I work as a Curator (Nature Conservator) at a Reptile Park. How's it for Murphy's Law that our beloved Boerboel died of a snakebite (and here I work in a Reptile Park)?!

There's a pic of Mika in my avatar. Will take some photos of her (so difficult to get her to "pose", as she doesn't want to sit still)! LOL!

[CorkyMax]

Had just added this to my last post but see you already replied to it--so figured you might not see this so erased the addition I did and am now pasting it here! (Lol)

I just looked at your profile page, which I should of done before replying as I would of known then that you were from South Africa and have to say I don't 'relish' your 'job'---Reptiles are just not for me but you must like them,
Do you handle many poisonous snakes, etc and how dangerous is this!?

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[Mika]

Originally Posted by Corky/Max

Had just added this to my last post but see you already replied to it--so figured you might not see this so erased the addition I did and am now pasting it here! (Lol)

I just looked at your profile page, which I should of done before replying as I would of known then that you were from South Africa and have to say I don't 'relish' your 'job'---Reptiles are just not for me but you must like them,
Do you handle many poisonous snakes, etc and how dangerous is this!?

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LOL!

I work with Nile Crocodiles, Cape Cobras, Puff-adders, Mozambique Spitting Cobras, Green Mambas to mention a few of the venomous reptiles in our collection. Furthermore I take care of numerous gecko's and other non-venomous snakes and also some tortoises as well as a Rock Monitor.

It's a risky job as any kind of mistake can mean the difference between life-and-death. But I absolutely love my job! Working with the reptiles and seeing their different personalities! Fortunately my DH works for Nature Conservation, so he has no problem with me working with reptiles. He also deals with 'problem reptiles' (reptiles found in gardens and people wanting it to be removed and relocated).

I used to work with cheetahs and bengal tigers in Oudtshoorn. Was an animal trainer there. Don't know if you've seen the "Growing up Cheetah" programme on Animal Planet (it was produced in 2003) - it's me crying at the end!ops:

From there on, I worked with dolphins and seals and trained these animals as well as did daily public presentations. Now I'm working with reptiles! So my toddler can one day look back at the photies and say "Hell yes, my mom was a mad woman"! LOL!

[CorkyMax]

Quote/--I used to work with cheetahs and bengal tigers in Oudtshoorn. Was an animal trainer there. Don't know if you've seen the "Growing up Cheetah" programme on Animal Planet (it was produced in 2003) - it's me crying at the end!ops:

From there on, I worked with dolphins and seals and trained these animals as well as did daily public presentations. Now I'm working with reptiles! So my toddler can one day look back at the photies and say "Hell yes, my mom was a mad woman"! LOL!

Wow! Sounds like quite a life you have! Sure wouldn't be my kind but I have to say -It must not be boring! I love that program--Animal Planet. Not sure if I have seen that particular "Growing up Cheetah" one. I wasn't able to get Animal Planet until just about a year ago--Had to 'upgrade' my cable tv package and Animal Planet was included. Hopefully I will catch it in a rerun sometime. Do you know when they have this as a rerun? Being as you are 'featured'---thought you might be notified of this when rerun. Mad but famous!? :!:

[Lara's mom]

If there were snakes of any kind in my yard, my bags would be packed and I'd be gone so fast that the dust would be swirling behind me. As for poisonous ones, don't they have snake exterminators where you are? That can't be safe for you, your child or your dogs.

[Mika]

Originally Posted by Corky/Max

Wow! Sounds like quite a life you have! Sure wouldn't be my kind but I have to say -It must not be boring! I love that program--Animal Planet. Not sure if I have seen that particular "Growing up Cheetah" one. I wasn't able to get Animal Planet until just about a year ago--Had to 'upgrade' my cable tv package and Animal Planet was included. Hopefully I will catch it in a rerun sometime. Do you know when they have this as a rerun? Being as you are 'featured'---thought you might be notified of this when rerun. Mad but famous!? :!:

Unfortunately I don't know when and if they will have a rerun of the episode. They had a whole series they filmed around the world about different animals growing up. The cheetahs were one of them.

Animals have always been my passion in life. I can see this in our son too - he plays with his animal toys and pretends it's his Animal Park.

Originally Posted by Lara's mom

If there were snakes of any kind in my yard, my bags would be packed and I'd be gone so fast that the dust would be swirling behind me. As for poisonous ones, don't they have snake exterminators where you are? That can't be safe for you, your child or your dogs.

Fortunately both myself and my DH knows the know-how of reptiles. We catch the reptiles found in our yard and release them somewhere else, where it's safe for them as well as for us.

[Lara's mom]

I can't say I'd be thinking of the snakes welfare...I HATE them!!! Wouldn't it be better to kill the gruesome creatures so they don't pose a danger to any other living and less obnoxious things?

[Todd]

Hello and welcome to the forum! Glad to have you! yea, be careful about leaving your pet outside with snakes around. They have been known to not only bite but wrap around pets and squeeze them to death then eat them. I wouldn't leave them outside alone unsupervised.

[Mika]

Originally Posted by Lara's mom

I can't say I'd be thinking of the snakes welfare...I HATE them!!! Wouldn't it be better to kill the gruesome creatures so they don't pose a danger to any other living and less obnoxious things?

Nope, being Nature Conservation people, we feel it's better to relocate these animals instead. They do afterall have a very important ecological role to fulfill in nature.

Originally Posted by Todd

Hello and welcome to the forum! Glad to have you! yea, be careful about leaving your pet outside with snakes around. They have been known to not only bite but wrap around pets and squeeze them to death then eat them. I wouldn't leave them outside alone unsupervised.

Thanks for the welcome Todd!

Fortunately we don't have pythons or any other large snakes big enough to constrict in our part of the Country we live in.

Only the venomous snakes that come in to our yard from the bush (we live next to a natural area). Mostly reptiles will move away from danger (humans / pets). I think what happened to our Boerboel was just very unfortunate. This is the first time in 13 years that this has happened. Previously the snakes just moved away from any danger. Think the Boerboel cornered the snake and got bitten.

Once you work with reptiles, you get to learn their behaviour and how they would react towards a situation. We find it much better to catch and release / relocate these animals in another safe area.

[Groove's in Heart]

Originally Posted by Lara's mom

If there were snakes of any kind in my yard, my bags would be packed and I'd be gone so fast that the dust would be swirling behind me. As for poisonous ones, don't they have snake exterminators where you are? That can't be safe for you, your child or your dogs.

Laura's Mom did you know that there are no native snakes in Hawaii? Can you imagine, no snakes anywhere! Paradise in so many ways