I was over at Widget's House this afternoon with Cindy when I took these photos of Travis. As I showed Cindy the images on the camera's playback screen, she laughed and said, "You know, he really looks like a cartoon character!"
Indeed he does. The pinned-back ears somehow only accentuate his pointy-headedness, which is caused by the disease (masticatory myositis) that afflicted his jaw muscles and fused his mouth shut. But along with the pure white hair and the big black nose … and then those stunning bright blue eyes … well, the whole package says "Disney" all over it.
We had some folks ask questions about Travis in their comments on the 'Early Morning Sun' blog post, so here goes:
— He hasn't gained any significant weight. I think it was partly how the sun was hitting him in that photo, along with the fact that his collar was riding high up on his neck at that moment.
— He can't pant, and since he doesn't realize he needs to pant to regulate his body temperature, we have to bring him indoors on hot summer days to make sure he doesn't overheat. He's very energetic and athletic and will keep zooming around the dog yard on blistering days, which is why he needs his cool-down periods.
— Travis pulled out his stomach tube quite a while ago, and since we hadn't used it in years — we learned he can slurp a liquid diet by sticking his tongue out of the left side of his mouth — our vets didn't put it back in. Without the stomach tube to hide from prying lips, we didn't need to keep clothing on him.
We realized that having a fused jaw may turn out to be, as odd as it sounds, nature's way of protecting Travis from himself. He's very much an alpha personality. In his own mind he's a massive, 120-lb Mastiff-sized dog … not the slender, fine-boned, 50-lb little guy he really is. So not having a mouth to work with puts a limit on his ability to act out his dominance "issues," if you know what I mean!
So rather than be the neighborhood bully, he's become the class clown, the ever-lovable goofball who keeps us all laughing. Even with a little more distance in the photo, it doesn't do much to alter the cartoon-like appearance:
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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