Straydog UPDATE posted THURSDAY 4/10/03 at ~10:47 p.m. CT

Pat's Daily Dog Log

THURSDAY APRIL 10 2003

Mother Dog Rosie needs a friendly companion

      Rosie and her eight little puppies, Rex, Ricky, Pebbles, Benny, Rudy, Star, Tiffany and Gizmo, joined our happy home a few weeks ago. The pups are a little over six weeks old now and Rosie needs a break from them. She needs a big dog friend to play with, and who would be better suited for this than Freckles' son, Leo?

Rosie meets Leo

      Leo is about seven months old now, and he loves everyone! Early this morning we introduced Rosie to Leo in the big play yard, and they got along beautifully. After their play time in "the park" we took them to a "get acquainted kennel" (a temporarily empty kennel we'll use for any type of dog emergency that might come up, or for letting dogs, such as Leo and Rosie, share time together).

      The two dogs tussled and played for several hours and then we took Rosie back to be with her kids again for the rest of the day. This was good for Rosie and for Leo too. He also shares play time with other young dogs because his blind mommy, Freckles, doesn't like the rough and tumble play very much.

Lots of helicopters flying over Straydog!

      About mid-morning we all started to hear something that built up to a tremendous roar coming from the sky right above us as three huge helicopters flew directly over our kennels very low. The loud roar from the aircraft brought about an even louder roar from all the dogs!

Nikki won't be adopted as planned

      Amy, who had wanted so much to adopt Nikki, had a sudden change of plans about the upcoming adoption, the home visit for which was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Amy called me this afternoon to tell me that as she was on her way to work this morning, she found a dog lying along the roadside, and she stopped and rescued the big fellow. She took the dog to a nearby SPCA, and the checkup there revealed that the dog has heartworm disease. That shelter said that they don't treat the problem and the dog would be put down if she left him.

      Amy felt so sorry for the fellow she decided to help this homeless dog instead of adopting Nikki. Nikki is being very well cared for here with us, and she has a home here until the day she is adopted. This poor fellow had no one to help him, and he desperately needed a home too. We are very happy that he has one now.

The two Aussie special-needs puppies are at our vet clinic

      Volunteer Shannon brought the puppies to our vet clinic for us, which was a tremendous help, and I met her there at 4:00 p.m. so our vet could examine our two new arrivals.

      These pups are the two 10-week-old Australian Shepherd pups that were scheduled to be euthanized today because of their birth defects, which were caused because of improper breeding! The precious little puppies had been found huddled together alongside a highway. Most likely the inhuman breeder abandoned the puppies there to get rid of "his problem."

      The puppies are white Australian Shepherds, and we've named them "Jack" and "Jill." (No comments on the names, please, we're running out of ideas here!)

      The birth defects of puppies whose parents were bred improperly can be blindness and deafness. From what little information we've been able to gather so far on puppies like these in addition to their blindness and deafness there might be a slight chance that the pups could develop Spina Bifida before they are six months old. If they don't develop the disease by six months of age, they won't have the problem at all.

Jack and Jill get their checkups

      Both puppies are white. Jill has a slight bit of beige fur on her rump, and Jack has more brown fur on his lower back, than Jill does.

       Jill seems to be able to see a little bit. Dr. Morton thinks she has some sight in one eye. This little fluffy pup managed to find her way around the examining room floor without a problem, although we could tell her sight isn't perfect. We aren't sure how well she can hear yet.

      She is the perky pup! Wiggley and squiggly and acted like a "normal" little puppy, wanting to investigate everything in the room and chew on our fingers, as normal puppies do.

       The doctor thinks that Jack is totally deaf and totally blind. This precious little bundle of fur is the quiet one and preferred to be held and cuddled rather than being on the floor. When we put him down to see how well he could get around, he just stood in one place, then lay down, making no move to investigate anything. He seemed so lethargic the doctor ran a parvo test, which luckily came up negative, but sometimes these tests show false negatives, so we will keep a very close watch on him.

      We offered both pups puppy food and water, and Jill ate a normal amount of food, and had a good drink, but Jack just nibbled a few bites of food and didn't want more than a few laps of water.

      One puppy weighs about nine pounds and the other weighs ten pounds. (I forgot who weighed what, but it's on their records.) They need lots of good, nourishing food and tender loving care.

      The doctor wanted to keep them at the clinic tonight so we carried the fellas to a nice big kennel, which they will share together. One of the techs brought the puppies a thick soft blanket to sleep on and another full bowl of food and water. I'll pick them up tomorrow.

      How could anyone be so cruel as to abandoned these extremely needy puppies?