Rescue Journal

Today

Alison  ·  Sep. 5, 2006

I had a really nice visit from Holly's mom (now named Stella). Holly was adopted last year, she was a high strung, devastated, senior poodle who had lost her home. Now, she is a little princess, and I knew just from listening to Corey speak of her, how very dearly she is loved. I went to refill the food that I put out for the stray dog, it hasn't been touched, this worries me. Pippa's possible adoption to a really nice lady in Sask. as fallen thru. This lady was willing to make the trip all the way out here to meet both Pippa and myself with no guarantee that it would end up being a match, but alas, Pippa is several inches too tall by airline standards to go by carrier under the seat in the cabin. She is much too old and frail to go into the cargo hole. One day, the very right home will come for her and hopefully it will just be a simple and quick car ride away. Frodo is driving me nutz, he is becoming more and more determined to stay outside at night. It took alot from me to finally let him have some freedom on the property during the day, I am not about to give in and let him stay out at night. He is hiding out right now, watching me hunting for him, he is a brat. Colleen ( the vet) called to see how Isaac is doing, he is eating again and last I heard more comfortable. There have been some minor issues with Charley so I talked to her about neutering him. She said it is not a risk as far as his cervical instability is concerned, but if he is end stage wobblers syndrome, we may not want to put him thru it. The problem we don't know if the progression is just beginning or nearing the end because we have no history on how long he has been showing symptoms. She said he may have a month or two of quality of life or as long as a year, there is no way to tell. I hate these kind of decisions. But the next one to get neutered is Carl. I wasn't in any rush because there is no one for him to breed with and he has been pretty mellow and nice. I noticed yesterday tho that he was starting to spit at the donkeys so I went looking for my expert llama friend to ask her some questions. We know that Carl was alone and abandoned for 3 years, but we do not know how old he was before that. She told me that he was probably quite young at his abandonment, and now is coming into his sexual maturity. she strongly recommends that I get off my duff and bite the unhappy bullet and wrestle him down for sedation for the vet to neuter. She said an intact and sexually mature llama is dangerous. Oh well, unhappy llama neuter day, here we come. I bet i hate that day. It is much easier to take dogs and cats into the vet clinics then I can miss all the unhappy drama as they protest. Mellie went in today. Her surgery is booked for first thing tomorrow morning. They will do a chest Xray first to ensure that the cancer (if the tumours are malignant) has not metastized into her lungs, if it has, the surgery will be cancelled and we will switch her to palliative care status. Fifty percent of mammory tumours are benign...I hope she is in that group! It was a nice day around here today, the animals were all good, I spent a rel;axing day with all of them and even had a brief afternoon nap with Ed (he really liked that!)

Comments

Diane

Thanks for the well wishes for my journey! I hear it is snowing in Alberta but hopefully will be clearing by Monday. I will be spending the night on the other side of Jasper and will probably be at the Best Western later in the day Tuesday in Mission. I will call when I am settled in, to get directions to SAINTS. Can't wait!! I enjoy KID FOOD too so Pippa and I will enjoy life together (I hope!) See you soon, Diane

Carol

have a very safe and uneventful trip diane, we will be waiting. (i am doing a vet run tuesday afternoon for bill but will see if someone can cover here for me while i am gone in case you haven't arrived yet.) pippa likes anything that grown up humans should not be eating...julie accused me once of eating like a kid, and that is what pippa likes to eat too.

Jean

Have a safe trip, Diane! Pippa will be waiting in happy anticipation. I hope I have an opportunity to meet Pippa's new momma. I think it is so cool that you are willing to travel across half the country to pick up our precious Pipsqueek.

Diane

I'm getting packed tomorrow to come and meet Pippa on Tuesday! (Working nights Friday and Saturday) I can't wait to see all of SAINTS. I found the pictures tonight and they are all so beautiful. You must have lots of loving volunteers - You GO GIRL! I'm going to have my pockets packed with treats - her specialties: weiners, peanut butter cookies, and WHAT ELSE DOES PIPPA LIKE?? She will be hosted at the Best Western Inn with a continental breakfast :)

Just 5 more days...................

Jean

Westjet's maximum height for a dog carrier is 8.5 inches - and the dog must be able to fully stand up. So probably about the only breed that could fly would be a very small chihauhau! However, I know a woman who frequently flies with ther shih tzu, and Lola's definintely bigger than Pippa.
Air Canada no longer allows dogs in the passenger section at all - too many people with allergies complained. Too bad they don't ban people who bathe in perfume like the one I got stuck next to on my last flight!

Leila

If Pippa can't fit under a seat in the passenger side of a plane, then none of the animals would so I guess no adopting out of town unless the person comes in a car. I'm so disappointed for Pippa cause I really liked Diane.

Jean

Sounds like a pretty full day to me!

I'd like to find out about getting Martin neutered at the same time as Carl - perhaps the one vet in the valley who does this will give us a break on the price if he's doing two on the same day in the same neighbourhood. It would be nice to have someone else do ALL the handling so we don't destroy what little trust we've established with these guys. Martin's feet badly need doing - his nails are curved around so badly it is affecting his walk I think.

Isaac is very weak and has fallen over several times, especially when he first gets up/wakes up (he sleeps a LOT) - today he did a face plant going down the one very low step (2 inches) from my back door. He is still eating, but I sometimes have to hand feed him to get him to eat (hand-fed canned dog food - yuck!). Sheila sent me an article on degenerative myelopathy (sp?) which is not uncommon in German Shepherds and which presents similar to Wobblers - you might want to look at it, Carol, and ask Colleen about it. There are some treatment protocols (diet, homeopathic, etc. in the article).

Although Isaac and Charley have had some altercations, I would suggest we postpone neutering him for now - I'd like a little more opportunity to observe his progress (or regress) and he's really no problem to look after. Charley's nose is out of joint but she's getting extra one-on-one time with me and lots of walks so I'm sure she'll get over it. There has only been one serious altercation; mostly they just growl and snarl at each other and Isaac will air snap.

I'm home tomorrow - perhaps you can show me where you are feeding the stray and I can keep a watch for him too - poor guy.