PD Shinta 1006, another long story:
My first introduction to Shinta was in the isolation kennels at the school. Only 10 months old, he ran around and around in circles in his kennel, climbing up and down the wire, flinging his excrement all over the place and barking and screaming like a lunatic on uppers; he was on everyone’s ”don’t want” list for this reteam. When the chief instructor informed me he was my new PD, I was not impressed. The very first day of reteam, Shinta ran around wildly getting tangled in the 15 footer and barking and whinging loudly and driving me and everyone else on course crazy, continually climbing back up the lead, I think he had more air time than Chuck Yeager. Shinta was an extremely enthusiastic biter and when the CI explained the new whisper in their ear method of leave on command, I had serious doubts about putting my face that close to his; but, lo and behold, when introduced, he left straight away and continued to do so for the rest of our time together. I returned home and Shinta continued climbing back up the lead, although by this stage he was concentrating his efforts mostly on my left hand, forcing me to wear a padded glove. While at Glenbrook, the Penrith living in barracks were shut down and of course doggies had to secure the area as well as our normal duties, with no extra troops of course, the usual RAAF way. To lighten the load, I took up residence in the old barracks from 1700 hrs to 0800 hrs each day taking Shinta with me. We were both indifferent to each other at this stage and the first night in the barracks I tried to get Shinta to sleep by the side of my bed, but he kept sticking his nose in my ear and climbing into my bed, finally I gave up and let him stay. In the morning, he was a different dog, he no longer bolted at every opportunity and became a willing worker, although he still hated my left hand. By the time we got to our second last posting, Shinta had become very affectionate, climbing on my lap or lying next to me with his head on my lap whenever he could, it was also becoming evident he wasn’t a very healthy dog: One weekend another handler rang me at home and said there was something wrong with Shinta, when I quizzed him, he said Shinta was very quiet and had sidled up to him in the kennel and nuzzled his hand for a pat, not Shinta‘s normal behaviour. Alarm bells rang and I raced in, but Shinta greeted me like there was nothing wrong, the other handler insisted that he wasn’t quite right and so I took him to the Vet. Upon examination the Vet found he was indeed crook, he had suffered a heart attack. His list of health issues was expanding: He already had an enzyme deficiency which prevented him from digesting his food properly, he had also picked up an ear infection that wouldn’t respond to treatment and had a continual runny nose. The ear infection was taken care of by an aural resection (removing the lower section of ear leaving a hole in the side of the head), for the runny nose, he had an exploratory rhinotomy, (peeling back the face and scraping out the nasal cavity). When done the Vet advised me to keep him indoors that night and gave me a syringe with a pain killer, telling me to be very careful when I administered it that night, as he would in all probability be in a great deal of pain. I came in that night and slowly opened the door to the SGT's office where Shinta was convalescing, Shinta jumped around whinging, whining and wagging his tail as usual, I gave him his needle without any problems and went home. The next day another handler asked how Shinta was last night, I said he was fine and obviously not in any pain, “Ooooh yes he was“, he said in his usual laconic way, “He tried to smash his way through the window to get at me“, so I guess he wasn’t feeling to well after all. The rhinotomy made things worse: Both nostrils ran continuously, the mucous building up and hardening, blocking his nostrils with rather large hard bogies the size of peas which I removed everyday with tweezers. I was coming to work practically everyday to look after him at this stage and after a discussion with my boss regarding Shinta’s health problems he agreed not to interfere as long as I continued to look after him as I had been doing (it’s nice to be the white haired boy every once in a while) . I was posted to the school as an instructor shortly after and Shinta went with me. I continued looking after him and he seemed to improve. Eventually I went on leave thinking Shinta was OK for a couple of weeks but he went downhill quite rapidly whilst I was away and so he was euthanaised. Unfortunately, I never new when Shinta was crook: Whenever I turned up he would get excited and carry on like there was nothing wrong; in retrospect, perhaps that was why he liked to curl up next to me or sit on my lap in the latter part of his life, but I like to think it was for other reasons. He scared the s$%t out of more than a few people in his short life but to me he was always extremely affectionate. He retained his slightly crazed bent and never outlived his hyperactivity (he ran the obstacle course in 19 seconds) nor his finger painting and at the end of every shift I was usually adorned as well as he, but I just couldn‘t say no to his affection. I wasn’t there for Shinta in his final days and for that I will never forgive myself. He was only six years old when he died, just plain worn out.
I always get misty and my glasses fog up when talking about my boys, Shinta died over 28 years ago.
