Rescue Journal

new day

Carol  ·  Mar. 26, 2013

halo is starting the downward slide...she is losing her spark and seems tired, waiting and resigned. unless she perks up, i think we will be losing her this week. man, strong dog. she has given her cancer a run for its money. chris and michelle and i took her for a brief toddle down to the pond on sunday evening and she even went in for a very short swim but i think that was her last hurrah. i guess we will see how she does over the next couple of days.

we are starting blonde buddy on some anti-anxiety meds. he is calm in my room and when he is out at the barn. but since i have opened up the gate between the two rooms, he keeps wandering outside, obviously anxious and barking non stop. i think this is a leftover thing from fletch because buddy had been on the receiving end a couple of times of fletchers growing bully-ness. buddy is an old dog at 15 and i don't want him to feel nervous or anxious. so we will try to calm him down with some meds for a bit and once he settles and feels safe again, wean him off them. at his age each day is pretty precious so i want him to feel ok when he is outside hanging around in the yard esp since we have some nice spring weather for a change.

odie is settling...not quite so snappy altho he will escalate again in a couple of days when that tube has to come out. i can still see his nervousness when he goes outside...he is careful and cautious along the fence line but there is no more fence fighting since fletch has passed on. so hopefuly odie too will feel confident again soon.

ripples in the pond of a sad puppy's life.

i will never take in a palliative puppy again..lets face it..i have done it twice and they come here and for whatever reason, they do not remain palliative for long. not fair to these old and wrecked guys. mystic was ok...she grew into a lovely and gentle girl, but fletch thru no fault of his own, was a disaster...a 50/50 crap shoot i guess. i have to stick to full grown dogs that i can see and feel...not ones still unformed and full of surprise.

anyway the aftermath continues..my hand is healing, just one spot left to close...odie is getting better and more like himself, blonde buddy still has a way to go, all of the saints humans are finding their own way to deal with fletch's sad loss...life goes on for most of us.

it is new rescue day...oh freaking yay.

Comments

Carol

lynne..fletcher got into 2 fights with buddy and knocked him down both times..halo did not ever fight with buddy...her food guarding was never a problem for the other dogs....she warned them off and they moved away..that in a dogs mind is fair play. she was predictable for them. fletcher however was a loose canon....he shot buddy and jesse and phoebe and odie down and terrified them without any reasonable dog reason that any of them could figure out.

the level of anxiety here has dropped significantly for all of the dogs in the past couple of days..you can feel it.

i know you are defending fletch because you do not want people to think he was a bad dog. he wasn't a bad dog...but...he was a major problem for many of the dogs here because he did not play by the dog rules that they understood. he didn't give warning, he wasn't trying to stop them from doing something he didn't like, or prevent them from having something that he thought was his..he just became over stimulated and lost control and jumped them without reason.... and he only jumped the weaker ones.
that is what upset them....they were subject to unpredictable violence....if they don't know how to avoid confrontation, it stresses them out and they do not feel safe.
dog psychology (living in a pack) 101

buddy was highly stressed because he did not know where or when or why the next attack might come from. halo is easy for him to figure out...don't get between her and the food bowl....and her food bowl was right next to the door.

he is sleeping right next to her in my room right now, halo is not an issue for buddy at all...he understands her.

both erin and i have noticed that odie is sticking like glue to benny since his attack and benny guards food too...but right now he wants to be with benny because benny is predictable and therefore safe.

lynne

i also noticed that halo was on the bullyness of buddy a few times. halo would not let her inside until i physically took buddy in so it was more than fletcher.

Bridget

hand? ~peers~ you didn't mention getting bit, Carol. (or if you did, i missed it.)