Thursday, September 2, 2010

And then there were nine

The latest addition came this week from the Fluvanna SPCA.  Her name is Sunny and she's much more lab than shepherd, but that may work in her favor.  She seems like a sweet girl.  She was brought in as a stray and was never claimed.  She had been spayed previously, which tells me that someone cared something about the dog at one time anyway.  She cowers a bit, however, which makes me think that she had a jerk for a former owner, or she could just be a particularly timid and shy dog.  With rescue dogs, you just have to accept the fact that you don't know the dog's history and never will.  We just take them as they are and try to work through or work around the problems.  Sunny is fine with Belle and Teddy, and I can include Boomer in that group as well. 

Somehow the number of  foster dogs around here has crept back up to nine.  There is Sparky, Teddy (both long termers), Trooper (likely to be long-term), Sugar and Kane (partial tail amputee and heartworms, respectively), Boomer (weight problem), Buster, Belle, and now Sunny.  None of the recent arrivals are ready to be adopted, and that's causing a bottleneck in the adoption process. 

Sugar was spayed last week and had part of her tail amputated.  She's back at the vet today having the tail examined and the bandage changed.  I could get her posted on the web now anyway.  There's not a lot of point in putting Kane on the web until after his heartworm treatment.  His scrotum got infected after his neuter last week so he's been sharing Sugar's antibiotics.  He's doing better now, however, and today I introduced him to Boomer, Buster, and Trooper in the dogyard.  He needs to break his dependence on Sugar by socializing with other dogs.  So far at least, he seems to be doing fine. 

I took Boomer to the vet today to weigh in along with Kane, who was also painfully thin.  Kane has put on about 4 pounds just since his surgery.  Boomer hasn't gained an ounce since we were there last.  He's now been on two different specialty dog foods that should have addressed a food allergy problem, if he has one.  Today I'm starting him on the pancreatic enzyme supplement and we'll see if that helps.  He's probably 20 pounds underweight. 

There's really not an adoption event for me to attend this weekend, so it doesn't look like anyone is going anywhere very soon.  Most of these dogs aren't ready yet anyway, so sitting out another week may not be so bad. 

2 comments:

Budsbuddy said...

I've been reading your blog for about 18 months and don't ever remember you taking a weekend off from adoption events! Of course caring for 9 fosters + plus your own 5 is not exactly "a weekend off." Hope you enjoy a little R&R anyway, especially since we will be having some very pleasant weather courtesy of Earl.

Sunny looks like a very pretty girl, and lab/shepherd can be such a nice mix. Hope she will regain her confidence and find a wonderful home soon.

mythreepups said...

One more comment - she kind of looks like an Anatolian Shepherd mix to me.