Silvius

I have been thinking about my good buddy and side-kick Silvius, who is still living at home, in the country, in Kansas. I thought you might like to see some photos of him. I will explain all of the photos as I tell his story. The first photo is Silvius after my human K woke him up from his comfy sleep in his dog house. Why must us animals always suffer at the hands of humans with cameras? The second photo is Silvius chewing on a deer leg he found and me pretending that I don't care that he is chewing on a deer leg while I have nothing. I am a good actor, aren't I? I don't know why no one will hire me. I could be famous, I tell you! A bit of Silvius' back story before I explain the next two photos. Silvius showed up at our house, in Kansas, in October 2006. He just appeared in the side yard one Sunday morning but would run into the trees when a human came outside. That went on for a few days until he was brave enough to at least stay in the yard when a human appeared. Slowly, after many months of patience by the humans and many months of trepidation by Silvius, he finally acclimated himself into our family. He was obviously abandoned out in the country and left to fend for himself, but we also think he was abused because of his great fear of humans and how it took him almost seven months before he would come into the house and let a human pet him. He stayed by my side constantly and would follow my lead. I liked being his mentor! K's brother named him "Silvius" which is Latin for "of the forest" ("silva" means forest) since he came from the trees. Since joining our family Silvius has had a few accidents and we have all been amazed by how he keeps on going despite all of his hardships. One accident occurred a few months after he entered our lives, so it was Winter time. Somehow a patch of skin got peeled off his back foot so his tissue was exposed. By using me and treats K was able to get Silvius to come close enough to her so she could hold him and get his foot bandaged. Well, Silvius would have none of that. As soon as K would bandage it up Silvius would just chew it off. That happened about four times. Finally, again using me and treats as bribes, K got Silvius in the car and to the Vet. The third photo shows the result of the Vet visit - a nicely bandaged back foot. That lasted about two hours. After that, K decided to just leave Silvius alone and let Nature take its course. Silvius' foot healed just fine on its own! Then about five months later, at the beginning of Summer, Silvius had a horrendous accident. Somehow the skin on his entire side was peeled away so his tissue was exposed. It was so graphic and disturbing that even I stayed away from Silvius for many days. We all thought he would die. He went into hiding about an hour after the event occurred and K found him the next day, in the early afternoon. K and her brother rushed him to the Vet and they tried to stitch him up with what skin they could save, but it did not last. The skin was too dead and it had to be cut away, leaving the entire side of his body with no skin, so all his tissue was exposed. I won't go into anymore detail. In the fourth and last photo is Silvius wearing a tee shirt which he had to wear to protect his open wound when we went for walks (yes, that is blood on the bottom of the shirt; he got a clean tee shirt for every walk but it did not stay clean for long). It has been over a year since that horrible event and the wound still has not healed, but it is down to the size of a quarter now. We don't know what mix of breed Silvius is, and the Vet did not venture a guess. We do know that Silvius is an amazingly resilient dog. We marvel at all the harsh experiences this strong dog has endured, and how he continually pulls through and remains extremely sweet, loving, loyal, and just an all-around great dog, but still very cautious toward humans. I am so glad he found my house when those hideous humans just left him in the country. I can't wait to see Silvius again and K promised me that when we leave this house/animal sitting gig we will get Silvius to come live with us. However, I don't think I will be using my acting skills the next time Silvius shows up with a deer leg for him and nothing for me. I mean, I would bring him one! Deer have four legs, so there is enough to go around! I'm just sayin'...