International Course on Integrated Livestock and Predator Management
in June. A husband and wife who lead safaris in the Okavango region
were course participants and they brought their terrier along. He is
four years old and has to be the toughest dog I've ever met. As a
puppy his right eye was ripped out by a bull mastiff. Not long after
he was run over by a truck, breaking his back legs. Once he could run
again he was stepped on by a zebra, and beat up in a fight with a
honey badger.
This should be the end for most dogs, but the story gets better. He
was riding in a Land Rover, saw a springbok next to the road and gave
chase. He fell out of the car and was run over...again. Finally (if
I'm remembering everything) he was mauled by a leopard a few months
ago. The cat grabbed him by the back of the neck, dislocating one of
his vertebrae but not severing the spinal cord before his owners saved
him. He now has a limp on his right side and apparently no feeling in
his right front paw (when you squeeze it nothing happens).
As his owner Chris says, "They build them smarter, but they don't
build them tougher." I have to agree. Chris, by the way, lost his
left arm and the biceps of his right arm to a crocodile in Kruger
National Park in 1994. It's funny how much dogs and their owners
resemble each other, I guess.
Anyway, Tier is also the father of five and he sings when you say the
name of the mother of his pups. It's a little too cute if you ask me.
So that's the story of the toughest dog I've ever met, if he lives to
be eight I'll be interested in seeing how many more scars he's got.
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