We live in a Zoo...

Yeah for Apple Airport express and wireless internet that works : )

So Madison has been slowly acclimating over here.  She's a cutie but skittish.  I make a quick movement and she cowers or runs...poor girl.  Already improvement since saturday though. Oh and according to vet records she's 7.5 rather than 9.5 years.  That makes more sense looking at her and seeing how she acts.  She and Molly are pretty good with each other except in the middle room.  Madison apparently claimed that space as hers (she spent sat afternoon in there with me while I sewed her a coat and a new bed...) and now she doesn't like Molly coming near her in there...

Which now means Molly and Madison are suddenly vying for my attention...I have 2 little shadows following me around now (instead of none...which is weird, but ok).  I've been home sick the past 2 days which has been nice to transition Madison into our home.  Both girls woke up around 5:30am this morning...took them out then we had 2 girls in bed snuggling.  Madison snuggled up in my arms for the next 2 hrs...it was really nice (until I felt incredible sick which wasn't so nice)

I found 2 fleas last night and have declared all out war...complete with chemical warfare (which most of you know how much I hate chemicals!)  I spent a good portion of the day vacuuming, cleaning, spraying, doing laundry in hot water, dusting with DE, etc etc etc.  Molly got a bath and Madison was dusted with DE (she was given a bath late last night and 1 of the 2 fleas found was removed).  All seems better now.  We have a steam cleaner on the way (thank you amazon) so we can continue to clean clean clean more naturally and stop the nastiness!!!

Molly's explosiveness is getting better.  I spent a long time on the phone with NEBTR's resident nutritionist and together we developed a plan to help miss Moo out.  Fortunately her home cooked diet is pretty much right on.  Going to simplify the veggies and add rice or oatmeal to every meal.  I may be feeding her too much, so we're feeding her slightly less and shocking I know, she's pooping less too.  We'll be adding some Slippery Elm (as soon as I get out of the house again) to help her digestive track.  Because of the continuing diarrhea, Dr. Haver has taken Molly off the trilostane until everything settles (without the use of the flagyl I'm assuming...we're slowly taking her off that.)  I have a supplement coming specifically for the Cushings, cushex which I'm hoping helps at least a tiny bit.  We may end up using a lower dose of trilostane 2x/day rather than a larger dose once daily.  Best case scenario this supplement helps enough that she needs even less (or no) drug.  That would be fabulous but I'm not counting on it.

Anyways, all that to say Moo only spent 1 night in the kitchen and has been doing well since Sunday's last explosion...good thing she's cute.

We've realized that Molly is all business.  She has her routine, she knows what to do and when to do it so she does it.  Madison on the other hand is not all business.  She runs around when we try to put her coat on.  Molly stands there, nose to the door ready to go.

They're really cute together and I know that in a few weeks Madison is going to be a very different dog.  She doesn't appear to know any basic obedience (except, Madison, Come!).  Working on sit.  She really likes hotdogs, good thing.  She is a jumpy little girl and can be whiny, but turning away or waiting for her to stop and then produce what she wants (treat or ball) and she is catching on quickly.  Oh the joys of rehabing this little girls. 

Madison is here

Here is our first foster of 2010: Madison.  She's a cute little girl, maybe 15-16lbs, 9.5 years old although she doesn't really look it.  She's currently decompressing in our kitchen, nervous and scared.  But all in all a real sweetie.  She's going to be fun to have around for a while.

 Look at the cute little face!

 

She wanted nothing to do with hard cookies or kibble, but definitely ate the ground turkey!!!

 

When do I get outta here guys?!?!

and one of miss Moo Shoo because she's so dang cute!

Molly is being very patient with Madison in her favorite room of the house, the kitchen!  It won't be long before they can interact, but just want to keep everyone safe and give time to get used to the surroundings.  Poor Maddie keeps whining, I hope she settles soon, she's got to be exhausted with all the days events so far!

A Christmas Memory

A Christmas memory from 2008

Tinker, Stretch, Aby, Penny

This picture took a long time to get with those 4 monkeys!! 

Clearly Tink didn't see the treat the other 3 were looking at!!!

A Christmas Memorial Rose

A beautiful rose, for a beautiful memory.  My parents had this rose on our nightstand when we arrived on Wednesday.  It was perfect.  It's been opening over the past few days and it's been a nice reminder of all the beauty found in this season.

 

 

Merry Christmas

From Miss Moo to you!

 Clearly she needs to keep an eye on all the treats that are hers....She's been doing the same thing up here. She collects all the bones and rawhide placing them all together on a bed then she chews on what she prefers at that moment : )

 Resting after a long day

Molly's yummy meaty bone she ate Christmas morning

MMMMMMMM

She chewed on that thing for hours!

Molly has been doing fabulously up here!!!  She traveled like a champ buckled in the back seat on her bed.  She integrated into the house beautifully! (jumping up on furniture like she's lived here for years...)  She and Penny aren't exactly friends, but they're doing better together that's for sure!

She was so funny around all the craziness of opening gifts this evening...going after the wrapping paper, trying to open a plastic container of candy, she even picked up a squeakie toy and carried it around with her butt wiggling like a happy playful girl!  She actually tried to drop the toy in the trash bag : )  She spent all day supervising in the kitchen as we helped Mom make Christmas dinner earlier in the day.

Moo's been tired at the end of each day though with all the activity during each day.  She walks around and stays involved missing out on her usual naps.  I think she really enjoys a larger space to roam and wander.  By the end of the day she's sacked out on the couch and then moves upstairs to the bedroom on her bed snoring by 10 : )  She's even been snuggling in bed and making me a very happy girl.  (Nick however, doesn't  quite see it as snuggling...he's been calling it judo kicking as Moo has a hard time getting comfortable sometimes it seems : )

Anyways, it continues to be a wonderful Christmas holiday filled with a beautiful Christmas Eve service, lots of time with family, cooking, and relaxing....

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas Eve....

The face that started it all 4 years ago this evening....a posting on the umpteenth page on petfinder led us on an amazing adventure full of love, laughter, and some tears.  Thank you to Small Dog, especially Charli, Anne, Linda, and anyone else that helped us in the process of adding Ms. Thang to our home for almost 4 beautiful years.  I was reading through the original correspondence I had with Charli almost 4 years ago....the excitement we had over Tink from day 1 never faded the entire time she was with us.  Thank heavens for beautiful gifts in tiny packages.

Merry Christmas eve to all... those with pups, give extra kisses and love.

She hated the snow....

...but she was oh so cute....

All these pictures are from her first winter with us....2006

 Get me outta here!

One storm, I brought her outside to potty quickly and didn't realize how deep the snow was.  I put her down into it and she disappeared!  Needless to say, she wasn't thrilled me with in that moment! She stood there stunned covered in the snow and then starting sniffing and snorting to say "hello? get me outta here NOW!"

Where's the balmy Atlanta weather guys?

I think I smell hot chocolate inside....

The best Christmas gift ever....

Thinking of my little heart dog with this big snow...

remembering all the sweet memories we made together.

Christmas Comes Early....

...for our little family.  We always seem to be traveling and in MA on Christmas so Nick and I pick a different day to share gifts with each other.  With all the snow that we received this weekend, we did Christmas with Nick's immediate family Friday night instead of Saturday.  That left an entire beautiful snowed in Saturday for Christmas here.  Coffee in hand, warm pj's and slippers on, we exchanged gifts.  I pulled a gift out of Molly's stocking and as I helped her open it she was so eager she could barely wait!  I got the antler open and gave it to her.   She eagerly and quickly figured out it tasted good to chew on it. (By the way, how do dogs determine what is good to chew on?)  She chewed and gnawed on it the entire time Nick and I opened gifts and talked and laughed.

At first I thought it was too big, but then I realized she was just getting the hang of it : )

As you can see, Molly was very serious about this yummy treat!  Well, after we finished, we decided to let her have another gift.  I went towards her stocking on the wall and she looked up, interested.  I took out the Himalayan dog chew and again, could barely get it opened before she went crazy.

She laid right down in the middle of the living room (she didn't make it back to her bed) and chewed and chewed and chewed.  Now don't get me wrong, we know that saying Molly likes food is a bit of an understatement, but she LOVES this thing.  I expected it to be gone quickly or to have to take it from her so she doesn't eat it all in one sitting.  This this is strong!!!

I sat on the chair and just watched how happy, blissfully happy she was chewing on this amazingly yummy treat.  My heart was happy as I watched her, snuggled in my blankie.  I don't think she's liked anything as much as this gift.  It's a very hard cheese and she's loving every moment she's chewing on it!

 

I cooked for her yesterday morning.  Normally she is in the kitchen underfoot waiting, waiting, waiting for some!  Not yesterday!  She eventually moved to her bed and then investigated the kitchen with the chew in her mouth!  She didn't let this thing outta her mouth never mind out of her sight!  I laughed so hard at her entering the kitchen with this thing shoved in her mouth, butt wiggling in delight!

She chewed a couple hours in the morning before we took it away from her.  OK, so we traded her for a lousy cookie and she wasn't thrilled.  But because it's made of milk and I'm keeping her off all dairy, I wanted to make sure she didn't have any issues with it.  After a delicious Turkey dinner (a roasted turkey, candied sweet potatoes, green beans, and stuffing) and a trip outside, she got her beloved chew back.  She chewed for another couple hours before we took it away for the night.  I've trying to get her weight back up from her last 'bout of sickness and I think between the chew and all the yummy food she got yesterday we're well on our way...she kinda looked like a stuffed pig last night.  All she needed was an apple in her mouth and she would have been set : )

She currently has it this morning again and has about a 1/3 of it left still.  Not bad after at least 5+ hours of chewing!  I know she'll go back to the Antler when the chew is gone and then she'll love the bull sticks that are still waiting in her stocking....  oh to be a well loved dog...

Poop Fest '09

So it's been quite the fun filled week.... I'll spare all the gory details but Molly has been spending a lot of time in the kitchen which has linoleum and is much, much easier to clean than carpet.  (good thing, as we've needed to several times.)  I was actually quite concerned and am so relieved that the flagyl seems to be helping already.  Is that possible?  Regardless, she has held down 1 full meal and 2 half meals without any bloody mess.  Now I wonder, is it possible to get "stuck" so quickly?

I felt so badly fasting her again, but it had to be done.  She was so upset and confused!  I got up early this morning, went out and got her meds and fed her a late breakfast (10am).  Afterwards, she fell asleep on her bed finally content with some food in her tummy.  Unfortunately, that also means she was off her trilostane, which just compounds everything, but tomorrow morning we'll get back on to our normal routine with meds.

Through all of this she has been so affectionate.  I catch her snuggling up against me or pawing at me for more attention.  It's really sweet and I can't help but stop everything and love on her.

Here's to an uneventful night!

It's been 2 months...

....since a piece of my heart left this world.  This past week has been particularly difficult. I'm sure as we continue into the Christmas season there are constant reminders and beautiful memories of our little family with Tinker.  4 years ago on Christmas eve, we found Tink on petfinder.  On Christmas Day we received word that we would be allowed to apply to adopt her...

We hung up Christmas decorations this evening and the stockings we made several years ago opened up a wealth of memories...we hung our stockings up, mine, Nick's and Tinks plus the pink bone one from Shellie and Miss Jackie for Molly.  It just needs to be that way this year. 

Nick and I made a point to get another rose in her memory today.  It seemed fitting.  And there were big beautiful pink roses that just announced life and beauty to me.  It's on our table as a reminder of the life and love that filled our house and fills our hearts...

She was truly the best Christmas gift ever.  Sweet dreams Beautiful One...

Miss Snuggly

The day we came back from NY, Molly was all over us and wouldn't leave our sides.  Here is a picture of her snuggling with Nick.  She really is quite the sweetie. 

Bathing her more frequently in the neem oil seems to really be helping her coat and yeast issue.  Slowly but surely we're making progress.

Her Christmas gifts came this afternoon.  I need to wrap them and put them in her stocking.  I'm pretty sure she's going to love them : )

Macy & Lillian Update 12-5-09

Nick and I called Lillian this morning (since I didn't go to class because of the wintery weather!) Both of them seem to be doing fabulously well! Lillian shared story after story about Macy and just glowed over the phone. As of 2 nights ago, Macy is finally sleeping in bed, but not at the bottom of the bed where she would sleep with us, but next to Lillian near her pillow. Lillian was laughing as she shared this story. The first time Macy went under the covers Lillian was afraid she would asphyxiate but then remembered hearing stories of other dogs doing this and being ok. Mace has also been jumping up on the furniture with Lillian and laying on her lap or right next to her, perfectly content.

Lillian is cooking up green beans and carrots and adding them to her meal to help her feel full but not gain any weight. So not only is Macy in great company, she's eating well too : )

They even announced in her church that she got a new dog and the pastor is coming over tomorrow to meet her! Her entire attitude and tone of voice was so strong and happy. She shared how they get the mail together and Macy sits and stays when Lillian doesn't want her to go any further. She sits and waits and then joins her as they go back into the house.

It sounds like they're creating and establishing a great routine and Lillian is adapting and changing it as needed (ie: taking Macy out a little more often as there was 1 wet spot on the floor by the door this week. I'm so glad Lillian realized that taking her out another time was the solution!)

Another fabulous placement for a fabulous dog!

Unfortunately for us, we do miss her over here. Molly still runs down the hallway when we get home to go steal her kong and then comes running back when she realizes what she's doing... but all that aside, we couldn't be any happier for those 2. Here to many happy years for Lillian and Macy!

And the Beat Goes on...

So Molly had a vet appointment this afternoon with the intent to check on her tooth (which incidentally hasn't bled once since we made the appt yesterday.) I had an early day today so before the appointment Molly and I went to a few pet supply places to pick up some items for her doggie cousins and friends. Of course she wanted to eat everything, but it was cute to see her sniff her way down the aisles past the stuffies right to the treats and bones : )

So overall the vet loves the way Molly looks. Her pot belly is gone, her coat continues to look better, and her demeanor and attitude are much improved too. Dr. Haver smiled as he said "you're going in the right direction." He honestly seemed to think we're doing good work with her.

Her tooth appeared to take care of itself (with hydrogen peroxide) and after looking at her mouth, Dr. Haver said that it looks fine. We ended up being much more concerned with a spot I found on her while at the store before we got to the vet. It's at least a Staph infection but a culture is being done to determine if it's ring worm... apparently she's a prime candidate to get it. I asked him "what isn't she a prime candidate for?" He seemed a little concerned if it was ring worm just because he's not sure what we can use to treat with her having Cushing's. He's never had to treat a Cushinoid dog for ring worm. Thanks for potentially being the first Molly! We shall see; I'm to call on Tuesday for the results.

On top of that, the bump on her side is becoming more shaped and hard...we're continuing to monitor and "ignore" for the time being. The kicker of it all was we found a flea on her chest while we were there!!! I was mortified! (I found another one jump on the couch here tonight too....)

I'm currently washing ALL her bedding and our blankets, I'm covered the couch and her bedding that isn't washable and all the surrounding services with a diatamateous and neem oil powder. I've bathed her again and I'm just hoping and praying this is the end of it... I'll continue to put the powder down over the next few weeks. We'll vacuum tomorrow. This is the first that I've seen of fleas in our house. We found 1 on her a month or so ago and did the same thing we did tonight and that seemed to be the end of it. I know that her immune system is compromised and it makes her an easy prey for fleas. Plus she's had this diarrhea issue and if we can't get that cleared up soon, we'll have to put her on meds to help with that too....

Oh my little problem child...good thing she's cute! She is really quite the little dog. I hope we can get this issues cleared up without too much of an issue for her. I hate to think that she could be uncomfortable in any way.

Vampire Molly

Ok, so apparently it's not a full tooth that is missing, but 1/2 her tooth. I looked up about 10 minutes ago and Molly's mouth was dripping blood...right onto our carpet. Darling, really. Poor girl. We took Joy's suggestion and used a slightly wet teabag. It was interesting getting that into her mouth...at least she appeared to enjoy the taste : ) I guess I'll be calling the vet in the morning to see if we can get the other 1/2 of it extracted?

Molly & the Vet

Our darling little Molly always seems to need the opinion and advice of our dear vet. I should put him on speed dial and save myself some time. I call at least once a week. When we have a foster here, forget it, I'm calling every other day it seems.

Last week was the nasty night diarrhea (which we're still treating with turkey and rice, pumpkin and acidophiles...she finally seems to be coming out the other side of this issue...) This week it's a little front tooth that fell out which resulted much more blood both in her mouth and around our place than was really necessary. I think she popped it out while chewing on a bone last night. Of course I couldn't see what the issue was at first, so I thought brushing her teeth might help which only opened up the wound and allowed me to see the real issue and a lot of blood. Thank goodness she's small enough that Nick can hold her else we wouldn't have gotten anywhere!

That was all last night...I put some salt water on her wound and it stopped bleeding... unfortunately it started again this morning. Long story not quite as long....peroxide and pressure were prescribed. She seems to be fine this evening. Hopefully she stays that way!