Gotta relax a bit

Every dog is different. Sandy took a day or so to even come out of the front hallway. Bubbette has been timid in her own way. She ran away at first and has been standoffish. I got a bit concerned when I came home from a full day at work with her in the kitchen and she hadn't wet the floor but she didn't go to the bathroom when I took her out. Perhaps the heartworm thing has me a bit paranoid, so I called the shelter. They told me the vet to see and faxed over a voucher and gave me the number to call for an appointment. Jeff at the vet was great and he took my number to get the doctor to call me back. Dr. Barnett called me and talked with me and told me that it might just be her adjusting to being here and to watch her a bit more to see if she was having kidney issues or what. I said she had eaten a little and we talked a bit more and I decided to wait and see.

Bubbette has only been drinking from the pond. She hasn't touched her water bowl in the kitchen, but she gets a big drink from the pond each time I take her in the backyard. She doesn't seem to want to go into the kitchen when she isn't trapped in there, so I brought her bowl of food out this evening and added a touch of plain yogurt and she ate. I gave her the rest of her bowl of food and she had a good meal and in a bit went out to do the full compliment of potty activity and it gave me a big sigh of relief.

Like I said, every dog is different. I am used to dogs that want desperately to go out and do their business and that isn't every dog. I need to relax, learn Bubbette's ways, and keep her calm and relaxed while she awaits treatment and then after treatment. She seems to be warming up to us a bit, so that is good.

I spoke to Angie who works at my vet today. She volunteers at the shelter and was going to check to see if we could get a good price and earlier appt. for Bubbette. She told me that the office manager wanted to talk to me directly, so I will call in the morning. Here is hoping.

Treatment

Well, I was wrong. Bubbette has only had the blood work thus far. She is scheduled for treatment and is scheduled for back to back treatments, but she hasn't had treatment yet. She needs to remain as still as possible, but it isn't that she has arsenic in her body now breaking up worms. Today, we have kept her in the kitchen most of the day except when she was out for a walk on the leash. She seems to be intimidated by the gate, so she stays in. We crated her last night which she didn't seem to be into. I had to drag her to the crate and pick her up to get her in there. Oh well. I am checking with my vet to see how much extra it would cost to take her there for treatment instead of waiting for her appointment at ATA. I hear it can be quite expensive, but I will find out tomorrow.

Serious Doubts

I had no hesitation when Monica asked if we wanted to take Bubbette home. She looked like such a sweet girl, size isn't an issue for me and we have the perfect house for a foster dog since we don't have any carpet so no issues for vomiting or other side effects of hw treatment.

Then Bubbette slipped out the door to the open garage. We caught her after a few blocks, but she is supposed to be still and she took off running. I googled heartworms online and they are nasty things, can be up to 6" long and they are killed off by the treatment that she got, but they have to break up and get through her system without blocking off any arteries. She needs to be crated as much as possible. She was nervous around us and saw her chance and made a break for it and I just can't know yet if that did any serious damage. I have been reading about symptoms and I will try to check her temp in the morning (that's gonna be fun), but she already has me second guessing our choice to bring her home. At the shelter, she has a small run, here at home, she either has to be in her crate, or we can put her dog bed (which she has yet to try) in the laundry room and that will be small enough. She isn't comfortable around us yet and I don't see confining her like this as a way to improve our relationship. We will see what the morning brings. I have to go to a meeting while Ben is at Sunday school, so I have to put her up then, but I am not sure what to do with her while we are home. This evening, she pretty well laid on the floor and we stayed in the same main room of the house and she didn't move around too much, but I am not sure we kept her confined enough. Doubts, doubts, doubts. Well, we will see what the morning brings and I can call the shelter in the morning. Sigh.

Bubbette comes to "rest" at our house

Bubbette is a heartworm positive 2 year old female Golden mix. She is very sweet but a bit shy right now. We need to let her warm up to us.

Charlie went home

Charlie was adopted and he went home with his new family today. Woo hoo.

Wondering if Charlie is adopted

Since the shelter is only open on Fri-Monday,I haven't heard what is going on with the adoption application that came in for Charlie. There is a real possibility that he could be going to his new home this weekend, but I just don't know. I guess the best thing is to call the shelter tomorrow when they are open and check the status.

Just a happy, nice little puppy

What can I say, Charlie is just a nice little puppy. He is relatively house broken. By that, I mean that if the backdoor is open, he will go outside to use the bathroom. I know that in the morning that he needs to go out and do everything, so if I take him out and he only pees, then I know that he still has more to do sometime. I don't have a doggy door, but if I leave the back door open a bit, I can go off and shower or focus on a conference call and he will go outside when the urge hits. He is very loving in the morning and when I come home. He comes and hangs out with me and wants to get in my lap, wants to be rubbed and he likes to play. He loves to play fetch. This is something new to me, not the concept, but having a dog that actually likes to do it. You can throw Charlie a ball or a toy and he will go run and get it and bring it back. He likes to do it over and over. This makes it easy to tire him out.

Being a puppy, Charlie does mouth a bit on occasion. He gives you a little nip. I took a tip from the Shelter weekly newsletter a couple of weeks ago about Cha Chi. If Charlie is nipping at me, I yelp loud. He looks and then he stops. He realizes he is hurting me (well, he isn't, but I don't want it) and he stops. This was a great tip, thanks Geneve.

A growing boy

Ben just weighed Charlie and said he weighs 30 pounds. That means he is up about 3.4 pounds since I weighed him a week or less ago. He is a growing boy.

Adoption Day

Charlie went to adoption day today. Today was the 3rd Saturday of the month and so we had Petco adoption day today. I had to work at the annual scout bbq, but Ben and Charlie went to adoption day. Charlie even got an application. I need to take him to the shelter in the morning so that he can spend the day there. 1 application is nice, but until the application is approved, he is still available and he needs to be shown to get applications.

The splendiferousness of the canine olfactory

Young Charlie has proven himself a credit to his dog kind. If you are a regular reader of the blog, then you know that Sandy made a large number of new rawhides disappear in the backyard in a minute or less each. Well, today, Charlie came trotting down the side of the house in the backyard with one of them in his mouth. I was walking around the yard and there were 2 more that I think he pulled out of places. They are soggy and muddy and need to be thrown out, but hey, he found like 1/2 of them in one day (or maybe a couple, not sure when the others showed up).

Charlie got a quick bath tonight. Ben came home from driving and took Charlie right back to the tub. Charlie didn't seem to care for it at all. He has a very short, somewhat rough coat and has been a bit musky. I didn't have any special shampoo, just some stuff I picked up in the pet part of the grocery store. It seems to have helped a little, but we could probably use to do a better job.

It's like riding a bike, well, kinda

Charlie is coming along fine. I have started to figure out his schedule and he didn't soil his crate the past 2 nights, he stayed home in the kitchen for 5 hours yesterday and didn't have an accident or any since I ignored him too long yesterday morning. He seems to need to poop twice for breakfast and again for dinner (yes, I know, TMI). He seems to be bonding with Ben and I. Ben is taking responsibility for feeding him and making sure he gets out to go in the evening and I take him out in the morning. Ben has started working on Sit and Down. Sit seems to be going well, down needs a lot of work.

Charlie is really a lap dog. At 5 months and about 26.5 pounds, that is okay, but I wonder when he grows a bit more how that will work. He likes to lay in his 2 beds and just hang out until he is offered to play fetch. He will come over and sit in your lap if you sit on the floor and he likes to have his belly rubbed. Typical dog behaviour. Ben and I need to work on getting him to walk on leash. I can put it on him, but he doesn't seem to want to go anywhere on leash. I have seen lots of puppies who follow along on leash, chewing on the leash all the way, but Charlie just goes a short way in the yard and then sits down. He wants to head back to home. Will have to encourage him with some treats.

It's like night and day

My, it has been a long time since I had a puppy. Mookie lived to 17.25, so it has been a long time. Sure, you see them at the animal shelter, you see them on TV, but it's a lot different when you bring one home. Charlie is a cute little guy, but he is a puppy. That means house breaking, it means leash training, and a whole lot more. I need to shoot an email to Dana to see how early Ben can start training. For a dog that has been living at the shelter and going outside and staying outside all day for about 2 months, he certainly likes to stay inside and lay on his dog bed.

Welcome Charlie

There is a new foster dog in the household. Little Charlie has been at the shelter for around 2 months now. He was abandoned with his brother Oscar near the property of one of our volunteers and came into the shelter in mid February. Oscar was adopted fairly quickly, but not Charlie. Charlie is close to 5 months old. He is a mix breed, current thinking is Pit Bull, Shepard and some other stuff. He came home with us this evening after working at the shelter. He is a cute little friendly guy and I am not sure why he hasn't been adopted yet, but Monica wanted him to get out of the shelter for a while since he is essentially stuck growing up there, so here he is. Ben is particularly happy to have a puppy and we agreed that Ben will train Charlie. I will write more as things progress.

Who's next

Well, with the first foster successfully placed, it is time to start looking at what dog at the shelter most needs to go to foster. I need to have a conversation with Monica and see who she thinks. Look for more foster tails coming in the near future.