�As of 8:30AM this morning, Millie is with her new "forever home"! It has been QUITE an experience with a HIGH energy dog with HIGH intelligence!!! It is very true what they say about these breeds such as Millie (English Shepherd), and Border Collies, and Australian Shepherds, if they don't have enough to do, they will find something to do, and it will likely be destructive! I just spent this morning filling all the holes in the yard (and in my fence) that Millie made. She nearly dug up one of my new October Glory Red Maples, as she had so much fun ripping the burlap from the ball out of the ground. My neighbors will be very thankful too that their cats are now safe! Millie had a field day getting out of our fence and then chasing all the neighborhood cats around and into trees and up fences... yada yada yada!
Brenna will likely sleep the next day or two to recover as Millie would never leave her alone to even rest. This past week she started getting REALLY alpha and drawing blood when playing with Brenna. This culminated Wednesday when I had left Millie outside for an extended period while Brenna was inside and when I let Brenna outside Millie tore into Brenna very aggressively. Brenna was even yelping and trying to get away but Millie was like a rabid beast! I had to put an end to it and I took Millie by the snout, pinned her to the ground, and very firmly told her "Don't hurt Brenna! Play nice!" Let me tell you, she got the point that 1) she's wasn't alpha, and 2) she best not play like that with Brenna. She avoided Brenna the rest of the day! And the next day when she gingerly started playing with here it was more jovial. She's a smart dog!
That being said, it is INCREDIBLY dull and quite around here already. While I realize the previous paragraphs sound like a rant, Millie had PLENTY of good love and affection to offer! She generally has such a very endearing and magnetic personality. She will definitely be missed. But I am happy to report that she EAGERLY pounced on her new 8 year old human sister, Anna and covered her with kisses this morning! She is going to have a much more fulfilling life on her 160 acre farm and her play buddy, Bindie, a 1 year old Australian Shepherd. They will phone us Monday and tell us how the weekend went. They will send us new pictures as well and keep in touch.�
Friday, March 23, 2007
�By now you have probably heard that they found the contamination in the Nutro can dog food to be RAT POISON! I had fed an entire can of this to Brenna and Millie before I heard about the recall. Both Brenna and Millie threw up their food hours later after eating it. Millie went to her new home the next day, so I don't know how she was affected days after (but I called her new owners and warned them). Brenna clearly had digestion problems for several days after, manifesting itself as a loss of appetite, low in energy, eating a lot of grass and throwing up. But I kept an eye on her and talked to my vet. Since Brenna got gradually better instead of more sick none of us were very concerned.
But now to find out I nearly poisoned my precious Brenna almost makes me lividly angry! I hope if the food tainting was done intentionally that they give whomever life in prison without parole! Anyway, we count ourselves very lucky.
Attached is the last picture I took with my now defunked camera! This is the last picture I was able to take of Brenna until I get a chance to buy another one. No need to fear, Brenna does not feel as bad as she looks in this picture!!! I have got to get another camera soon or the 2008 Brenna calendar will be in jeopardy!
Give you pets (and loved ones) a hug! They can be gone like that in one meal...�
BUT... the camera only worked for that one lone picture and regressed immediately back to defunked mode. Oh, well, I'll treasure that picture as it is the first clutch of our new Columbia house, hopefully the first of many!�
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
�Good news and bad news from Brenna. You remember me telling you that I had fed an entire can of the recalled food to Brenna and Millie on the Thursday and Friday before the recall came out and both of them were throwing up. They got better within a few days and after speaking to my vet assistant neighbor we weren't too concerned as she was improving. Well, this past weekend Brenna pretty much quite eating (which is how you know she REALLY isn't feeling well)! She also quit playing a lot, so by Sunday afternoon we knew we were canceling all of our Monday "To Do" list and heading to the vets office. Michelle and I were very concerned that maybe the tainted food was really affecting her more than we realized. Sunday morning she woke up with yellow goo coming out of her left eye. The girl was just plain sick. Phyllis, I remember you mentioning a blood test for kidney function might be good to have, so I told Michelle and the vet that we were coming in for that and her eye problem.
The vet was more than accommodating and gladly ran the blood test, but he was very skeptical about the tainted food having harmed her being more than a week since she had eaten it. He was very concerned about her eye. To the tune of a $300 vet bill he ran multiple dye tested on both her eyes. It's a good thing we went in....
First the good news, her blood tests were perfect! No kidney or liver damage. The bad news came after a series of questions. He was trying to figure out how Brenna's corneas got damaged. Then he asked the right question, "Has she been around fertilizer?" The light bulb came on! My neighbor across the street that owns Duke, Brenna's Yellow Lab puppy buddy, had only several days ago tilled up nearly his entire yard and had sewed new grass and put WAY TOO MUCH fertilizer on it. Brenna and Duke romped all over that yard. The result, apparently the tips of her ears got covered with water and fertilizer and each time she shook her head her ears whipped into her eyes. She then received chemical burns to both corneas! We are VERY lucky that we went to the vet when we did! He was able to treat her eyes and keep any infection from getting under the cornea layers that might have caused more sever and permanent damage. Right now she will just have tender vision for another week or so, and unfortunately she is "grounded" from playing with her friend Duke until we get some damn rain to wash the fertilizer into the ground and away! To top that off, my neighbor on the other side of me is fertilizing his yard tomorrow!
Point being to you all, this is the time of year when people go wild with chemicals! We use them without even thinking. Duke's mom is a nurse and knows better and said she felt REAL bad and just didn't think about it when she let the dogs play in it! Just be aware and careful.
Brenna should make a full recovery, but it sure could have been worse. All those Springers with long ears, be careful!!�
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
�Brenna is back to playing today more than in the past several days, but her appetite is still a bit weak. That's OK, because she is eating enough to not worry and she is holding it in and not throwing up. She drinks plenty of water as well. Our poor little girl!!!�
Brenna's parents called me last night to give me an update. Scott said they put the atropine eye drops in Brenna for two days, but Brenna kept bumping into things and plus they couldn't let her outside (except to potty) when she's on the eye drops, Brenna was acting depressed, so they didn't give her the drops anymore, and they are back on walking her everyday.
Scott said Brenna's appetite still was not back to normal, and they knew it was not because Brenna was missing Millie, so they figured it was probably Brenna wanted wet food back. They had stopped giving her canned food since the recall scare. So Scott went to various websites to print out what's been recalled, and they went to Petsmart and picked out Pro Plan for Brenna to try. He said Brenna's back to eating normal after that. I told them Brenna's spoiled and she has them trained; they laughed.
They said they've spoken to Millie's new owners and it sounds like she's doing great.
Scott also said when they were at Petsmart, they also replaced Brenna's duck toy. He said it was on the grass when Brenna was playing with Duke the Lab puppy, so he threw away the toy right after the vet visit. Anyways, now Brenna plays with her new duck toy all the time, even take it with her to her bed at night.
Scott said one of their next door neighbors just informed them that they put up electric fence because they are ready to move their two horses in. The neighbors told them that the top wire of the fence is charged, and the bottom one is supposed to be insulated and not. Scott said Brenna is not tall enough to touch the top wire, but he will find out to make sure the insulation was done right that Brenna won't get shocked if she touches the bottom wire.
They put me on speaker phone, so all three of them could hear me at the same time. They said when Brenna heard my voice, she went over to get the duck toy and started playing with it, and then came over to the phone and sniffed it and wagged her tail. As we were talking, Scott said Brenna was pouncing on something in the yard, at first they thought she was going after grasshoppers. But after a few minutes, it turned out she was stalking a plastic bag blowing in the wind.
I also asked about Michelle's back, and they said physical therapy went really well, and now they go to YMCA three times a week to work out, and is pretty much back to normal.
Friday, April 6, 2007
�Yesterday the people behind us finally brought their two horses over. So we have two very gorgeous horses right in our back yard! They seem to have very good dispositions. When we went out the door for our morning walk the young colt came over to see me this morning and Brenna got to meet them both. Her whole back end was wiggling in excitement! She spun in circles and gave her excited little "Woof". It's cute, it's not a full fledge bark but her excited little woof. She reached her head through the fence (what a bold girl!) and the young colt and Brenna touched noses and sniffed each other.
After taking our walk the horses were still in the same place so we went by and petted them and said high again. My new camera is being shipped today, so I hope by the end of next week to be back to sending pictures and I will definitely get a shot with Brenna and the horses together!�
�I would have given $100,000 to have had a camera 5 minutes ago! Michelle, Brenna, and I went to see the new horses again and Brenna reached through the fence as the colt lowered his head to sniff Brenna and Brenna gave him three big kisses on the snout! They were having such a love fest. It is great for her to socialize with such a large animal and stay in control of her emotions (just barely). She still danced around and barked at them every time any of the four moved fast (both horses from both sides of the fence and the three of us all gathered together and "socialized"). Can't wait to get a picture of all of this!!!�
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
�Now that my camera arrived I have been trying to fill the hole in my picture taking all in one day!!! I have attached pictures of the new horses, the bluebirds and eggs etc.�
