Fun & Happy Happenings

• So last Friday before PMAD, I was giving Molly a bath (because she gets so stinky so quickly). I brought in some duck strips that both girls love for a yummy treat for Miss Moo, except I put it on the floor so I could easily reach it while I was bathing her. Do you see where this is going yet? Tink sniffed out the goods from the living room, came into the bathroom, major stealth mode, sniffed the duck strip out in 2.5 seconds. She snatched it up so quickly, turned around, and booked it out of the bathroom without a single bump! I just sat there on the edge of the tub laughing. Molly looked at me like "hey, that WAS mine!" Tink's still got it, that's for sure!

• Unfortunately for me (fortunately for the little ladies), Tink has taught Molly that each time they come in from a walk or potty break, they get a treat. So the only thing harder than ignoring Tinker when she wants a snack is ignoring Tink AND Molly when they want (and feel entitled) to a snack. So now the 2 of them stand in various places around the kitchen, Tink ringing her food bowl and Molly hopping on her back legs and wiggling her butt! Yes, they definitely have me trained....
  

• Molly has the cutest little butt wiggle and yodel when it's meal time or when she THINKS it's dinner time! She has also stopped waddling and is developing muscle and strength in her back end
  

• Tinker still walks up the stairs at least 2x's per day. Every once in a while, she initiates walking up and man is she a confident little lady!
  

Puppy Mill Awareness Day 2009

So PMAD 2009 arrived today!! Nick, Tink, Molly, and I arrived right around 9am to meet Jodi at the Intercourse Park. It wasn't until Joy arrived that we actually got the table set up and rolling! Tiff and Lilo were there too: Lilo was our BT kissing machine : ) Lara and Jill both made treats and they sold wonderfully! They were all human grade ingredients, so human members of the group decided to give the treats a try!

Kyla Duffy was also there, she is the author of the Happy Tails book series. Kyla was a treat to speak with and spend time with today! She was able to meet miss Tink who was in her book. She brought books and bumper stickers and allowed the group to keep all of the profits from those items! Kyla is an amazingly talented, yet totally down to earth kind of girl. The second book in the series, Golden Retrievers, with Labs, Daschunds, and Pitt Bulls coming soon! It's not too late to order your BT book or any one of the others. What a great way to support rescue, raise awareness, and get a great read! (bring your tissues!)

Here are a few pics from the day. Nick was the camera man and if feeling under the weather so he was fairly stationary for most of the day....

Lilo

Lilo looking pretty!

chit chatting!

The BT at the booth next to us : )

Molly's nose

Molly chillin' on the chair. So glad we brought the chair for you moo!
No, in all seriousness, Molly was AWESOME today!

Snoozin'.... she was easy going, laid back, polite. She slept for a good part of the day,
yet walked around with us like a complete angel when we needed her to be : )

Can you tell Nick loves this dog?!?

Lilo was borrowing Molly's blanket, so Molly was borrowing her bed : )

Lilo and Molly begging for food. Look at how good Moo's silhouette is!

The Frechie's were there again this year is large numbers,
but this little guy stole our hearts! He was such a character!

Look at those face and ears!!
What's not to love?!?!?

It was such a pleasure to meet and spend time with Joy, Lara, and Jill! And as usual, it was great to catch up with Tiff and Jodi! The weather was beautiful--perfect for being outside.
Victoria Stillwell spoke (it was cool to see her in person!), many many people marched in protest past some known mills. It was great to see how much this event has grown since last year! And on top of all the festivities, NEBTR successfully raised over $200!!! Go group!

Despite the lack of photographic evidence, Tink was indeed at this event. She was either in my arms or in my lap! If I wasn't careful, Joy was going to take her home! (She's in some Joy's pics, I'll post them when we get them!) What a fabulous day! Now all four of us are snuggled up in bed... Nick is sick and the pups are tired! Actually, i'm exhausted too, now that I think of it!

Time to Update! Molly gets sick...

So Thursday night we're ready for sleep and Tinker is nesting her bed, refusing to settle. Molly is chewing her big bone and not ready for sleep. Nick and I are exhausted from late nights and a busy week and we're ready to crash. We finally take the bone away from Molly and throw Tink into bed (and she immediately lays down and begins snoring. No word of a lie.)

I didn't realize this, but Molly never fully settled that night. And for good reason. She spent all night (every 1/2 to full hour) getting up and puking or going outside with rather ummm explosive diarrhea. She was limping earlier and had been a little off to begin with early in the day. All night from midnight to quarter til 5, Nick and I were up with the Moo Mama. Nick was really good with her, but he doesn't do puke, so I had to assist at certain points in the night!

We must have missed her trying to get us up or she didn't tell us, but she didn't get outside for a very important trip that should have been outside... instead it ended up under our dining room table. It was not such a pleasant surprise after a rather sleepless night... Every pertinent cleaning supply in our closet was no match for this level of disgusting. Our house reeked. And with that humid damp weather we were having, it wasn't moving!

To make things worse, Molly refused to eat anything on Thursday morning (not even a morsel!) which was a huge red flag for me. She just looked sick. She sacked out on the couch and couldn't even bring herself to get up and go outside. Obviously this was an immediate phonecall to the vet. Dr. Haver seemed to think it could have been a reaction to the Trilostane and instructed us to keep her off that for a few days. She was still drinking which was a really good sign and according to him, her not eating for the time being was a good sign too. We fasted her Thursday morning (obviously, she woudn't eat.) But by 10:30am, she was already perking up and acting hungry again. We gave her a tiny piece of turkey to see if she could hold it down, which she did and then gave her a fraction of her dinner in 2 separate sittings to see how she would do with that. And since then, she has been normal.

2 days later, she's back to her normal diet and is acting just fine. We haven't added the Trilostane back to her diet yet. (I was supposed to call Dr. Haver friday morning and I forgot...will call on Monday.) He shared that we would probably drop her dose to every other day for a while and see how that goes. So we'll give her a dose tomorrow morning and then skip Monday and see what he has to say then. If she does fine on every other day, then for sure, that's what I vote to do! She hasn't shown any signs of regression since she's been off the trilostane either, another good sign.

We decided Thursday evening that the spot needed to be steam cleaned. In fact, the carpet in general could use a good cleaning (we can thank Tink for much of that too...) We priced out the spot bots and other comparable spot cleaning machines, but in the end we decided to rent a rug doctor and get down to business. Friday was a beautiful evening spent vaccuming, moving furniture and cleaning our carpets. The end product is a beautiful clean carpet with no hint of sickness under our dining room table!

Molly's feeling better, our carpets look great, Nick and I slept very well thursday and friday night, all in all it could have been a lot worse!

Puppy Mill Awareness Day 2009

Puppy Mill Awareness Day is set to take place this coming Saturday at the intercourse park in intercourse PA. The day begins at 10am and is filled with speakers, lots of great rescues, a free vegan meal, and a time to raise awareness about the horrors of these mills.

Check out www.awarenessday.org for more information! Don't miss this event!

Little Molly Moo Moo

One of the songs we use to sing as a kid was "Little Bunny Foo Foo" (hoping through the forest, picking up the field mice and bopping on the head.) Well I've adapted the words for Miss Molly. I have a few variations, but i'll share the most common ones we sing:

Little Molly Moo Moo
is waddling through the forest
eating people's snack foods
and peeing on their lawns

or

Little Molly Moo Moo
waddling down the hall way
looking for a tasty treat
then snuggling on the couch


Moo or Moomoo has been established as Molly's nick name around here. It's fitting with her appetite, and it's fun to say : )

She has the worst sense of direction though. She gets turned around in the apt complex hallway and can't seem to remember which door is ours (even thought its the only one with a door mat.) We joke that Tink has a better sense of direction which isn't too far from the truth. Tink certainly knows which apartment building is ours and her way around things much better that Moo. It's funny cause we'll be holding the door open to come into the building and she is standing by a neighbor's door. So we laugh and say, "why don't we use this door Moo, it's open."

Molly share's Tink's affinity for warm and soft blankets. She has discovered my down comforter throw and she loves to lay on that on the couch. Since we've graduated to a 2 dog house, I think we're going to need a bigger couch. The love seat is perfect for 2 plus Tink, now with Molly, we get rather creative with seating options. And if Molly doesn't think there's enough room, she just sits there looking at us, until we move Tink or create some more space. Tink has been observed to use Molly's back as a head rest or snuggling up tight to fit us all in. Ha, realistically, we'll just sit nice and comfy with the 4 of us under some covers watching a movie : )

Molly's appetite seems to be stabilizing a little bit. She's been going out to pee and then without hesitation she joins the 3 of us in bed. This weekend we had a good 30 min to an hour both on sat and sunday morning with the 4 of us all cozy. I'm in heaven in the morning like that : )

Anyways, it's been fun yet fairly low key in our house with the 4 of us. Tink's doing pretty well with Molly and Molly is thriving here. Even her weight and shape looks so much better! Tink's back end was really weak this evening as I watched her try to nest or walk a bit. I'm not sure what's up with that but we will certainly be keeping an eye on her. She seems to walk fine in the morning and evening, but certain times after her evening walk, she can be a bit unsteady in the house. And she's certainly unsteady before she completely wakes up in the morning. Aside from that issue, Tink's been eating pretty well, walking well, and my little snuggle queen!

Oh our little doggie retirement home makes me smile!

Molly Vet Appt 9-11-09

So Molly and I took a trip in the rain over to see Dr. Ramos the holistic vet in Palmyra this afternoon. I liked her very much. She was pleasant and knowledgeable, she didn't beat around the bush, yes she wasn't harsh. She came in and spoke with me, got to know Molly and she explained her philosophy and the holistic approach that she takes. She said that there are some things that she will use herbs and a more natural approach (her strength is acupuncture and massage therapy) where other areas she believes those approaches will not work or be nearly as effective.

The long and the short of it is this: Dr. Ramos would not change anything in Molly's current treatment (or living conditions.) The Trilostane is working beautifully in her professional opinion. She loves the way her coat looks, her weight is perfect, she loves the home cooked diet and the supplement regime that we are using (good building blocks for her health as she described it). Dr. Ramos said she never would have known that Molly has cushings without looking at her chart. She recommended a full panel yearly though (including liver enzymes, thyroid, etc) if everything continues to go well. If something were to change, bring her in early (obviously.)

It felt so good to hear the vet praise how good Molly looked and how well adjusted she appeared to be! She valued what we are doing and seemed to think it was suiting Molly beautifully! She also stated that a dog with Cushing's who is regulated can live for another 6 or 7 years. Although as she said Molly's a "'98 Model" and basically implied that she's older and that length of time isn't necessarily feasible for Molly. But certainly a few years, a few good healthy, happy, and active years are.

On another note, the two girls were snuggled up on the couch between Nick and me this evening while we watched a movie....it was so stickin' cute!

My Cuddle bugs

I've never seen Tinker cuddle up next to another dog like she does with Molly. We catch the 2 of them on the couch nestled nice and close to each other more often than not. Molly will often inadvertently step on Tink on the way up but sometimes Tink returns the favor when she's moving around or looking for the food I'm eating : ) But Tink really enjoys having Molly around. Definitely her favorite foster dog yet : )

Things have been going pretty well with the 2 of them around the house. They get along just fine and we've even left them on the couch for 10-20 minutes alone if Nick and I are barely missing each other. Both times, they were totally fine.

I'm wondering if Tink is feeling ok though. She's messed in the house twice in 2 days, once in her crate and once on the floor this morning... I was not a happy camper at all this morning. She's laying here on the couch under a blanket. I know it's raining and gross out, but she really seems to be under the weather today.

Both girls got baths when we came home from the cabin; I love having clean matching Bostons! Their coats are so shiny and soft and with the 2 of them getting into bed like they do, I want clean dogs! Last night Molly came up into bed during Project Runway and nestled herself in between me and Nick. She was happy as a clam right there!

Molly's not a big fan of all other dogs. The little ones she seems to adjust to with some time. Bigger dogs she just doesn't adjust to. Poor Maddie couldn't catch a break all weekend. Molly didn't seek her out if she was across the yard or anything, but she definitely snapped at her if she came within reach. Jazz would instigate, but Molly was just telling him to cut his puppy antics.

Molly has a vet appt with a holistic vet in about an hour... we'll be leaving soon. I'm wondering what is really in her best interest, if she can be adopted out or if she should remain as a permanent foster. I'm hoping a visit with this vet will help give us some direction with the Cushing's Disease and how to best help this little one. She is such a gem.

My 2 litlle gems are on the couch....one will be off soon in this rainy weather! More to follow on the vet visit.

Tinker & Molly

So Miss Tink has been doing fabulous lately (minus a few "accidents" in the house!) She's been alert, walking well, good appetite and looking good! Miss Molly has been showing more and more of her personality. She has been sleeping on a bed in our bedroom at night rather than in her crate and she is loving it (and doing very well!) We realized that she likes to sleep under a blanket so i've been tucking her in at night too : ) It's definitely cute and she looks so comfy. She usually makes it to about 6:30 am before she's gotta go potty. At that point she looks at Nick with a small whimper and he take her out. She then jumps into bed and if we're lucky, we all sleep for another hour snuggled up together ; )

We just finished reading through the BT Happy Tails book and the last few nights we had both of the dogs in bed for our bed time story. It makes me smile so much to have 2 bostons in our bed as we read some amazing rescue stories! Unfortunately for Molly, after the story is over, she has to sleep in her own bed (blame Nick for that...something about not having any room to sleep. Whatever!)

Molly has learned that Tinker leaves food in her kong and usually in her crate and she makes it her mission to clean it all out to the point that she rushes outside to get back in (which can be annoying quite honestly!) So, I've been making sure she doesn't get a hold of Tink's kong or get in her crate in an effort to stop the 1 way track mind.

After having her here for almost 2.5 weeks, I'm wondering if her meds do need to be upped at some point. She acts a bit more hungry than I would like to see... we'll definitely see what the holistic vet says next friday before we do anything of course.

Right now I have a BT on either side of me on the couch! One of my favorite ways to take a break! We're getting ready for another weekend at the cabin this weekend....should be a blast!

Happy Birthday & Snuggly Pics

HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY MISS MOLLY! Here are some snuggle pictures to celebrate!


Tink & Molly were clearly hard at work while I was busy at class today. Here are some pics of them sharing a bed...ahem, almost snuggling over at Matt & Amanda's while they were visiting today! Pictures courtesy of Nick!

Awwwww

2 sleepy peas in a pod

Mollly hogging the bed (Hey, it's her b-day, right?)

Tink, can you really sleep like that?

This little girls are so good together... apparently Molly doesn't like other dogs very much (I apologize Alie and Plato!) I'm hoping in time we can work through some of those issues.... but one step at a time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY!!!

My Golden Girls...

It's hard to believe that Molly has barely been with us 2 weeks. Her Birthday is tomorrow (2 weeks to the day we got her!) and she will be 11.

The girls have coexisted very well from day 1, but it's interesting to begin to see them interact with each other. The 4 of us were walking yesterday evening and we walked by Cheyenne, the dog who lives next door. We stopped about 3-4 feet away from Cheyenne so Molly could see her from a distance. The first thing Molly did was nudge Tink and look at Cheyenne as if to say "Hey, what's the deal with this dog, is she a friend or not?"

Molly jumped into Tinker's bed with Tink in it last night too. She appears to want to touch Tinker when she is close to her : ) Tink isn't quite sure what she thinks of that yet. The concept of snuggling with any one else aside from her Mommy appears to be a bit disconcerting to the little girl!

I've also noticed that Molly seems to know that Tink is very well loved. She looks at Tink snuggled up in her bed or snuggled up with me and then looks up at us as if to say "I wish I had that...." And she is beginning to get some of that. I hope that she feels the love that we have for her here... she jumped up into bed with me and Tink this morning and again, laid down touching Tinker. The 3 of us had a chance to snuggle for 15 minutes or so this morning. (I didn't have to get out of bed and to work this morning... my car decided I needed a day off when it didn't pass inspection yesterday. The Jetta has since been fixed and is ready to go, but not until 10:30 this morning!)

I made some more meatloaf for the girls this morning...venison, peas, kale, cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, eggs, some meatloaf has barley, some has oats. Tinker has been doing so incredibly well with the new home cooked diet and supplements (calcium and her Ph+ from Wysong). Both of the girls are looking and acting fabulous, body functions have regulated for the 2 of them too.

Molly has an appointment with a holistic vet in Palmyra next friday to see if there is anything naturally we can do for the cushings. She's on the high end of normal according to the last test and I would love to see if we can get her down into the low end of normal without drugs. There seem to be some good natural cushings help options online, but we're waiting to see what the vet says before we order anything else.

I have loved this morning with them. The 2 of them are currently sleeping in the same area... Tink on the floor, Molly on a bed. Everyone is quiet and peaceful; a beautiful way to spend the morning : )

Where in the World is Tinker Bell?

She nearly gave me a heart attack last night as I was looking for her before bed time. I looked every where in the house and was trying to consider how she possible could have gotten outside of the apartment when Nick found her...

Can you find her in the above picture?

Yup, she totally decided to use my 1/2 unpacked bag as a comfy bed

After the initial relief of finding her, Nick & I laughed hysterically

She didn't want to get up either. Complete dead weight

Completely comfortable.
Finding her here made my whole evening last night!

Molly update 8-25-09

So Molly has been with us about a week and a half already. It feels like she has been here so much longer (in a positive way). She fits in so well and is such an easy girl to take care of. She crates beautifully, walks on a leash wonderfully, I can walk the 2 girls together if Nick's not around without fearing for any of our lives or safety : ) She is the easiest foster yet.

She loves to chew (although that has settled down a bit.) Her first weekend here she took an afternoon and went through the toy box. She pulled every bone and hoof out of it and tasted each one. So adorable.

I think she prefers Nick slightly over me...it's better that way though. Nick won't get too jealous! It's 3 to 1 now on the gender ratio, we should go easy on him : )

Her poop has finally become normal and predictable and she is loving the home cooked food. I gave her a bath before we went to the cabin and the difference is dramatic. Her coat is so shiny and soft; I just love to touch her and pat her. She's not acting as hungry nor is she drinking nearly as much as when she first arrived. Between the 2 dogs, they're not drinking more than 2.5 cups of water each day. Dr. Haver was very pleased with that information.

She's currently laying on my feet while I update the blog! Yay for amazing fosters!

Cabin Pictures!

So the 2 girls made the trip to the cabin with us and some of our life group this past weekend. Both were dolls, minus Tink going into Molly's crate and immediately peeing on her bed. They both enjoyed the R & R up there so much that they came home and promptly crashed only for a brief dinner break!

Tink nested into Molly's crate

Tink had no idea where she was at first....

Molly had to get herself in the picture

Tinker working hard to get her bed just right

Chewing: One of Molly's passions in life

Molly & her buddy Nick

Sleeping on the job

Molly seems to really like this guy....

Yup, good buds

Nick is sad...Molly left him, for a BONE!!

Tinker butt! Can you see her stately peppering?!?!

Snuggling!

Ok, so as close to snuggling as Tink will probably get

Yup, just hanging out

Pretty Molly face! (begging of course!)

I will will you to share that cookie....

Sleepy Tinker

mmm, so soft and comfy...

The epitome of the cabin....lots of R & R

So it was a fabulous weekend filled with good food, fun, and friends. And of course our 2 little Golden Girls!

NEBTR on Facebook

I have so much to update about Molly and just how awesome she is, but for now we must settle with a facebook link to the NEBTR page!! Hopefully, we'll be adding some pics of the dogs and getting more awareness out there for the group and of course the dogs.

Northeast Boston Terrier Rescue on Facebook

Finding routine....

Molly came into our home on Saturday and fortunately, for all of us, Molly has been transitioning fairly easily. She's a basic Boston love and just wants to be where the people are, but not in an anxious I'm-going-to-chew-your-furniture-if-you-leave-me kind of way or anything. Both of the girls are sleeping through the night, although 7am rolls around and Molly definitely has to go out. But that's totally ok as most nights that means she's made it almost 9 hrs.

Tinker totally didn't want to get out of bed this morning. She actually went back to her bed before breakfast. I guess she didn't want to wait while I put together the turkey, sweet potato, jasmine rice (her fav!), carrots, cabbage, and cottage cheese. I had to go get her and as soon as she finished she was back to bed. Slightly unusual for her, but not completely. She didn't finish her dinner last night, but I gave her a healthy portion. Maybe she's just missing the venison....lol, it's a tough life being a dog in this house.

I look at Tink compared to Molly and Tink looks years younger. Her coat is beautiful, she's well muscled, and she's obviously well taken care of. To be honest, I was embarrassed to have Molly in Petsmart with us when we were getting a tag for her because of her condition. I am totally aware though, that given a few weeks, a nice bath and cleaning, consistent exercise, and a routine, that Molly will look and act years younger herself. All good things take time and I must be patient. I've been slowly cleaning the gunkiness off Molly's face and she seems to be enjoying the rubs and getting years of dirty fur off her face (smart girl.) I'll probably wait to bathe her until after we come back from camp, so as not to totally traumatize her. I'm hoping with some nice walks that Molly's back end with get some strength and tone to it.

We have a vet appt for Molly on thursday to take care of a host of things from heartworm testing, to checking her cushing's meds to checking for worms.

She really is a darling little girl. I don't want to say that she's going to be a permanent foster because there may be some family that falls in love with her and wants to care for her in her final years, but I am also trying to be realistic. I don't want to deprive Molly of a forever home in her final years but if the perfect one doesn't come around, we will gladly be that home for her. Nick and I joke saying that we hope we have a doggie retirement community rather than a hospice care center. It's kind of a sick joke, but we just try to keep the humor around here, and the little golden girls don't seem to mind : )

Both are peacefully sleeping at the moment. Nick and I are totally enjoying this adventure we have been given!