Dr. Coudrai:
Thanks for including us in the distribution of your Thanksgiving letter.
Our dog, Riley, an American Water Spaniel (The State Dog of Wisconsin), was treated
by Dr. Levie (upon insistence from Lisa Berg and Brenda @ Clif Wyck Kennels). He’s had
an on-going skin irritation for the last 2 months — treated by the vets @ Countryside in
Medford.
Whereas Riley was seemingly improving, Brenda, especially, was wanting me to take Riley to see
Dr. Levie. So I did, and I was/am greatly appreciative of Dr. Levie’s time spent with Riley. Dr. Levie
was extremely thorough and actually showed me what she was finding, and how I could do some
of this care myself. And she explained details of contributors to his “itching” condition, the impact of his fine hair “matting”
and not liberating itself from his body, the condition this creates for yeast development (which we don’t want) — just so
many simple things that simple maintenance provides which can prevent more serious conditions from developing.
Riley, why are we thankful — many reasons, none which we actually planned. I am retired, but don’t want to be, and
my kids thought I should have a hobbie, or what did you always want — I wasn’t what one would call a dog enthusiast,
but if it was going to be a dog, I always wanted a Springer Spaniel named “Zeke”. So one thing leads to another and
I started looking for breeders of Springer Spaniels, but I thought Springers might be a little too springy for my time
in life, especially given some of my joint replacement inhibitors. Some how or other, I was lead to believe through my research, that the
American Water Spaniel was a little more docile — maybe a better choice. Right and wrong.
Riley flew in from Iowa, Faircloth Kennels, and he was so cute and so scared, but he recovered. Today we often
call him “Mr. Riley”. He is the friendliest guy, loves the ladies and lets us know when there’s a possible
intruder, or when something’s just not the way it was yesterday — like a fallen branch in the backyard after a storm, or
if my car is parked in the street as opposed to the driveway, or if the UPS guy is coming to the front door, or some stuff
we never even figure out.
He’s Riley — like my daughter has observed, Dad, he lets us touch him for examination purposes anywhere
on his body, and he’s always compliant — that’s not something one sees very often in animals, much less humans.
He’s extremely tolerant and very loving, and protective but not an attacker — and he gets me the paper from the driveway and I never
taught him to do that. Too bad the breed is becoming extinct.
Great to be a part of your “nation”.
Michael G
