Tova: A Very Special Dog

By Joe Smiga

Tova is the name for a girl in Hebrew, which means good. The book is written in memory of my German shorthaired pointer. I wish to honor her breed. She was loving, obedient, most of the time, exceptionally friendly, a great bird dog and a wonderful companion. The book illustrates nine and a half years of exceptional devotion to the dog and unconditional love returned to the owners. Tragically, her life was cut short by the existence of a disease that most veterinarians dont recognize because they are not taught about it. Nor are they exposed to it, at least not here in New England. This book is vital to all pet owners and a wake up call to veterinarians. This book is also uniquely original, since, Tova and Joe both have dialogue in it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 14, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450074278

Joe Smiga

About the Author Joe Smiga’s first book was published in May 2009 by Xlibris. On October 19, 2009, the New Hampshire Union Leader, New Hampshire’s statewide newspaper, printed a glowing review of Behind the Lies, saying it was worthy of Tom Clancy. Since then, Joe has published seven additional books with Xlibris because of the quality of their work. This year, Joe is publishing his ninth book, Iran’s Shocking Reversal. This novel opens up the imaginative possibilities of developing a better world. This is book tells the story of a major change in the Middle East. Joe loves to tell stories, especially one with hope for the future. He also tells stories of what really happens in the real world. Joe has a naval military background and close to forty-five years of sales and marketing engineered products. Iran’s Shocking Reversal will blow your mind.

Book preview

Contents

A Very Special Dog

Photography, Sketch and

Poetry Credits

From Both Sides

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Author’s Comments

Author Bio

A Very Special Dog

Tova is the story of an extraordinary bird dog and her owner Joe Smiga. It is about their journey together, and it is written as a tribute to Tova’s life.

In Hebrew, Tova is a girl’s name that means beautiful or good. The name perfectly fits the German shorthaired pointer that Joe Smiga and his wife, Linda, came to know and love.

Through the years of her life, Tova brought love, devotion, fun, and joy into Joe and Linda’s life, and then her life was cut short by a hidden disease. It was a disease that puzzled veterinarians and internal medicine veterinarians; a disease that destroyed her immune system, and yet no one seemed to even know it existed. The disease was called Cryptococcosis, and it robbed Tova of her life at the age of nine.

Author, Joe Smiga is on a mission to educate veterinarians and dog owners about Cryptococcosis. If caught early, it can be treated, but it comes on gradually, and the symptoms are not yet widely recognized by most veterinarians. This is something that Joe Smiga wants to change.

Author Smiga hopes that his book will serve as a wake-up call to all pet owners and veterinarians.

Uniquely original and told from not only Joe’s perspective, but from Tova’s as well, Tova is the life story of a remarkable bird dog, written as a labor of love. It is a must read for all pet owners.

Tova in Auburn sketch.tif

Photography, Sketch and

Poetry Credits

The poetry, sketch, cover picture, author’s picture and all of the photos, except for one, in the book are created by my wife, Linda H. Feinberg (www.lindafeinberg.com). The last photo depicting the condition of Tova’s head was taken by a young man we met while out for a walk one day. He asked for my e-mail address promising to send me a copy. In his e-mail he asked, What happened to her head? At that time, I really couldn’t tell him very much. I never saw the gentleman again. The last photo provided by Stephen M. Hicks.

 From Both Sides

Dialogue from the Dog and the Owner

If you’ve ever hunted rabbits or birds without a dog, you realize it is almost impossible most times. I learned that lesson after moving to New Hampshire from Massachusetts, away from relatives who had great beagles. New friends convinced me to try pheasant hunting their way. We would spread out across a field three or four abreast and hope to kick up a bird or two. If we were fortunate, possibly one of us might get a shot at one. If you understand anything about pheasants, not only can they fly somewhere between 10 to 35 mph, those suckers can run, and I mean run. There are no known statistics on how fast they can run, other than damn fast. What usually happened is that we’d have ourselves a good healthy walk in the woods. Normally, we hit the end of the field without seeing one bird. That’s the reason why I wanted to get a hunting dog someday. Biggest problem I had was that my business career made it difficult to spend a lot of time required to work and train a dog. If you want to have a good hunting partner, you need to spend the time with them. So, either I got my exercise walking around the woods carrying a shotgun or I didn’t waste my time bird hunting without a dog.

Many years later, I learned New Hampshire had hunting preserves where you can purchase six or twelve pheasants, hunt on their property with your dog in actual hunting conditions, or use one of theirs. Wow! What a great thing for guys like me who didn’t have a dog. I still thought, someday, I would get my Springer Spaniel; they are versatile dogs that are good at hunting rabbits and birds. I enjoy both hunts.

In the mid 90’s, I learned of a preserve in Temple, New Hampshire, and inquired what it cost to hunt. A friend, who was visiting, and I were interested. He had hunted varmints in the mid-west, but had never hunted pheasants. We decided to book a day. We brought a check and met the owner upon arrival. His name was Marty. Marty looked to be in his fifties or early sixties, with grey hair and a ruddy complexion. He owned a number of acres and also leased land on which he stocked pheasants. He took his visitors to the various sections to enjoy their hunts. A day with Marty as our guide meant we hunted in the morning, went back to his yard for lunch, which his wife prepared, got a new set of dogs, and hunted the afternoon. God, we were in heaven. We took well over a dozen birds and missed at least that many. But the real thrill, at least for me, was watching the English Pointers work. We also learned a great deal about pheasants and how they react. We saw pheasants cower down and cover themselves with their wings even with a dog pointing at them with a beeper around its neck sounding off. Right then, I realized how many birds I must have walked by over the years.

At lunchtime, we were served a wonderful hot meal and shared stories with two club members who were regulars. Since they both owned Springer Spaniels, I wanted to inquire more about how their dogs hunted. They told me even though they loved their dogs dearly and they hunted well, their next choice of breed would be German Shorthaired Pointers. Wouldn’t you know it, the owner happened to have a litter only four weeks old. Puppies melt my heart, but our dog was twelve at the time and I knew she wouldn’t accept another dog in the house. It was her turf, we learned from other past experiences. Also, both hunters and Marty suggested if I bought a bird dog that I didn’t make it hunt rabbits. They said it would distract the dog when hunting birds.

After we left the preserve, my brain wheels started turning.

When I originally selected a preserve, I called six locations. One of the others called me after the hunt. The family was away on vacation when I called and they invited me up for a hunt. Yes, they did have a German Shorthair I could hunt with. Boy, I’ve got to try this.

A month later, my office manager’s husband, Guy, and I went up to this second preserve located in Washington, New Hampshire. A young couple owned the property and the wife ran the preserve while the husband had another full-time business. Of course being first timers, they laid out the red carpet for us. We paid for a dozen birds; a dozen amounted to eight cocks and four hens, which were placed out in the woods and fields while we waited back by the barn. This preserve operated differently from Marty’s. They stocked the birds in a netted pen. Whenever they sold them, they went into the pen to remove them and place them. Being a Saturday, the husband guided us through the property using the German Shorthair and a Brittany spaniel they were trying to sell.

The German Shorthair was a six-year-old female named Gerty. She was magnificent. The Brittany was a three-year-old that had been given to them; he hunted well, but you could see the experience level difference.

Our hunt lasted until almost noon; between Guy and me we took ten of the twelve birds we put