Uber may be the underdog at next week's Westminster Dog Show -- he's probably too young to win in his breed -- but he's a super dog in the eyes of owner Bekki Pina and the doctors who tended to his miraculous recovery.
With his long neck, wedge-shaped head and vertical pointed ears, he resembles Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the afterlife. (Hence the name of the breed: Pharaoh hound.) Uber almost met Anubis personally last summer after he was attacked by a copperhead snake.
The encounter happened on a rainy night only about 10 feet from the back door of Pina's Lithonia house. The snake bit Uber four times, on his right shoulder, lip, jaw and neck. When Uber stumbled back in the house, Pina, an Air Force nurse who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, reacted quickly.
She saw his foaming mouth, watched him collapse and rushed him to Loving Touch veterinary hospital in Stone Mountain, then to the emergency room at Georgia Veterinary Specialists in Sandy Springs. The problem for Uber was that the anti-coagulant in the snake venom caused swelling in his throat that could have cut off his breathing, said veterinarian criticalist Dr. Jennifer Pittman.
"He's my miracle boy," Pina said this week as she prepared for a trip to New York City, where Uber will compete with the country's top dogs. "He turned it around. The vet at one point said, ‘You’re going to have to make a decision tonight,' and I said give him one more night."
After receiving a blood transfusion in the form of fresh frozen plasma from another dog, Uber rapidly improved.
He began competing again and won many fans at shows and also on Facebook, where Pina created a page to update the small but tightknit Pharaoh hound community on Uber's condition. Contributions from that group helped pay for Uber's days in the ICU, and Pina, 34, contributed the excess cash to a fund for other dogs in the breed.
Pharaoh hounds are sighthounds, a group that includes greyhounds and whippets. They come from Malta and are used to hunt rabbits, often hunting in tandem with trained ferrets. (The ferret flushes the rabbit, and the hound goes in for the kill.)
Though Pharaohs are rare, Pina has three: Uber, his sister Lala and older male Atreyu. She also has a Chihuahua/Brussells Griffon mix named Bridget (the midget).
Uber is 2 years old, weighs 47 pounds and is as red as Clifford. He has so little body fat that he must wear a sweater in Atlanta's cold weather. He generated heat during a recent trip to the Piedmont Park dog park by bulleting from one end of the enclosure to the other, easily outpacing the Dobermans, Rhodesian ridgebacks and the blue heeler that watched as he rocketed past.
He won't suffer any future side effects from his snake encounter, said Pittman, but he will always have scars from the tissue necrosis caused by the bites, including a half-dollar-size scar on his throat.
A grand champion, Uber, will have strong competition during Monday and Tuesday's Westminster show, particularly from his own father, Mellon, who in 2007 won best of breed at the Crufts dog show in England.
It is unlikely that Uber will make it to group competition, in which he would go up against other sighthounds, which means it's unlikely metro Atlantans will see him on the televised portions of the Westminster show. USA Network will have coverage both nights, and CNBC will air some of it Monday night.
But Pina is fine with that. Thanks to the doctors and to Pina's own quick thinking, Uber is alive. He has more years of competing ahead. And being at Westminster is, for Pina, a dream.
"I said just give him one more night. And he gave me many more nights," she said. "And now he’s going to give me a magical night."
On TV
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show will air live at 8 p.m. Monday on USA Network, then switch to CNBC at 9 p.m. USA will start Tuesday’s live coverage at 8 p.m.
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