Kaiser
the Mastiff
- a member of our family!
Kaiser
suddenly left us on August 1, 2000 after a sudden attack
of bloat. He is deeply missed. On this page you can read
about Kaiser's four year long life as part of our family,
as it was written before he passed away.
Kaiser
was born on Aug. 29, 1996 in Gran, Oppland, Norway. His
father was "S CH Moloss Rusty Nails at Mastinas",
and his mother "N CH Pasvik's Fia". He went to
stay with us in the city Kristiansand when he was eight
weeks old.
Kaiser
is both a family member and a friend. He's a very social
and affectionate almost three years old mastiff. He weighs
196 lbs. (89 kilos), and is still putting on weight. Kaiser
is a fantastic watchdog. Hopefully there is no stranger
foolish enough to trespass Kaiser's borders. When Kaiser
is guarding the house, it's more than secured. Plumbers,
milkmen and people like that aren't very popular with Kaiser.
They are strangers, and strangers are not welcome in this
mastiff's world. It's as simple as that.
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Kaiser
is really enjoying life while being with his family and
closest friends. Under such circumstances life is wonderful
and relaxing. It's important to lay down as close as possible
to where mum or dad is sitting. If not, Kaiser feels rather
lonely and abandoned. He also likes to be with us during
all kinds of meals. Begging could be charming from time
to time, but with a giant dog like an English mastiff, drooling
gallons of slimy stuff on the table, it's not the way you
want to eat your dinner every day.
Visiting
our cottage in the forest is like kingdom come for Kaiser.
He simply loves to take a swim (or just to wade a ittle
bit), going for a walk in the woods and spend lots of time
with mum and dad. And, by the way, he never runs away. He
doesn't even have to be told not to. Nothing beats walking
slowly around the cottage, sniffing at the flowers and sleeping
in the grass in the morning sun. Oh, yes. Life is great
around the cottage.
So what
about his personality? Well, Kaiser is very good with other
dogs. He's not aggressive at all. Small dogs are his favorite
playing-mates. He really enjoys meeting them when we're
out for a walk. Maybe this is because he spent his first
6 months together with a Yorkshire terrier girl. The two
of them became quite good friends, despite of the size-difference.
But there's a limit even for a patient dog like Kaiser!
He finds it acceptable that other males snare at him a little,
but we all remember the time we had a Labrador/boxer mix
in our house for a few days. After a day of dominant behavior
from the visitor, Kaiser lost his patience. The poor 30
kilo dog definetely regretted his behavior when the fight
was over. That day we finally understood that the mastiff
once was a great warrior. There was no longer any doubt
about it. The other dog survived, mainly because of my rather
heroic (and stupid) interference in the fight. At least
the local vet got something to do.
Kaiser
has a problem with strangers. He's not happy about new people
at all, and he's found a way to make sure he doesn't have
to get to know them! This is especially true when it comes
to men. We have been training him to accept strange men,
but his feelings are hard to change on this subject. By
all means, he has never hurt anyone in any way! The only
thing that happens if a stranger comes to close to him (especially
when there's some kind of eye contact) is that Kaiser barks
very loudly with a very deep emphasis on the bass in his
voice. The bigger the stranger, the louder the bark. All
this is, of course, because he deep down is a bit frightened
of people he's not familiar with. At least he's found a
way to handle his fright without using violence, while still
keeping his pride intact. A bit funny, though, that powerful
dogs like mastiffs are afraid of anything at all...
Children
are nice animals, Kaiser thinks. And very cute, too! A little
bit TOO cute, you might say... When the playing around turns
into a rather romantic affair, it's time to stop the game.
Anyway, it's good to know that strange children don't make
Kaiser react as he does with strange grownups. A child can
pet him pretty freely. Kaiser doesn't mind at all.
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The
other day Kaiser had his debut as a bus passenger. He's
always liked to be in our car (he almost has a religious
relationship to that car!), so we thought there would be
a fair chance that busses were alright, too. At first he
didn't enjoy it at all. He cried a bit, and looked pretty
depressed. Strange people coming and going, weird doors
opening and closing with unfamiliar sounds. How could this
possibly be a thing to enjoy for a dog like Kaiser? That's
the way the story goes. When we got to the city and got
out of the bus, Kaiser was quite relieved (even though he
doesn't like the city, either). Anyway, a few hours later
we had to go back home, and this time Kaiser didn't find
it so terrible. He lay down on the floor and looked at me
with an expression that was kind of saying, "Ok, I accept
this new way of travelling, if that's what you really want...".
Yes, mastiffs are a breed of habit, but they also know how
to adapt to new situations! The only "small" problem we
experienced during the drive back home, was what you might
already have thought of: Kaiser's size. It's not easy to
find room for a big dog like this on a bus. But, things
taken under consideration, I guess we solved the problem
pretty well. After this day, Kaiser and I have traveled
by bus several times. By now he has become a quite experienced
bus-passenger. He still doesn't find it amusing, but as
long as he knows that driving a bus means he can be where
I am, he finds it worth the trouble.
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We have
tried bringing Kaiser to dog shows. When he was six months
old he got the price for being best in breed. This led to
great expectations from our side, but the enthusiasm didn't
last long. The fear for strangers developed as described
earlier, and Kaiser just didn't let any stranger touch him
in the ring. The last time we took him to a dog-show, he
barked heavily at that scary, cruel man wearing a suit.
So, we didn't get no champion-dog. But, to be honest, there
are lots of things about a dog that is far more important
than this, so we really don't think about it any longer.
Kaiser is still our beloved boy, he's our watchdog and our
loyal friend. As a member of the family he's a patient and
good dog with lots of personality.
Kaiser
kind of has a girlfriend, the brown Doberman Pinscher "Kine".
She is living with grandma and grandpa, and it's such fun
to visit her, especially when she's in the middle of the
heat-period! (me oh my!!!).
In general
there's nothing as interesting as meeting other dogs. Naturally
puppies and bitches are the most popular ones.
Well,
by the way, CATS are really interesting, too! Luckily enough
he hasn't caught one yet, but people who think mastiffs
are slow dogs would have changed their minds if they saw
Kaiser chasing cats. He's repeatedly making new speed-records!
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In
rememberance of Kaiser the Mastiff - a very special creature...
Posted
to the message-board, August 2, 2000:
I am so very sorry to inform you that Kaiser died last night
as a result of a sudden attack of bloat.
Kaiser was the direct reason and motivation for the making
of "MASTIFF-WEB, The Great Home of the English Mastiff on
the Internet".
Kaiser would have celebrated his fourth birthday this month.
During his rather short lifetime he became a local celebrity.
Just a few months ago, one of the country's best selling
weekly magazines printed a full page article with his story
and three pictures of him. A couple of months before that,
he also got a full page in a local newspaper that has about
30 000 daily readers. I know that Kaiser has meant something
for others than ourselves, and this tragic event will probably
make people we have never met feel sorry.
My wife and I will have a hard time getting over that our
loyal friend isn't around anymore. He was a true friend,
both to us, our family and to other dogs.
I felt I had to tell you the sad news, since Kaiser is so
central to this web-site.
Please understand that it will be very hard for me to answer
any e-mails about what's happened. We have suffered a great
loss that will take time to get used to. Simply writing
this post is hard enough...
My good hearted Mastiff is gone. He will never wave his
tail nor put his head on my lap anymore... Love your Mastiffs
while you can. They deserve it, and you never know when
there's no more time to show how much you care...
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We
received more than 70 written condolances from all over
the world the next few days after Kaiser went away. We wish
to say thank you for all those comforting words and thoughts
we received.
