Keely
The three girls doing fine together on Saturday afternoon. Monday, August 21, 2006
I think it would be safest if Tara's forever home does not have other dogs.  At 6 PM on Saturday night, I gave Keely one of the toys her mom brought with her, and as soon as Keely got her mouth on it, Tara took the other end.  Keely growled and barked, and immediately Tara fought with her and had Keely pinned to the ground in two seconds.  Tara let go as soon as I put my hands on her collar, and I removed the toy and made them down-stay right next to each other for two minutes, and they were fine after that.  However, when I was grooming Keely at 1 AM on Sunday, I found a portion of Keely's ear torn open (sliced sideways, so it�s like a pocket formed by two surfaces of the flap of ear).  I cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol and called the vet school emergency room.  I explained the situation to them, and they said just keep cleaning her ears at least twice a day until Monday morning to take her to my own vet.  I called back again and got a different vet student, she said not to waste my money coming in to emergency ($165 just for them to take a look), because they are not going to do anything I've been doing anyways.  Keely did not show any pain from it, that's why I didn't realize it until six hours later.  Notice Anastasia sleeping on Keely�s bed, Keely sleeping on Tara�s bed, and Tara sleeping under the chair.  Keely used to sleep under the livingroom chair too when she lived with me.
Sunday around 8 AM I cleaned Keely's ears again (the girls are fine sleeping outside of the crate at night too, but I still keep one of them crated when I am out of the apartment), and I see some drainage, as expected from my call to the vet school.  Sunday afternoon when we were at Millie's, her husband, Craig (a physician), took a look and said the same thing, that since I didn't discover it right after it happened, that's the reason the vet school couldn't do anything about it (sew it back up).  He said the same thing about cleaning it and just wait another 24 hours for my own vet to probably sew it back.  Craig said if it were a human, then they wouldn�t sew the wound at all, but just let it drain and tape it back on.  But with Keely�s wound, the tissues don�t appear to be able to close by itself (by the way it�s hanging), so he said my vet might have to sew it back up.  Craig said the wound is 2-3 centimeters long.  At the party, the party started out inside, I let Tara off leash when she seemed fine with the other dogs (Jake � another one of my former fosters who now lives in Birmingham, and Lucy � she and her parents, who are ESRA volunteers and foster parents, are moving from Birmingham to Mobile, and Freckles � Millie and Craig�s Springer), and kept Keely on leash to make sure she doesn't scratch her ears.  Everybody said Keely�s so dainty and pretty and well-behaved, just like a princess.  I had hoped Keely would get to swim in the pool like last time, but I had to keep her on the back porch with me because she had an open wound.  Here is Kate (Jake�s mom) petting Keely.
Tara was wonderful with all the other dogs when we started out indoors, and when we all went out to let Lucy and Jake swim, Tara was excited and followed them around and actually walked into the pool.  When she tried to swim, suddenly one of her back legs went paralyzed and she started swimming in circles.  Patty's husband, David, had to get her out.  But when we went back inside, Tara started barking at any dog coming near me (she did that about four times, to each of the dogs there).  I think she gets a little cranky and her possessive side comes out when she gets tired.  Penelope did the same thing when we used to go to dog parks in California.  She was okay the first 20 minutes and enjoyed watching the other dogs running around and played a little fetch with me, then if we stayed for 30 minutes, she would start bark at dogs coming near her.  I even put Tara in a corner for timeout (people were amazed at how she was able to Down-Stay all by herself across the room).  After about 5 minutes, Tara�s face showed that she hated to be left all alone, away from everybody else, this is sort of like she�s saying she�s sorry, so I let her out.  She was okay for an hour or so, but she still barked at a couple dogs after that, she even went after Keely, who was leashed.  In the picture is Keely sitting quietly on Freckles� bed.  Keely did great at the party, loved petting from everybody, did not appear to be scared at all, even with all those unfamiliar people and dogs.  She followed me well on leash too.  I think Ed and Barbara have done a wonderful job continuing her socialization and training.
Photo contributed by Millie, of Keely and I. Behind us is Peggy, another ESRA volunteer and foster mom from Birmingham.  Everybody helped me watch Keely, so I could have some free time to eat and to take pictures.  After Lucy and Jake and their parents left, Millie asked me to show them how to groom a Springer (Freckles) on the patio.  I left Tara inside with Craig because I couldn�t watch both girls and clip Freckles at the same time.  But we brought Keely out with us and she was so well-behaved while we groomed Freckles for an hour.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
The girls are doing fine together today.  I can even walk them with their leashes in one hand.  We also met Kia and Suzie this morning.  Suzie recognized Tara (because she�s shaved) but was a little confused as to which dog the other one is.  When I told her Keely, she was very happy and petted her.  Tara got between them and wanted petting too, but Suzie told her, �I know Keely first, so I�ll pet her first.�  Kia and Tara and Keely got along fine also.  Suzie said she went to visit her former foster dog and she is doing very well and bonding with her new family.  She said she and Kia went to Kiesel Park on Saturday morning like always, but there were lot of dogs there.  She didn�t have Kia on leash (Kia�s pretty good about staying near Suzie), and a woman with two leashed Great Danes approached them.  Then suddenly the Great Danes attacked Kia, but the dogs� owner was able to hold them at the same place, while Suzie called to Kia to come, and that ended the fight.  Luckily nobody got hurt.
Both dogs slept in the car during the whole drive home, which is unusual for these two, because they would stay sitting up during most of the road trips mostly (all my previous Springers would go to sleep as soon as we got on the freeway).  Anyways, Tara was okay with Keely again after her nap in the car.
I called Keely's parents during the drive and they said it's okay, that it's just like spats little kids have.  I�m so glad they are so understanding about it, I know I was very anxious and freaked out since the fight though.
When I talked to Mary (Peter�s temporary foster mom � please see Tara�s pages about him � she�s a third-year vet student) on Sunday night, she suggested putting Neosporin on it, so I did.  And I also gave Keely one of Tara's antibiotic capsules because I was still worried about it.  This morning the wound is not draining anymore.
I took Keely to the vet first thing this morning, the vet said it looks fine but he will suture it up.  I told him I gave her Tara�s antibiotics, and he said that�s fine too.  He told Keely that she shouldn�t have messed with an old lady.  Also he said with bite wounds on the ear, usually the dog doesn�t act painful to it.  He said he�ll have sedate her to put the sutures in, and he�ll have to shave part of her ear, I said that�s fine (I already expected that already).  I feel a lot better about it already (yes I was on the verge of freaking out when I called the vet school last night).
I just picked up Keely from the vet, she was excited to see me, but once we got back to the apartment, she was kind of groggy from the anesthesia drug.  Tara sniffed her a little bit and they left each other alone after that.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
This morning as I was getting ready to leave and was cleaning the bathtub after a shower, suddenly Tara and Keely were fighting again.  I don�t know who started it, but my guess is that Keely was sitting right outside of the bathroom watching me, and Tara was pacing around, and Keely got annoyed and growled, and Tara fought with her because of that.  This time Keely had both of her front paws up just like Tara.  Anyways, I was able to separate them with no problem, and took Tara directly to the crate for timeout.  If I had two crates, I would probably put Keely in the crate also for timeout. 
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1