Three Dog Day

Coco came to us with no vet history whatsoever. That's not too unusual but it meant that I needed to get her in for vaccines as soon as possible and get her spay scheduled as soon as possible. We had an appointment for that this morning and she was great. Coco is coming around to me and Clay, but she really likes women and the vet we saw and all the techs she saw today were women. So there was none of the shy, scared, little girl we had at home for the first couple of days. She was outgoing and friendly, and well behaved for the exam, vaccines, and blood work.

I had her spay scheduled for the second week of September when I realized I hadn't heard the results of the test for heartworms and tickborne diseases. She's a young girl, between a year and two, probably, so I wasn't overly concerned about it. She lucked out on the tick diseases but she tested positive for heartworms. This is what comes from keeping your dog chained outdoors and not even bothering to give it heartworm preventative. Really pisses me off.

Coco is young, healthy, and there's every reason to believe that she will come through the treatment fine, but it's expensive, it's hard on the dog, it will delay her being spayed, it will delay finding her a home (by several months), and it wouldn't have been necessary had the owners had a bit of decency and common sense. Enough bad things can happen to your dog, why wouldn't you at least try to prevent the easy ones? I have zero patience for people who don't even attempt to take care of their dogs. I'll end my rant here, but I can't promise I won't re-visit this over the course of treatment that this little girl will go through.

Mercedes came along on the vet visit too. She had been vaccinated before she came here, not by the former owners of course, but by the woman who had taken her in after she was dumped. All Mercedes needed was the 4dx test, and she passed it with flying colors, no heartworms, no Lyme, Ehrlichia, or other nasty tick diseases. And of course Mercedes was the perfect model of good dog behavior. She sat when I asked her to, she was friendly, and easy for the blood draw. The vet said she was in great shape for a 10 year old dog, although her age and quality of life shows a bit more on her teeth. She's missing all her incisors (front teeth) and her canines are quite worn. The skin and sparse hair on her back near the base of her tail shows that she probably had a rather persistent flea infestation that went untreated for far too long. Still, all things considered, she's in great shape for a somewhat senior girl, and she's pretty darn perfect in every other way.

The vet visit took a few hours out of my day, but I got home and got some work done, and even some mowing before the next dog event of the day. Green Dogs was having an event on the downtown mall this afternoon/evening so of course I wanted to take Harvey. Clay came along and we used two leashes on him, not knowing for sure how he was going to be and not wanting to take any chances.

He's been great here in the two days that we've had him. We are learning more about him, he does a great "sit" and usually transitions immediately to "down." He was the exact opposite of Hunter and Indigo the first time we took them downtown. They were freaked out by the noise, activity, people, everything. Harvey is Mr. Cool. He just took it all in, and was unphased by everything we saw, which included bicycles, a motorized wheelchair, other dogs, and hundreds of people, many of whom stopped and wanted to pet him. He seemed to be checking out all the passing kids to see if they were "his kids."

The only bad thing I can say about him is that he walks like a drunken sailor, lumbering from side to side, bashing into Clay and me alternately. He has no concept of a straight line. We'll work on that, but if that's his only problem then he really doesn't have any problems. He was a good dog. We went to Champion Brewery for a beer afterwards. His drink was much bigger than ours, but he wasn't driving and it was just water anyway.

Remembering a Couple of Special Fosters

They are all special, obviously, but still, there are some dogs that cross our paths that stick out in our memory and always will. I always say that it's the difficult dogs you member most, partly because they are with you the longest. The dogs with no issues that get adopted quickly (yes, there are some of those) sometimes fade from memory. After all, we have been at this for about 18 years now.

I'm always grateful when an adopter lets me know when one of my former fosters have passed. I share their sorrow, of course, but I also share the joy that dog brought to their life.

Most readers will remember Jackie. She came to us early in December, 2017, not quite a year ago. She was a very senior dog at the time. She had come into a shelter with a companion dog presumed to be her brother. Unfortunately he was already suffering the effects of a brain tumor and had to be euthanized. Jackie wasn't in very good shape herself. She had a bad urinary tract infection and seemed to be in pain. The cause of the pain, other than just being 12+ years of age, was a bladder full of stones that were removed early in January. We battled the lingering infection for a while after that, but the primary source of her pain was gone and Jackie really perked up and enjoyed life again.

Just before our trip to Belgium this spring, she went to an adopter who has taken in a number of senior dogs. Unfortunately she died a week or so ago after suffering what appeared to be some strokes, and possibly bloat. Many people donated funds to Animal Connections for Jackie's surgery and I'm extremely grateful. She had some good months at the end of her life, free of the pain that had probably plagued her for years. And she didn't die in a shelter where she had been unceremoniously dumped by her prior owner. So raise a glass to Jackie, a good dog, and to the many people who gave her a good end-of-life experience.

Teddy with Cooper backing himi up.

And then there's Teddy. Teddy was a foster quite a few years ago, along with a dog named Cooper. They were buddies when they were here and they were adopted by the same woman. To say they were buddies doesn't really capture the essence of their relationship, however. Teddy, I believe, was autistic. He didn't have normal interactions with people, or with anyone other than Cooper. Adopting Teddy was a real act of kindness and generosity because it would be years before the adopter was able to touch him and have anything close to a normal relationship with the dog. They worked things out, with Cooper's help, and Teddy had a good life, a life that he would not have been able to have in any other living situation. The perfect adopter and the perfect companion dog came together for Teddy and I'll be eternally grateful to both of them for making that possible.

This is Teddy on one of the occasions he came
to board here.

I received an email a couple weeks ago letting me know that Teddy had passed, rather suddenly. It turned out that his illness was rather advanced and extensive, but Teddy had a good quality of life right up to the end and didn't suffer a long decline. That's something to be thankful for. But more than that, the fact that Teddy had a life that fit him with an adopter who didn't expect that Teddy couldn't provide, and with Cooper to help him navigate the human world, that's a LOT to be thankful for.

These were two special dogs I'm thankful to have known and played a small part in making their lives better.

This moment, of touching Teddy, was years in the making.
He actually grew to the point of seeking it out on his own.

What a Dog!

Got him late Wednesday evening. Not much to say yet, and not much time to say it, but oh my, what a dog is this. His name is Harvey, blue merle, Great Dane (VERY Great Dane), about 1 year old, well over 100 pounds, housetrained, good with dogs, good with kids, may even be good with cats. He's up to date on everything and already has a neuter appointment next week. He's with Green Dogs. More to come. Wow. 

Harvey with Erika's oldest. He had lived with
small children his whole life. I have no hesitation
saying that this one is kid-friendly.

The right side of his very large head has this "Phantom of the
Opera" mask on it. Very striking.

He's pretty chill too.

Harvey meets Trooper. Trooper is the best
with meeting new dogs.

Maya is good with new ones too, but her
greeting style is different from Trooper's. 

A Sauna with Dogs

I think that our walks lately can more accurately be described as 40 minutes in a sauna with dogs. I took the three girls again this evening. They all wanted to go, I really did not, but I need to and I can't disappoint them without a good reason.

I might have stayed in if it was just Maya and Mercedes, but Coco really needs the walk and we need to bonding time. She's still skittish and scared to come to me, except when she does. At one point on the walk I stopped to take pictures, she turned around when I called her name and actually came up to me wagging her tail. There's progress, but it's slow. However, this evening in the office she came up to Clay, put her front legs up on his lap, and even gave him kisses. He must be the Chosen One.

Oh, and as I hoped and expected, the adoption of Rugger was tougher on me than it was on him, pics below.

Rugger + stick + river = happy dog

Rugger on the deck, looking like he's
had a bath and a good brushing.