I'm getting married!

Okay, I am REALLY not good about this blog thing,

but here's the latest update, and probably most of you know -

I'm getting married!!

Dancing with Fred Basenji...

In January 2009, a BRAT email came from my mom stating something about a pair of bonded 14 year old basenjis that were owner-surrendered to the Plano Animal Shelter and they were distressed. Who could evaluate them?

I knew that Basenjis had a bit of a reputation for being snarky, but my Mom’s B always responded to me positively, even when he didn’t with others, so I thought I wouldn’t mind doing this to help out, since it was just right down the road.

There was a sense of urgency, as they were distressed in the shelter, and not very agreeable, and so the possibility of euthanasia was there. Mom and I went and met Neon, who was thin and distressed and howling in the cell by herself because Scottie was out getting his neutering surgery done. She was fine with me, just didn’t like to be picked up.

A couple of days later, January 10th, 2009, in the name of BRAT, I went back to get them both, and bring them home with me to foster. I could see how distressing and loud the shelter was for them. Just the thought of them having to be split up in order to be more adoptable was not acceptable to me. I hadn’t done anything like this before, but I had lost my Golden in August of 2008, and so I had an empty apartment.

After bringing them home, and taking them for a long walk around the apartment complex, they came in and immediately ended up right here:

(This photo is featured in BRAT's 2010 calendar, by the way, and you can order it here:
http://www.basenjirescue.org/calendarcontest/CalendarOrder.asp )

I was very happy to foster them, knowing that I couldn’t afford to actually own one for my own, and since I really was a Big Dog person (or so I thought!), I would love them as they needed to be loved, but I wouldn’t become attached, since I had my sights on a Chocolate Lab someday!

I introduced them to my significant other a few days later, and they explored his house and yard, and didn’t make a mess, and then Scottie proceeded to get on the couch and lean on Daniel (the whole male-bonding thing, I guess) and I think Daniel got sucked in. He’s a bit of a neat freak, and with animals, he’s give or take (how am I still with him? ;]), but these doggies with their cat-like cleanliness seemed to win him over. So much so, that in February, when someone in Phoenix thought they might be interested in them, Daniel said, “no, Phoenix won’t be a good place for them… I think we should just adopt them”.
And there it was.

So, I changed their names, since they didn’t respond to them anyway, to Fred and Ginger, (for Astaire and Rogers, and I’m a dancer myself), since they can’t go anywhere without the other.

Fred was the most loving boy I could have ever gotten. Very healthy and loved to walk, and as long as we went twice a day, he stayed very calm and serene. If you were in a chair, he was in it with you. He followed me pretty much wherever I went. He tried to sleep up on the pillows next to me, but I made him a nest of pillows where I couldn’t roll over on him, and he took okay to that, as long as he could see me. Ginger could give or take sitting with you, so as long as there were blankets to nest with on the couch, then she was fine.

Ginger seemed to be the frail one, with back problems, and skin allergies, and she seemed to be a picky eater. I fed them Nutro Natural Dry for Seniors, but in mid-March I changed to Wellness dry for Seniors, as I was wondering if there was a food allergy relating to Ginger’s itchy skin. They both would vomit randomly, maybe once a week or less, but it was usually waking up right before mealtime, and you could hear it coming. I couldn’t imagine it could be the food, since it was one of the top recommended foods out there! Fred would eat anything and everything, and wanted Ginger’s also, so I had to separate them, so she could get her weight back to normal.

Fred did not have any problems eating until around July. He was having chronic diarrhea issues for a few months before July, which we were on and off of antibiotics, regular type, until the most recent being Smz 480 mg tabs started 6-26-2009. I discontinued those when he started throwing up a few days later, as I thought they might be upsetting his stomach.

One day early in July I ran out of the dry food and went to Walmart and got the best Iams dry I could find, and got their usual the next day, but he wouldn’t eat it any longer.
I figured he was just being picky, but after a week of little to no eating, he had dropped weight quickly, and I took him to the vet. He did continue to drink water this entire time.

So, the vet put him on ID vet food, and I got both wet and dry.
(I also had to put Ginger on wet food, but she hasn't vomited since, and has grown to be very solid and healthy, so she must have been allergic to the dry food!)
He liked the ID and ate it for about 3 days, the wet and dry, and then didn’t like it any longer.

He was also put on prednisone on 7-13-2009, 2x a day for a week, then once a day, then every other day. He had an x-ray done, and it did not show a blockage, but slight liver enlargement. Blood tests showed slight anemia, slight elevated liver levels, but that was it.
All the rest looked okay, from what they said. Kidney levels were normal.
(We talked about the possibilities of IBD, Enteropathy, Giardia, stomach ulcer, SIBO, EPI… I was bringing it all up during the next month, but without further testing (specialists, ultrasound, and the big bucks to go with it), the vet couldn’t be too sure, but he medicated for those possibilities.)

I then went through a couple of weeks where I tried almost every natural canned dog food out there, and he would like it for a day or 2, and then not like it. He was interested in eating, but when I put it in front of him, he turned away.
At this time he was also vomiting almost every other day, without warning, almost projectile.
If there were any vegetables or rice in the food, that would come up intact, even if it had been in his stomach a couple of days.

We started on a 4 day pack of Cerenia on 7-21-2009, and during that time, he did not vomit at all, and then the day after he was off of it, he vomited.

The vet decided to try Reglan, but he continued to vomit or have wet burps every other day or so. We went back on Cerenia on 8-19-2009, along with the Prednisone once a day every day. We also began Carafate on 8-19-2009. I had tried Pepto Bismol a couple of days before that, and his stool turned black, and it continued to be black and hard pellets every day since.

I had not been able to get him to eat anything dog food related.
He would eat chicken (rotisserie) and oatmeal (we started that on 08-19-2008), but the week of 09-20-2009, he was not interested in the oatmeal. He also seemed to be getting tired of the chicken, so I began doing some ground turkey and occasional ground beef. He liked turkey bologna also. I was doing this twice a day, sometimes with a third snack.
I also started to notice loud rumbling in the stomach in the evenings, very alien-like sounds!

He had not thrown up since, except once around 9-19-2009, when I tried to take him off the Cerenia, and he refused to eat the next day, except some stew with roast beef and potatoes I had, which he seemed to like until the potatoes came up intact the next day. So I started the Cerenia again.

He was at 30 lbs before all of this started, and on the August visit, he weighed in at 24 lbs.
He had gotten where he couldn’t climb up the stairs anymore, or jump on the bed. He was just too weak.

Anyway, went to the vet again on 09-26-2009, after he refused to eat the night before, and that morning, and I thought maybe something is also wrong with his teeth, as food sometimes tumbles from his mouth, and he checked them, saw the gums were white (why didn't I notice that??) and did another blood test, where the anemia counts were way low, much lower than the past 2 tests, and so he decided this is the time to put him on Azathioprine (substituted for Imuran), and said that really the only explanation for this was most likely cancer. He said that we will see in the next 4-5 days if the meds will help the anemia. We also tried subcutaneous fluids that day, and it seemed to perk him up, and he ate okay that night.

I had also tried to start Prozyme enzymes, but then he had been refusing to eat... I had also started B12 supplements.

For the next week I tried everything – baby food, hot dogs, Vienna sausages, yogurt, creme cheese, Cesar dog food (for the “picky eaters”), eggs, bacon, mac and cheese, sandwich meat of all kinds, anything to get him to eat something, and he would try it once, and not again.

On 10-01-2009, he was hungry and ate a good meal, and had his first brown poop in months… I thought it was a good sign that maybe things were healing!
But then… he wouldn’t eat any more. By the evening of 10-02, he also didn’t want to drink water, which was a first, and I took him to the vet on Saturday, 10-03 to get more subcutaneous fluids… but I was feeling that maybe his quality of life had finally gotten to the low end. The fluids didn’t make a difference in his eating, and so I started to syringe baby food down the mouth until Monday. Monday, the vet’s daughter was very ill, but the techs called him to tell him, and he said he would come in on his day off Tuesday to be there for us. (All my thanks and love go to Parker Animal and Bird Clinic and Dr. Singh!)

So on Tuesday, 10-06-2009, Ginger went with Daniel and I to help Fred dance on to a new pain-free life in heaven. She was very bonded to him, and would always go to the vet with us all those times because she couldn’t be left alone. She would always flip out when he was taken somewhere else for testing (and I can say that I am a calm assertive Pack Leader to my dogs, but this was something I couldn’t fix). This time, she started to whine the moment we got into the room, and when they put him on the table to give the first shot, she wanted up there, too. I took him down and sat on the floor with him, and she continued to pace, but stopped the whining. I made sure she checked him out, and was there when the vet gave the second shot. She became quiet and didn’t pace as much, and then decided she wanted to leave and went to the door. She didn’t look back.

We all know how heart-wrenching it is to have to do this… I hated that I could not do more to help him, and I could not believe that such a sweet spirit could not recover. The vet called 10 minutes later and said, yes, it was stomach cancer, and it had spread to the pancreas and liver, and so it was best. He’s chasing squirrels in Heaven now with Sierra, Sydney, Honey, Jessie, and all the others.

Fred Basenji...

Okay, I can't really say much right now, but today I had to help Fred go to meet Jesus.

He had stomach cancer, and has been sick for a couple of months.

I was his mom for only 10 months, but I loved him dearly just the same.

His girlfriend Ginger will miss dancing with him. terribly.

Experiencing is believing...

As I sit here at my desk, with two pairs of dependant eyes following every move I make, relaxed on their favorite spot on the sofa… after scrubbing myself from the day’s contaminants, I am trying to put my thoughts in order.

Seeing is believing. Not that I didn’t believe all that I had heard or read, but maybe that should say “Experiencing is believing”, because what I experienced Wednesday was obvious truth.

Neglect:

1: to give little attention or respect to: disregard

2: to leave undone or unattended to especially through carelessness

Plain and simple - neglect.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), along with United Animal Nations and PETSMART Charities (http://www.petsmartcharities.org/newsroom/news-listing.php?id=86&contact=1 ) had teams that pulled together with 48 hours notice for a Kaufman County puppy mill raid that seized 542 animals from deplorable (I mean truly DEPLORABLE) conditions Tuesday, August 11th, 2009. This is only an hour away from the suburbia in which I live.

Cindy messaged me on Facebook and said do you wanna go? And so I said why not?The puppy mill is Klassic Kennels in Kaufman County, Texas, which has been in business for 40 years (!). This particular puppy mill revealed hundreds of frail, emotionally stunted animals housed in filthy wire crates throughout a 10-acre property. Thanks to the collaborative work of many volunteers, 542 animals have been removed from a life of neglect and constant confinement and given a new start in life.

In the words of Scotlund Haisley, Senior Director of Emergency Services with HSUS, “Our team first concentrated on the vulnerable newborn puppies – removing several litters of day-old pups who had been living in pools of waste. Although these puppies were especially defenseless, all of the animals were at the complete mercy of their cruel owners. Like all puppy mill dogs these 542 tortured souls were denied even basic medical care or socialization. Even faced with the daunting task of rescuing nearly 550 mostly unsocialized animals our team held strong throughout the day, and managed to clear the property by midnight.”

http://video.hsus.org/index.jsp?fr_story=041631787a1a3c1da9474e82599210bfbcc5054d

I was one of the volunteers working with the “maternity ward” section on Wednesday, taking mom and puppies (many without even their eyes open!) to the 7 volunteer vets and their assistants that arrived to provide medical care. Infested with fleas and ticks, hard matted fur weighted by feces never brushed by human hands, toenails that were curled in a complete circle from having never been clipped, days-old puppies with urine blisters on their bellies from lying in their own waste, rotted teeth, missing teeth where tongues could only hang out of their mouths, mothers with bloody stool, and discolored milk… folks, the photos you have seen are REAL – this is REALLY happening, and these puppies are being taken from these conditions and sold in petstores and online as healthy animals – and they are NOT!

I was told by experienced volunteers that when I got home, the best way to prevent contaminating my own pets was to strip down in the garage, put all the clothes I wore in a bag and go straight into the shower to scrub the contaminants away and put the clothes in the washer with bleach - otherwise there was a chance that I could pass the diseases onto my own pets – just from handling these animals! So, can you imagine how easily the entire group of 542 can all be sick at one time?

This is the 3rd local puppy mill bust in 3 months… if you DO NOT buy from these stores, they will cease to breed so many, or, as in the case of this group, they cannot afford to purchase food for their dogs, and put out a request for donated food, and will get investigated by the police!

Ladies and gentlemen, if you are not allowed to meet the mother and the father of the puppy you are wanting, DO NOT BUY THE PUPPY! DO NOT BUY THE PUPPY from a Pet Store! DO NOT BUY THE PUPPY from the side of the road! DO NOT BUY THE PUPPY from Craig’s List or the Newspaper! PLEASE - ADOPT! DON’T SHOP!3-4 MILLION animals are euthanized every year in shelters, so there are plenty waiting for a good home!

Join us on our Facebook Group “Boycott Petland – Dallas, Plano, Frisco”, and join us every Saturday in front of these Petlands while we make a statement and help to educate the public about the secrets and lies of puppy mill breeders who sell to Petland and many other puppy stores in the nation.

Kids, do you need service hours? These guys will be needing volunteers for at least a week, if not a month! Go and experience this for yourself.

Please forward to all of your friends, post on your walls, do what you can to help educate as many as you know in your circle of friends.

For more information, go to:
http://www.stoppuppymills.org/

http://www.hsus.org/pets/pets_related_news_and_events/texas_puppy_mil_081109.html

http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2009/08/helmsley-vick.html

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/500_Dogs_Cats_Seized_in_Kaufm

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa090811_mo_dogs.d0ee9147.html

http://cbs11tv.com/local/Kaufman.County.Puppy.2.1124507.html

Petsmart Charities had a semi truck there and donated EVERY SINGLE crate used for these animals, plus all the food, potty pads, and any other pet supplies needed – please support them!!http://www.petsmartcharities.org/newsroom/news-listing.php?id=86&contact=1

http://www.petfinder.com/

Basenjis doing well!

Just a fun update on Scottie and Neon...

My significant other had a family member pass, and the funeral was last week... he is one of 7 brothers, and the entire family arrived here from Chicago and Phoenix and a couple of other various places. After the funeral, we ended up having 29 people at his house, including young children.
It had been long enough for the doggies in their kennel, and I brought them over to his house... and they were great with everyone!
(Yes, there was one escape attempt, but she didn't get far...!)

I watched them closely with the children, including a 2 year old, and they didn't have any indication that they were different than anyone else, except for the fact that as the 2 year old sat down to pet them, Scottie discovered leftovers on his face and began to help clean it off by giving lots of kisses! :D

Scottie has also discovered the toilet paper roll, much to his joy and my chagrin.

Oh, and the pill taking... finally figured out that if I ball it up in cheese, put dog food around it, and offer it by hand before the meal, they eat it up without chewing and discovering the pill inside - victory!

Fostering - first Month

Well, it has now been one month since I have had the Basenji pair, and things are going just fine!

They are now listed on Petfinder.com and the BRAT website - check them out and forward to friends!

(photos in this post are taken with my phone... not the usual quality I take...)

The doggies are settling in, and starting to actually have some energy, so they are not sleeping all day any longer. They do have long bouts of sleep, but are usually awake when I am home, and are interested in taking more walks.

I would like to send a shout out to Dr. Ann at Remarkable Care in Rockwall - she is BRAT volunteer Arlene's chiropractor, and said she would see Neon about her back pain... so I made the 45 minute drive to Rockwall to see what could be done, and though Neon vocalized alot, it helped Dr. Ann find the spot and loosened some of the stiffness. That was a week ago, and since then, there was only ONE night Neon woke up screaming in pain - YAY! Please support her helping these rescues!

And that one night was probably because I was at my wits end with giving her meds, and so she didn't get them that day... I have tried everything, pill pockets, cheese, peanut butter, meat, cheese covered in wet dog food, even leftover mild chili meat and beans... this dog just has no interest in treats. And, when it is wet meat, she chews through it and spits out the pill. I have always had big dogs in the past, and they usually just swallow a meaty treat whole, but not this one. I am now trying to crush the pills and mix it with wet meat, but she is being a picky eater in the mornings, and I don't know if she is getting it all.

I have taken the pair out, once to my Mom's house where she has 3 other dogs (1 male Basenji), and they all got along fine, though Scottie marked inside the house 4 times that day. He did the same the first day I had them, and I was afraid they really weren't housebroken, but there hasn't been an issue until this day at Mom's. I have also had them at my boyfriend's house numerous times, but thank goodness, no marking there. After about an hour of sniffing around, they find a place to settle, or just follow me around wherever I go. Scottie took to Daniel right away... that male bonding thing, I guess... ;)

These 2 don't respond to their names, so I don't know if it really was their original names... again, I think she is mostly deaf, and he is either partially, or just stubborn. I think they are more like a Fred and Ginger kind of pair.

The other thing about Neon is she has started this grass eating thing, and it doesn't seem to be any certain time of day, so it is random, but she does throw it up right away, so we can at least accomplish that outside. There was vomiting before mealtimes, and I think I have curbed that by giving them a more regular time to eat, but the middle of the day is when the grass eating happens, and she doesn't like treats, so... grrr. They are on Nutro Natural Choice Senior food... maybe I need to try something else.

They are WONDERFUL and LOVING and CUDDLY!

Let's find them a forever home!

The Dog Whisperer...

I cannot tell you how much easier life with dogs is when you pay attention and follow this guy's advice... it all makes total sense!
If you have not watched Cesar Millan yet, it is a MUST for ALL dog owners and fosters!

Dog Whisperer Tips

Cesar on the National Geographic Channel

Now, a glorious day will be when Cesar Millan meets with the folks from Dogtown... and they will learn what usually takes them months will only take weeks or even days!