Blood, Sweat, and Dog Hair

Flying Free with @pythonpaige and Her Birds of Prey

To see more of Paige’s work with birds, follow @pythonpaige on Instagram.

As a child growing up in western Pennsylvania, Paige Davis (@pythonpaige) was entranced by the natural world. “I always knew I was going to work with animals when I grew up,” she says. “I just didn’t know what that work would be.” Years later, while earning a degree in wildlife and fisheries science in college, she studied all sorts of creatures, but birds of prey sparked her passion. “I loved working with raptors,” Paige says. “I was hooked.”

Today, Paige and her colleagues at Missouri’s World Bird Sanctuary (@worldbirdsanctuary) share their knowledge of hawks, falcons, owls and other raptors with hundreds of thousands of children and adults each year. Bald eagles, while among the most popular with audiences, “are not the friendliest birds,” Paige admits. “They can be a bit ornery — but they’re truly magnificent.” (Two of the sanctuary’s bald eagles, Lewis and Clark, are the “official eagles” of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.)

Here’s another rare Russian sighthound breed/type you all might enjoy: Stepnaya Borzaya/ South Russian Steppe Hound

This is me, asking for help.

For two and a half years, it’s been a constant roller coaster working with Epic. We have our incredible successes, and our terrible defeats. Right now, we’ve about hit rock bottom.

Epic is dog aggressive, and human reactive. She’s an incredibly smart dog with a decent drive and will to work. Her issues have regressed to a point beyond what I can handle on my own. Epic’s world is limited as all I know how to do at this point is management, but management is not cutting it.

Being completely honest here, I’ve been looking at rehoming options for months now. Epics best chance is with someone who knows how to handle dogs with such issues. Understandably though, no one can take on a dog aggressive, human reactive project dog with a bite history. I’ve been sent in a million circles, and multiple people have suggested euthanasia.

While a behaviourist has always been a goal, it’s been pretty far out of reach due to lack of money. Behaviourist are trained professionals whose experience does not come cheaply.

There is an amazing behaviourist semi-local who I greatly admire and trust. She has many years of experience dealing with behaviour modification, as well as Ipo and obedience training/competing.

I really hate asking for help, but this is for Epic.

I’m offering:

Art Commissions

Photo Editing

And hope to have a small etsy shop up soon with some collars.

All the money goes straight towards a behaviourist. The currently goal is $200 cad ($155 usd) which is the initial behaviour assessment, and then we’ll see after that.

I’ve watched Rhett struggle with Epic in every online interaction we’ve had since the day she was adopted. Epic is not an easy dog to own and it is never easy to hear people recommend you euth your partner. They’ve gotten some quality advice and had many break-throughs, but that does not instantly make her easy to own. A lot of people would have given up sooner. If I lived closer and did not have smaller animals put at risk by her presense here, I would have boarded Epic here by now to see what we could work on, and had actually extended that offer in the past (though with the shibas and cats at risk, it was decided not worth the danger). Rescue is not an option- she is an instant euth take-in due to her bite history.

It’s A Part Of Your Lifestyle

It’s a part of you.