Brenna



Brenna



		Sunday, September 2, 2007 �It's getting close to that time of year again! We will declare Brenna to be 4 years old on October 1st. That is on a Monday. So we will have a party either the weekend before or the weekend after. Brenna's foot is doing great now. We have walked 3 miles every day! You can tell the toe turns out a little, but it is connected as I have felt her wiggle it in my hand. No re-infection so far, so I think that is behind us now.� Monday, September 3, 2007 From Heather, �So glad to hear Brenna's foot is doing great! I don't know if you know this part or not, but when we got her, there was another Springer in Tifton, GA that we were bringing up and sent him on to WI for foster and adoption along with another Springer from a shelter in NW of Atlanta. There is a rescue coordinator at Tifton, GA animal control and shelter that actually went and got Brenna from the shelter she was in and drove both Brenna (then known as Spring) up to south of Atlanta near the airport on Friday night. She drove them all the way from Tifton which is about a 4 hour drive. I met her late Friday night and picked up both "Spring" and Charlie and brought them to my house. I drove Charlie and Hunter and a Golden up to TN to start them on their transport. Basically, I had sent a note to the list because we didn't have foster homes and a woman in WI said she would foster the Springer from NW of ATL and in the picture he was kenneled with a golden mix. This same foster home said, if you want to send the Golden, I'll foster him for my all breed rescue group too. Well, he became known as Ozzie and she adopted him :) So Halloween 2004, Brenna and three other dogs got started on their way to their new lives! Heather� Wednesday, September 5, 2007 �I can see why she had the name Spring. She STILL springs around all the time! She has this thing she does that I wish I could get a picture of. Whenever we get ready to take her on a car ride or walk she will literally spring high in the air and turn a complete 360 degrees!� Tuesday, September 18, 2007 �I ended up in the ER this weekend from basically poisoning of my blood from a rotted tooth that crumbled Friday. I was eating lunch when the tooth crumbled, and was apparently so rotten that there was no pain at all because all the nerves were completely rotted out! But the bad part was two hours latter when I was bed ridden with a high fever and other problems. I tried to hold off until Monday to see the doctor, but the infection was very serious by Saturday evening, so I told Michelle that first thing Sunday we were going tot he ER. I will have the remaining tooth extract tomorrow at 2PM. I'm not looking forward to it, as it will probably mean one more burst of infectious material in my blood, but I am on antibiotics, so hopefully the effect will be minimal.� Wednesday, September 19, 2007 �I get to have the tooth extracted today, so that should go a long way to making me feel better! I have some great recent pictures of Brenna that I'll send soon, I just haven't had the time or energy to even download them from my camera.�

	Sunday, August 19, 2007 �Brenna is proof that prayer works! For a being that had and entire bone shattered one would never know! We went on our 3 mile walk this morning after slowly ramping up the distance of our walks the past few mornings, and when we got back, instead of wanting to collapse, she ran to go play with other neighbor dogs (not the one that broke her foot). She has been VERY resilient through this entire process. I think we have stressed more about it than she! I saw FIVE fighting over one feeder this morning, and al total I think there is roughly eight or so coming and going. They are all jockeying for control of just two feeders. It's a regular Friday Night Smackdown out there!� Thursday, August 23, 2007 �Quick note, Brenna had her stitches removed today and was simply told by the vet to stay out of trouble and don't hurt anything else! Her foot healed up great with no further infection. Her toe may be a little crooked, but hopefully it won't be a future problem. Now that she has her wrap of I am going to observe the toe to see that it is not just dangling, but actually is attached and grew back to her foot. But she is playing like she's a 12 month old pup and is very happy now!�



	Thursday, September 20, 2007 �I went from super healthy Friday afternoon at lunch (when I had a tooth rupture) to bed ridden, high fevered, dazed and confused in less than two hours after the tooth broke! Apparently I had a sort of toxic shock to the decay that was hiding in the middle of an otherwise healthy on the outside tooth. Today I am back to 95% health, and in fact, not only walked my dog 3 full miles without effort, I also during that walk rescued a cow that had his head stuck between two trees! Amazing the difference an antibiotic and fixing a cesspool of bacteria can do for your stamina!� �Here's two pictures of Princess Brenna Penelope, one when Morgan was over for an evening playing with Brenna.�




	Tuesday, October 2, 2007 Brenna and her family were traveling south from Nashville for a Florida vacation trip, and we decided to meet in Montgomery for a little birthday party for Brenna. The meeting location was at a gazebo next to a gas station in Montgomery.




		�The other with Brenna in her "natural habitat" tall grass!�



	The cake (for humans) was very good. Brenna's parents made it, with all natural and good ingredients, like all kind of nuts, fruits, raw sugar, and even spinach. But if they hadn't told me, I would've never known, because it tasted just like very good brownie/chocolate cake. They are going to email me the recipe.

		When Brenna saw me, she was happy and jumped up on me, licking my face, but she's a little bit calmer compared to two years, or even a year ago. I think now she's 4 years old, she has settled down a little bit, but still very active and takes long walks with her dad everyday.




		Scott and Michelle gave Brenna a Greenie before we started eating, but Brenna never begged for human food. She also had some doggie biscuit treats and water in the little lunch box (that Janet got her when I was fostering Brenna). They had Brenna tethered to a coated steel cable line that was attached to her 6-foot leash and to the frame of the gazebo, so she had about 20-feet of tie-out to walk around. Brenna was so good while we were eating and talking, she did stare at the trucks going in and out of the gas station, but she sat still and did not appear to be scared, just sat quietly, happy, with her tail wagging when she looked at us. Brenna also walked around a little bit on the grass right outside of the gazebo (there is a big tall grass field surrounding the gazebo). At one point, her parents said something like, "There are some more dogs", or "Brenna is looking at some dogs". I turned my head, and saw an older gentleman and his wife, walking their toy size dogs on the grass, about 20 feet away from us. They did not pay any attention to us or to Brenna. Brenna was outside the gazebo about 5 feet away, standing on the grass, looking at them, her tail wagging, not in "prey speed", but I think it was happy wag. My instinct was to grab her treats, run up to her, and start shoving them into her mouth; afterall, that was the bulk of our training when she was under my foster care. I know Scott and Michelle have done a lot of counterconditioning and desensitization and dog-dog socialization with her as well since the adoption more than 2 years ago. But when I turned to look at them, they just continued eating and talking. Then I realized, Brenna had the opportunity to run up all the way to the end of the tie-out to bark at those two dogs, but she did not. Instead, she stayed near the gazebo, still looking interested at them. Granted they were small dogs, but she had no signs of aggressive behavior towards those two dogs at all, AND that was without any intervention from Scott and Michelle. I was just amazed and told her parents so. They said Brenna would still bark and growl if the other dogs start first, but what I saw was pretty much how she behaves when they see other dogs nowadays. Scott said that one time when they were taking their walks, and one of their neighbors tie his dog out on the tree in the yard, and the 80-pound dog (Titan) escaped while the owner was in the process of tying him to the tree, and Titan came straight at Scott and Brenna, barking aggressively at the same time. Scott instructed Brenna to remain still, he himself stayed calm and not looking at Titan. Titan stopped right in front of him and Brenna, and Brenna did not let out a bark throughout. Scott thinks that Titan was just happy to get any amount of human attention and was not really trying to be aggressive with them, but if Brenna had reacted that probably would've set Titan off. She behaved appropriately and exactly as Scott had wanted her to.

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