We adopted another dog on our farmstead. Say Hello to Loki the Mischievous Mutt!

Yes, that’s right! We let another dog into our lives. And I say ‘let’ instead of ‘brought’ for a good reason. This is one of those awesome dog adoption stories that will put a smile on your face. So let me tell you the story of how Loki, our new dog, forced himself into our arms. 

Loki was already 4 months old when we met him. Sadly his life thus far was not fun at all, but somehow he got through it and hanged on just enough to get to meet us. His first owner was an old lady that got sick and was taken to the hospital. She left her puppy in her yard, tied with a chain with no food, water or shelter. As days passed by and she was not getting checked out of the hospital, a neighbour took pity on the dog and took him to his home.

By this time Loki was scared out of his mind, anemic and deformed from the weight of the chain. None the less, his new ower tied him in a chain as well, but quickly decided this dog was not for him. The reason? He didn’t bark, and apparently, that was supposed to be his only purpose.

A few days later our next-door neighbour offered to take the dog himself. This sad story is getting repetitive. The puppy was put in a chain and he was expected to bark. He was fed poorly and no one bothered to pet, talk or spend time with him.

Loki’s lucky day

One Thursday afternoon, our neighbour’s grandkid was visiting. He saw the puppy and he unchained the poor fella for the first time. But the little guy was scared and he had no idea how to play or act around people. Greti and I happened to see him wandering on our street and we wanted to go and offer him some much-needed affection.

We took Ragnar with us and got outside to play with the scared puppy. For a few days now Ragnar was getting worried by Loki’s crying, so when he finally got to meet him, he was very calm and loving. We spend over three hours with the puppy, happy to see him feel safe for the first time and seeing him turn from a frightened pup to a more energetic, ball-chasing doggy.

The first night, the first mischief

Truth be told, although we were happy, we realized that we didn’t think this through. He was not our dog, but the first time he ever got affection and treated with dignity was in our yard. The first time he got real dog food instead of bread and water was in our yard. The first time he socialized with a dog that cared for him was in our yard.

The next morning when we woke up, Loki was in our yard.

We had no idea how he got passed the fence. We took him back to our neighbor and carried on with our day, constantly talking about the injustice he was going through and plotting ways to rescue him.

The second night I caught him jumping the fence, took him back outside, tried to yell at him and make him go back to the “correct yard”. Needless to say, after falling asleep around 2 AM, I woke up in the morning only to find him sleeping in Ragnar’s doggie house.

I even added some extra wires to the fence to stop him, but nothing worked. It was like he could walk through walls or teleport. He did whatever he could to force himself into our lives. He didn’t care when we tried to spook him back out of the yard, he would just throw himself on his back and submit.

We talked with our neighbor and told him we tried everything we could think of to keep his dog out of our yard but failed. When he said he will put him back in chains until they can find someone else to take him (because he didn’t bark) we knew we would have to be that someone. Otherwise, this groundhog day kinda nightmare would just continue.

We offered to take him, our neighbour had nothing against it and just like that Loki joined our family.

Our rescue dog, two months later

Loki was severely starved when we first saw him. His ribcage was showing, his gums were almost white and he lacked energy. He weight 7 kg (15 lbs) when we took him in. His neck was a bit deformed from the weight of the chain, and his posture was terrible. He was afraid of everyone and everything and it was clear that all he wanted was to be safe and fed.

Although Ragnar is already on a BARF diet, we didn’t want to take any chances with Loki for now. Since his health condition was so poor, we wanted to make sure that we give him all the nutrients and minerals he needed to get back on his feet. So we got him the most premium kibble and canned food we could find.

After three days of eating proper meals, he already gained 3 kg (7 lbs). We also supplemented his food with whey and calcium supplements to help with his bone, teeth and ear cartilage development. We took him to the vet to start his vaccines and the anti-parasitic medication.

One week later, although still lacking energy, Loki was slowly starting to play around with Ragnar. Another week later he looked like a different dog. It took him a lot of time to learn to trust us, but he saw we were always kind to him and to Ragnar.

Eventually, his posture improved, his fur started to look better, he changed all of his teeth and he’s a 12 kg dog (26 lbs) full of energy.

Now that Loki is in better health, we will switch him to the BARF diet as well. We already started the transition and it’s going great!